THE NEW NOISE - Eugenio Luciano

Experiments With A Leaf

Experiments With A Leaf is a recording of a concert held in a cathedral of Bern (Switzerland) in October 2013. The absence of any canvas can only increase the brilliance of the performance held by two of the greatest experimenters and improvisers of the world of jazz and rock.
It must also be said that Butcher and Moor have been collaborating for fifteen years, and this is not their first publication together (remember, for example, the Thermal album with Thomas Lehn), and from this ancient partnership one feels the ease of from the initial moments. The first elements are born from the same womb, coagulated in the same placenta, silent in the quiet,  waiting to come out. Always together the two instruments feel the need to free themselves, accelerate and increase their vigor: it is "Five Eyes", almost four minutes of opening symbolizing an introduction to the two musicians' method of playing together. A simulated chirping follows, opening “Fantasy Downside”, perhaps that of the bird on the cover. The early use of slap, a technique dear to the English saxophonist (we have seen it not too long ago in its only Italian date), helps to trigger the heartbeats of Moor's strings, on which brass can then be embroidered with more calm violence.
The pieces are rarely structured and leave very little room for repeated sequences. The experiments with the leaf to which the title refers could be linked to the ephemeral and indeterminate way it has as it falls into the immense vortex of free jazz. There is no lack of more compact and oxidized pieces, such as “Joy Is The Headlight”, even if they serve more as a justification than as a true supporting pillar. What Butcher does with the sax, Moor does with the guitar, an inseparable duet that seeks a common language between two different instruments, digging to the bone of communication: sound. The whole record is a controlled intellectual crescendo.

THE PULSE - Ernie Paik

Experiments With A Leaf

In the world of free improvisation—that is, improvising with no particular genre in mind—players can sometimes fall back on a “bag of tricks” with various techniques or instant strategies to keep things moving along. So, it’s refreshing to hear a musician who can always surprise and impress, even with a familiarity of that performer’s musical personality.
One such musician is British saxophonist John Butcher, who not only has a virtuosic command of his instrument but also has a seemingly infinite palette with which to work.
On the new album Experiments with a Leaf, recorded live in a cathedral in Switzerland in October 2013, Butcher and electric guitarist Andy Moor both provoke each other yet mostly work toward synthesis, building new sounds that complement each other in complex, stimulating and satisfying ways.
Moor is best known as a member of the Dutch post-punk band The Ex, and that band’s fruitful collaborations with Ethiopian saxophonist Getatchew Mekurya are one example of how versatile Moor can be.
On “Fantasy Downsize,” Moor accompanies Butcher’s fluttering bird noises with woozy low notes and scratches before he stabs with harmonics and atonal mini-blasts; the mood is one of playful and curious confusion, with kissing noises and the tense wringing of notes.
“Joy is the Headlight” begins with bright flashes of sax melodies before scurrying away from recognizable, hummable tunes using frantic runs; the track ends with a half-minute of chilling near- silence to cleanse the palate, with barely audible sounds of what sounds like dangling strings rustling.
On the 11-minute “The Tongue Is a Flame,” Moor uses a slide and alternates between low buzzes and inebriated high notes, and later, he generates ambient tones while Butcher’s desperate squawks reverberate gloriously in the cathedral space; notably, Butcher also manages to make his saxophone sound exactly like amplifier feedback.
While Butcher is the master improviser here, Moor holds his own and has the discipline and creativity to set aside his post-punk tendencies to help formulate an engrossing canvas of abstraction.

PROGRESS REPORT - RJ

Experiments With A Leaf

Mostly of a more incendiary or frazzled nature, the five collaborative improvisations here between these two much respected figures in such worlds certainly ram home just how potent they can be still. John Butcher’s saxophones have over the years witnessed him collaborating with giants such as Derek Bailey, Phil Minton, Fred Frith and Eddie Prevost, amongst countless others, so it’s little wonder his earthy and earnest approach tends towards a playful yet uncompromising sensibility rarely melodic or sugar-coated.

This provides the perfect counterpart to Andy Moor’s either batting out dangerous shards or attacking his strings like a hearty meal when famished, bound in between by sawing, rasping and picking at notes already hammered shapeless. Andy, of course, is a member of Dutch jazz-punk group, The Ex, plus also runs Unsounds and evidently has a keen ear for uneasy listening. Experiments with a Leaf triumphantly and defiantly compounds the latter point without compromising those flames of life at its very core.
Incredible work.