An impressive live performance at Exploratorium Berlin in 2024 as part of the international symposium Musicians' Perspectives on Improvisation, which explores the practices, ideas, visions and theories of improvising musicians, from the trio of John Butcher on saxophones, Luigi Marino on cymbals, zarb, zarb e zurkhaneh & feedback devices, and Mark Wastell on percussion.
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Sample The Album:
John Butcher-saxophones
Luigi Marino-cymbals, zarb, zarb e zurkhaneh, feedback devices
Mark Wastell-percussion
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Label: Confront
Catalog ID: core 47
Squidco Product Code: 35166
Format: CDR
Condition: New
Released: 2024
Country: UK
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded live at the Exploratorium, in Berlin, Germany, on February 2nd, 2024, by Johannes von Wrochen.
A live performance from the free improvising trio of John Butcher, Luigi Marino, and Mark Wastell, a masterful exploration of sonic textures and improvisational synergy. The album unfolds like a series of interconnected soundscapes, where the boundaries between instruments blur and dissolve. Butcher's saxophone work is as inventive and nuanced as ever, pushing the limits of breath, timbre, and harmonic resonance. His ability to manipulate sound — whether through extended techniques or subtle shifts in dynamics — creates a constantly evolving dialogue with his fellow musicians.
Luigi Marino's contributions on electronics and percussion add a layer of depth that feels both organic and otherworldly. His use of granular synthesis and real-time processing brings a sense of unpredictability and tension to the music. The delicate balance between acoustic percussion and electronic manipulation is a hallmark of Marino's style, and it's on full display here.
Mark Wastell, a seasoned improviser and sound artist, brings a tactile quality to the album with his work on tam-tam and other resonant objects. His approach is minimalist yet profound, allowing the inherent tones of his instruments to ring out and interact with the spaces created by Butcher and Marino. The resulting interplay is meditative, with each sound treated as a living entity within the larger ecosystem of the piece.
What stands out in Parallel Streams is the trio's ability to maintain a sense of cohesion while embracing the spontaneous and unpredictable nature of improvisation. Given that this was a part of the international symposium Musicians' Perspectives on Improvisation, this is a perfect trio for deep exploration and unusual yet compelling results. Essential.
Artist Biographies
• Show Bio for John Butcher "John Butcher's work ranges through improvisation, his own compositions, multitracked pieces and explorations with feedback and extreme acoustics.Originally a physicist, he left academia in '82, and has since collaborated with hundreds of musicians - Derek Bailey, John Tilbury, John Stevens, The EX, Akio Suzuki, Gerry Hemingway, Polwechsel, Gino Robair, Rhodri Davies, Okkyung Lee, John Edwards, Toshi Nakamura, Paul Lovens, Eddie Prevost, Mark Sanders, Christian Marclay, Otomo Yoshihide, Phil Minton, and Andy Moor - to name a few. He is well known as a solo performer who attempts to engage with the uniqueness of place. Resonant Spaces is a collection of site-specific performances collected during a tour of unusual locations in Scotland and the Orkney Islands.His first solo album, Thirteen Friendly Numbers, includes compositions for multitracked saxophones, whilst later solo CDs focus on live performance, composition, amplification and saxophone-controlled feedback. HCMF has twice commissioned him to compose for his own large ensembles. Other commissions include for Elision (Australia), the Rova (USA) & Quasar (Canada) Saxophone Quartets, reconstructed Futurist Intonarumori (USA), "Tarab Cuts" (based on pre-WWII Arabic recordings, and shortlisted for the 2014 British Composer's Award) and "Good Liquor .." for the London Sinfonietta. In 2011 he received a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists. Recent groupings include The Apophonics with Robair and Edwards, Anemone with Peter Evans, Plume with Tony Buck & Magda Mayas and a trio with Okkyung Lee & Mark Sanders.Butcher values playing in occasional encounters - ranging from large groups such as Butch Morris' London Skyscraper and the EX Orkestra, to duo concerts with David Toop, Kevin Drumm, Claudia Binder, Paal Nilssen-Love, Thomas Lehn, Fred Frith, Keiji Haino, Ute Kangeisser, Matthew Shipp and Yuji Takahashi." ^ Hide Bio for John Butcher • Show Bio for Luigi Marino "Luigi Marino is a musician based in Bristol. His work focuses on networks able to display relationships between human and nonhuman actors, and especially on how intuitive decisions can derail a pre-existing order. He is an active improvisor performing on both electronic media and percussion, in particular zarb and bowed custom cymbals extended with DIY portable circuits. He holds an MFA in electronic music from Mills College where he worked as teaching assistant for John Bischoff and Chris Brown, and a joint PhD in composition from University of Birmingham and De Montfort University funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. His teachers include Roscoe Mitchell, John Bischoff, Chris Brown, James Fei, William Winant. He studied zarb with Mohssen Kasirossafar. As a performer or composer his music has been presented at festivals and venues such as Rainforest World Music Festival (Kuching, Malaysia), San Francisco Tape Music Festival, Cafe Oto (London), Exploratorium (Berlin), Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna (Rome), Intonal Festival (Malmö), Auditorium Parco Della Musica (Rome), IEM (Graz), Seoul International Computer Music Festival, BEAST FEaST (Birmingham), Acousmatic for the People (Malmö), Sacred Realism (Berlin), Interpenetration (Graz), Sowieso (Berlin), Rhiz (Vienna), Km28 (Berlin), Iklectik (London), Hundred Years Gallery (London), Offene Ohren (Munich), WIM (Zurich), ImprovvisaMente (Lodi), ICMC (Athens). " ^ Hide Bio for Luigi Marino • Show Bio for Mark Wastell "Mark Wastell Born 1968; cello. Much of Mark Wastell's relationship with his chosen instrument is concentrated on the tactile, textural and sonic possibilities of both violoncello and bow. He is increasingly interested in working with extreme elements drawn from frequency, timbre and pitch. His early activity was consciously and subconsciously influenced by a variety of improvising musicians including John Stevens, Barry Guy, Phil Durrant and John Russell. Subsequent exposure to contemporary composers lead to a greater understanding and appreciation of the works written for strings by Feldman, Cage, Nono, Lachenmann and Sciarrino. The use of live electronics and music concrete by Tudor, Parmegiani, Xenakis and others was another important early influence. Wastell's current instrumental material primarily focuses on using abstract principles of space and texture - encompassing elements of new London silence, pro-instrument minimalism, new complexity and electro-acoustics. Because of the very nature of his chosen instrument, he tends to favour 'chamber' style ensembles and is a member of a number of regular groups: Mark Wastell has also performed with many other leading musicians including John Zorn, Keith Rowe, Peter Kowald, Hugh Davies, Roger Turner, Veryan Weston, Lol Coxhill, Mark Sanders, Axel Dorner, Hans Koch, Phil Minton, Max Eastley and Steve Beresford. As a soloist he has played at the Micro-classical Festival (London 1996), LMC Festival (London 2000) and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (2000). He has travelled extensively with various groups, performing on tour and at festivals in the USA, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Greece. Other work includes the launch in 1996 of his own record label, Confront Recordings. Wastell is also joint co-ordinator of the concert venue All Angels, together with Rhodri Davies." ^ Hide Bio for Mark Wastell
9/11/2024
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9/11/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
• Derek Bailey's Company - with, for example, Will Gaines, Simon H. Fell and Rhodri Davies
• Evan Parker's String Project, with Peter Cusack, Hugh Davies, Rhodri Davies, Phil Durrant, John Edwards, Kaffe Matthews, Marcio Mattos, John Russell
• Assumed possibilities, with Chris Burn, Rhodri Davies and Phil Durrant
• The Sealed Knot, with Burkhard Beins and Rhodri Davies
• Necessaire with Alessandro Bosetti, Ignaz Schick and Burkhard Beins
• IST with Simon Fell and Rhodri Davies
• Quatuor Accorde with Tony Wren, Phil Durrant and Charlotte Hug
• Broken Concort, a duo with Rhodri Davies
9/11/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
Track Listing:
1. Parallel Streams: First 8:07
2. Parallel Streams: Second 4:46
3. Parallel Streams: Third 28:37
4. Parallel Addition 3:06
Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Electro-Acoustic
Electro-Acoustic Improv
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
Trio Recordings
John Butcher
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Confront.
 | Butcher, John + 13 Fluid Fixations (Weight of Wax) |
| Commissioned for the 2021 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, John Butcher's fantastic work for 14 improvisers of unique approach employs what Butcher refers to as "psychological orchestration"--imagining how each performer might respond to particular ideas & their sonic company--the score, which includes photographic imagery, directing specific solos, duos & small groupings. | |
 | Polwechsel Embrace [4 LP BOX SET] (NI-VU-NI-CONNU) |
| BACK IN STOCK! The current Polwechsel quartet of Werner Dafeldecker, Michael Moser, Martin Brandlmayr and Burkhard Beins — merging improvisation and contemporary forms for outstandingly paced and conceptualized performance — are joined by luminaries John Butcher, Klaus Lang, Magda Mayas, Andrea Neumann and Peter Ablinger, released in a deluxe 4-LP box set with a 32-page booklet. | |
 | Butcher / Prevost High Laver Levitations Vol 1: Unearthed (Matchless) |
| Long-time collaborators and iconoclastic improvisers, drummer Eddie Prévost and saxophonist John Butcher, met at All Hallows Church, in High Laver, Essex in 2023, using the natural ambience of the space to capture these three improvisations, Prévost playing primarily on a drum kit and both in a more jazz-oriented sax and drum duo, extended by both players' exceptional technique. | |
 | Wastell, Mark Pre-Existing Commitments (Hundred Years Gallery) |
| During cellist and Confront label-leader Mark Wastell's 2022 residency at the East London Hundred Years Gallery he recorded four solo recordings, using his acutely creative approach to the strings in unique ways for each recording, which he then layered in the studio without edits to create this wildly and often psychedelically stochastic orchestral work. | |
 | Butcher, John The Very Fabric (Ftarri / Hitorri) |
| Impeccably recorded inside the Brønshøj Water Tower, in Copenhagen, Denmark, a highly resonant space built 100 years ago, where UK tenor and soprano saxophonist John Butcher continues his investigations into spaces with natural delay and decay, through 11 improvisations of discriminating pacing as he finds incredible beauty in floating and shifting tones and instrument errata; exquisite. | |
 | Jones / Lash / Wastel Meditating With The Father, Son, And Holy Ghost (Confront) |
| An interpretation and reimagining of the opening track of Coltrane's Meditations, from the UK trio of Ed Jones on tenor & soprano saxophones, Dominic Lash on double bass and Mark Wastell on tam tam, gongs, cymbal & percussion, performed live at Cafe OTO in London in 2023, transforming the original recording's density into a slowly opening, evolving work of beauty. | |
 | Davies, Rhodri / Nikos Velitotis Hotel Art Head [BOOK] (gwasg amgen) |
| A curious book of images from artists including Rhodri Davies, John Butcher, Angharad Davies, Richard Dawson, &c. photographed in a location familiar to a touring musician--a budget hotel room--pictured laying on the bed with each artist's head covered by that room's hotel wall painting, from typically insipid to perplexingly unexpected. | |
 | Russell, John / John Butcher / Dominic Lash But everything now left before it arrived (Meenna) |
| A live performance at the 2010 GIO Fest III in Glasgow, UK, from three of the UK's leading free improvisers--late guitarist John Russell, John Butcher on saxophones and Dominic Lash on double bass--a superb concert in five improvisations of incredible technical skill through both energetic and restrained passages, a brilliant example reminding us of the loss of the great guitarist. | |
 | Allbee, Liz / John Butcher / Ignaz Schick / Marta Zapparoli Lamenti Dall'infinito [VINYL] (NI-VU-NI-CONNU) |
| The 4th of NI-VU-NI-CONNU's 5-LP John Butcher series and part of a 2 night residency at ausland in Berlin coinciding with his 65th birthday, tenor & soprano saxophonist John Butcher is joined in a quartet by electroacoustic improvisers, trumpeter Liz Allbee, Ignaz Shick on turntables, sampler & electronics and Marta Zapparoli on tapes, reel-to-reel tape machines and antennas. | |
 | Agnel, Sophie / John Butcher La Pierre Tachee [VINYL] (NI-VU-NI-CONNU) |
| The 2nd of NI-VU-NI-CONNU's 5-LP John Butcher series, the duo of pianist Sophie Agnel and soprano & tenor saxophonist John Butcher is informed by previous collaborations as a duo and in a trio with cellist Márkos Albert, here in a superb 2019 concert of balanced tension and intense interaction captured at Ausland in Berlin, a meeting of two perfectly matched improvisers. | |
 | Allum, Jennifer / John Butcher / Ute Kanngiesser / Eddie Prevost Sounds of Assembly (Meenna) |
| Assembled in London to improvise music for Stewart Morgan's film Eddie Prevost's Blood, this release adds much more material beyond the soundtrack, in a superb example of free and charged creative improvisation seeking unique combinations of expression, from Jennifer Allum on violin, John Butcher on saxophones, Ute Kanngiesser on cello and Eddie Prevost on percussion. | |
 | Phillips / Butcher / Solberg We met - and then (Relative Pitch) |
| The debut of the advanced and innovative collaboration between improviser and prominent double bassist Barre Phillips, British saxophonist John Butcher and Norwegian drummer, percussionist and improviser, Stale Liavik Solberg, recording at the Blow out Festival in Oslo, Norway in 2019, and at Offene Ohren, Einstein Kultur, in Munchen, Germany in 2018. | |
 | IST (Davies / Fell / Wastell) + John Butcher / Phil Durrant A More Attractive Way [5 CD BOX SET + 20 page booklet] (Confront) |
| A comprehensive album of live performances from IST (Rhodri Davies: harp, preparations; Simon H. Fell: double bass, preparations; Mark Wastell: violoncello, preparations) between 1996 and 2000, beginning with their concert at Club Orange in London and including concerts in London, Billericay, Norwich and Cambridge, with a 20 page booklet of photos and text from the band & collaborators. | |
 | RED trio and Celebration Band Suite 10 Years Anniversary [2 CDs] (NoBusiness) |
| The Red Trio of pianist Rodrigo Pinheiro, bassist Hernâni Faustino and drummer Gabriel Ferrandini mark their 10th anniversary as a trio on this 2-CD set of an outstanding concert in Lisboa, PT, joining forces with the 13-member Celebration Band, whose members include John Butcher, Ernesto Rodrigues, Luis Vicente, Sei Miguel, Rodrigo Amado, Mattias Stahl, Carlos Santos, &c. | |
 | Butcher / Prevost / Viltard Iklectik Live One (Matchless) |
| Part of the Iklectic club's "Meetings With Remarkable Saxophonists" programmed by drummer Eddie Prévost and double bassist Guillaume Viltard, here meeting John Butcher performing on tenor and soprano saxophone for a masterful concert of free improvisations, energetically turning the "Electric", "Light", "On", "Click" through 4 extended and remarkable converstations. | |
 | Sealed Knot, The (Beins / Davies / Wastell) Twenty (Confront) |
| After twenty years playing together, the Sealed Knot trio of Burkhard Beins on amplified percussion, Rhodri Davies on amplified lap harp, and Mark Wastell on dual 32 past tam tams, gongs & nepalese singing bowls, performed live at Cafe OTO to record this beautifully captured, contemplative concert of tone, texture and ringing sound, like a 20-year dream reflected. | |
 | Grady, Spencer / Fermata Ark / Mark Wastell Thus : Excerpts From A Smaller Work (Confront) |
| UK sound artist Fermata Ark, aka Harry Smith, composed this work from improvisations recorded by Mark Wastell performing on cello, double bass and harmonium, and Spencer Grady performing on 5-string banjo, ebow, violin bow and brass slide, creating an extended work of immersive and mesmerizing textures and tones, sounds rising and falling in sublime and passionate ways. | |
 | Butcher, John / Thomas Lehn / Matthew Shipp The Clawed Stone (RogueArt) |
| Matthew Shipp (piano), John Butcher (saxophones) and Thomas Lehn (electronics) in a studio album recorded in France in 2017, a uniquely voiced collective trio of transformative improvisation, Lehn's additions and modifications blending perfectly with Shipp's solid foundations and Butcher's advanced technical expression, for an engrossing and expressive set of recordings. | |
 | Virtual Company (Fell / Wastell / Bailey / Gaines) Virtual Company (Confront) |
| IST, configured as the duo of double bassist Simon H. Fell and cellist/percussionist Mark Wastell, performing a virtual quartet at London's Cafe OTO, using using pre-recorded fragments of solo work from late guitarist Derek Bailey and tap dancer Will Gaines, combined with sections of silence of unforeseeable length, and then combined with the live musicians; amazing. | |
 | Cooper, Mike / Mark Wastell Sound Mirrors (Confront) |
| Lapsteel guitarist and electronic artist Mike Cooper and percussionist Mark Wastell, employing a paiste 32" tam tam and a shruti box, pay homage to the large acoustic sound mirrors used in Britain from 1916 to 1930 as an early form or radar, each of their detailed improvisation referencing one of the locations on the British south and northeast coasts. | |
 | Vandermark, Ken w/ Butcher / Drake / Kessler / McPhee / Mori / Noble / Prevost / Rasmussen / Tilbury / Wooley Unexpected Alchemy [7-CD BOX] (Not Two) |
| Recorded during Ken Vandermark's residency titled "The Unexpectable", in Krakow in 2017 at Klub Alchemia, plus concerts at Hevre and Black Box in Germany, with duos, trios and quartets in a variety of configurations with artists including Ken Vandermark, Nate Wooley, Ikue Mori, John Butcher, Kent Kessler, Steve Noble, Mette Rasmussen, Eddie Prevost, Joe McPhee &c. | |
 | Eastley, Max / Fergus Kelly / Mark Wastell The Map Is Not The Territory (Confront) |
| The 8th release on Confront's Core series of factory-pressed CDs brings together improvisers Max Eastley, Fergus Kelly and Mark Wastell, employing electroacoustic devices, invented instruments, metal percussion, a piano frame and tam tam to create a rich and mysterious sound world, darkly hopeful emanations in a nighttime traversal across unknown lands. | |
 | Thomas / Butcher / Solberg Fictional Souvenirs [CD] (Astral Spirits) |
| Performing in concert at Iklectik in London in 2017, the UK and Norwegian free improvising trio of Pat Thomas on Moog Theremini & IPad based electronics, John Butcher on saxophones, and Stale Liavik Solberg on drums & percussion impress through a mix of masterful free playing and eclectic electroacoustic conversations, an adventurous and wonderfully unpredictable set. | |
 | GGRIL [feat John Butcher / Isaiah Ceccarelli / Xavier Charles] Facon [2 CDs] (Circum-Disc) |
| The Quebec ensemble GGRIL of eclectic instrumentation, acoustic and electronic, with an open-minded approach to developing large-scale works bringing together approaches to improvisation and contemporary composition, here presenting three works from residencies with John Butcher, Isaiah Ceccarelli and Xavier Charles recorded from 2016 through 2018. | |
 | Butcher, John / Philippe Lauzier / Eric Normand How Does This Happen? (Ambiances Magnetiques) |
| The Montreal free improvising, experimenting duo "Not The Music" of bassist Eric Norman & bass clarinetist Philippe Lauzier invited UK saxophonist John Butcher for concerts in Ottawa and Montreal, recording the two impressive 5-part series heard on this album--"en consequence" (consequently) and "par irruption" (by bursting), of masterful and profoundly pensive prowess. | |
 | Common Objects (Davies / Butcher / Davies / Lapelyte / Patterson / Thomas) Skullmarks (Meenna) |
| Distributing the group--John Butcher, Angharad Davies, Lina Lapelyte, Lee Patterson, Pat Thomas, and Rhodri Davies--inside the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, Butcher chose 4 shamanic objects from the museum's ethnographic collection, evoking water, air, earth, spirit, ritual and utility, used as a score orchestrating varying combinations of players; intense and profound improvisation. | |
