JOHN BUTCHER

• John Butcher & Kaffe Matthews: Friday, 8:00PM, Auditorium at Waller Creek
• Improv Trio (Butcher, Matthews, & Moor): Sunday, 6:00PM, Auditorium at Waller Creek

Buy Austin Eye+Ear Passes Online...

John Butcher recently told the webzine Paristransatlantic that he likes to work "on the edge of controllable sound." The 48-year-old resident of London, England has been pushing the limits of what one can expect from the soprano and tenor saxophones for over twenty years. He originally picked up the sax whilst studying physics, a topic he pursued all the way to a PhD, and developed his chops playing in jazz bands. But well before Butcher started recording in the mid-80s he purged most of the saxophone's familiar sounds from his vocabulary and concentrated on building a language out of carefully controlled crackles, stern barks, barely audible whistles, and fluttering keypads. He's particularly skilled at manipulating multiphonics, the complex, grainy sounds that exist between the notes. Unlike some free improvisers, Butcher isn't allergic to playing melodies, but he employs them sparely, perhaps mindful of their power to overpower other gestures. And while he is strongly identified with free improvisation, Butcher has also explored the cutting edge of composed music with the Austrian ensemble Polwechsel.

On Invisible Ear, the Englishman's recent solo cd for the Italian Fringes label, he explores the transformative potential of amplification; at various points he makes his close-miked saxophone sound like a drum machine, an overblown blues harmonica, and on one track for eight overdubbed saxes, a thicket of Ligetti-like orchestral textures. Since the 80's, Butcher has sustained enduring partnerships with such like-minded English improvisers as singer Phil Minton, electronics and violin player Phil Durrant, and pianist Chris Burn since the 80s. But in recent years Butcher has forged connections with Americans like cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, percussionists Gerry Hemingway and Gino Robair, and the recently deceased bassist Matthew Sperry. Butcher will perform two concerts here: one solo, another with Andy Moor (who plays electric guitar for Dutch anarcho-punks The Ex) and electronic improvisationalist Kaffe Matthews.