John Butcher Group

The John Butcher Group formed in 2008 especially for a concert at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. The piece somethingtobesaid was commissioned by Graham Mckenzie, the festival’s creative director. The members of the John Butcher Group are John Butcher (saxophone/recordings), Chris Burn (piano), Clare Cooper (harp/guzheng), John Edwards (contrabass), Adam Linson (contrabass/electronics), Gino Robair (percussion/drums), dieb 13 (turntables) and Thomas Lehn (Synthesizer) – in part long-standing colleagues, in part completely new encounters – musicians from England, Austria, the USA and Germany.

Somethingtobesaid is a composition that interlinks the personal instrumental qualities and improvisational abilities of the musicians. Technically, it concerns changes and differences in specified structures and playing indications, as well as the rapport between individual freedoms and responsibilities of improvisation.

How can the guidelines of a single person, of a composer become interactive using the usual musical methods of improvisation whereby details are quickly developed?

John Butcher quasi dedicates himself to the search for the ideal of collective improvisation.