AMN Reviews: John Butcher – The Very Fabric (2023; Hitorri)

What is this thing with saxophone players recording themselves in large resonant spaces? It seems to be a trend of late (see Ida Toninato and Patrick Shiroishi). Nonetheless, each of these spaces has its own unique sonic character in terms of resonances and echoes. As a result, the growing number of resonance-based recordings are all subtly different even if they are drawn from the same concept.

Here, veteran improvising saxophonist John Butcher recorded The Very Fabric in the Brønshøj Vandtårn outside of Copenhagen. It is a concrete water tower that is nearly one hundred years old. Butcher employs tenor and soprano, as well as one track of controlled feedback.

At first listen, it is not clear whether Butcher is “playing” the tower or if the tower is “playing” his notes through reverberation and interference patterns. It seems that the best way to think of this interaction is that the causality points in both directions. Butcher uses the tower as a giant amplifier and effects filter, while the tower’s sonic profile is complex enough that it resembles a form of intentionality.

In addition to gentler themes and slower playing that explores the resonance of the environment, Butcher also engages it with bursts of extended techniques. This is most apparent as the album progresses, with his use of the soprano on Elusive Sidestep, as well as discordant multiphonics on Signs and Symptoms and fluttering passages on Far Flung.

As is in the case of similar recordings, the Brønshøj Vandtårn allows Butcher to probe the space of aural possibilities that it provides. He accompanies his own themes and motifs echoed back at him, learning and building on them over the course of the album.

The Very Fabric was released on July 16 by the Hitorri label.