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13 Friendly Numbers

by John Butcher

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of 13 Friendly Numbers via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Full Digital Discography

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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Hear and How, Fluid Fixations, Angles of Enquiry, The Very Fabric, But everything now left before it arrived, Plume, Experiments with a Leaf, Drunk on Dreams, and 57 more. , and , .

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1.
Buccinator's Outing 07:31
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2.
Notelet 01:43
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3.
There are today more than 390 known pairs of friendly numbers 01:55
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4.
A leap in the light 04:40
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5.
Bells and Clappers 03:38
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6.
Two up - Two down 04:04
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7.
Humours and Vapours 04:04
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8.
Uncommon Currency 01:07
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9.
A sense of occasion 02:38
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10.
The Brittle Chance 02:37
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11.
Mackle Music 01:49
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12.
Tolv two elf kater ten (it can't be) sax 04:16
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13.
wisp & whisk 06:02
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about

First solo album, from 1991.
For single and multi-tracked saxophones.
First released as a CD on Acta (original cover shown) - then reissued on Unsounds with a new cover..


MOJO.
"This is an essential document for anyone passionate about, or even mildly interested in, improvised music. Indeed, it's fair to say this set cut a new expressionist template for the saxophone.
The sounds on the first track alone range from slab-like, low-voltage hums to clouds of didgeridoo huffing to the sounds of an old-skool mainframe breaking down". "

PENGUIN GUIDE TO JAZZ.
"A British improviser whose playing is highly accomplished and strikingly individual, Butcher's recital is unlike any other solo-saxophone record. Nine of the 13 tracks are real-time solos, while the other four create some unprecedented sounds and textures through overdubbing: 'Bells And Clappers', for instance, piles up four tenors into a brittle choir of humming overtones that has a chilling, sheet-metal sound, while the amplification introduced into the very brief 'Mackle Music' is peculiarly disturbing.
On the more conventional solo tracks, Butcher's mastery of the instrument creates a vocabulary which can accommodate pieces as disparate as 'Notelet', which is like a single flow of melody, and the explorations of single aspects of performing technique, as on 'Humours And Vapours' and 'Buccinator's Outing'. Assisted by a very clear and suitably neutral recording, this is a masterful record which should be investigated by anyone interested in free playing."

credits

released July 3, 2020

Solos recorded at Gateway Studios, Kingston, London, 1991- by Steve Lowe.
Multitracks recorded at Pathway Studios, London 1991- by Justin Underhill.
Original (1991) cover art by Glasford J. Hunter.
Reissue (2004) artwork by Isabelle Vigier

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tags

about

John Butcher image

John Butcher London, UK

Improviser, Composer, Saxophonist.
Born in Brighton.
Lives in London.

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