A New Distance, by Spontaneous Music Ensemble

A New Distance

by Spontaneous Music Ensemble

supported by

smallwoodlandcrittertrainedbyantifa thumbnail

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

£7 GBP or more
Full Digital Discography

65

releases

Get all 65 John Butcher releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.

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 , .

Purchasable with gift card

£208 GBP (50% OFF)

	1.	spoken introduction i 01:26
	2.	Stig 25:43
	3.	So This Is Official 04:03
	4.	Tape Delight 06:11
	5.	Uneasy Options 09:48
	6.	A Certain Elegance 04:23
	7.	spoken introduction ii 01:02
	8.	Peripheral Vision 04:00
	9.	spoken interlude 00:51
	10.	With Hindsight 03:32
	11.	spoken conclusion 02:24

about

John Stevens: small drumset & mini-trumpet
John Butcher: soprano & tenor saxophones
Roger Smith: spanish guitar
(Neil Metcalfe: flute - 8 & 10 only)

Includes PDF of Steve Beresford's original liner notes.

Tracks 1-6 originally released on ACTA records (1995)
Tracks 1-11 originally released on Emanem records (2005)

"Best described in a 1980 lecture by Evan Parker as "atomistic" music, the SME aesthetic is certainly not limited to the detached "serialist" taps, trills and pointalisms of post-Webernian dialogue; in fact, the group vocabulary can shift intergesturally with surprising speed and jaw-dropping drama from sparse interjections to passages of all-encompassing inter-registral drone.
The two-volume "Quintessence", featuring Derek Bailey and Evan Parker in a 1973 SME formation, is a perfect starting point for the uninitiated, not to mention one of the most beautiful improv sets I've heard.

"A New Distance" isn't far behind, due in large part to the multi-timbral saxophone wizardry of John Butcher, who'd joined the group two years earlier, and to Roger Smith's hushed but poignant guitar work. Communication often seems telepathic, and "Tape Delight" presents a nice way into this unit's M.O. Stevens does not so much play as rustle, breathe and clatter, and his "SME kit" of various percussion instruments is in full effect here, as is his pocket trumpet during several wonderfully droney passages.

There are breathtaking moments of rapport, a two-note motive stated by one and immediately bandied back by the other, or a flowingly sustained Butcher tone complimented by Smith's rhythmically plucked exclamations. "Stig" presents these devices en mass and on a larger scale. Particularly noteworthy is Butcher's use of multiphonics, a technique he does not merely employ but transcends, sometimes getting four and five notes out in a single controlled utterance and at a prodigious rate.

Keeping Stevens' spoken intro to "Stig" was a wise decision, and this reissue adds more of his trademark observations, delivered in a disarmingly frank but lecturing manner. These give the music, some of the last SME recorded before Stevens' death in September of 1994, the philosophical support and clarity with which it was infused from its conception. It is clear that the bitterness Stevens expresses at "the direction that society's gone in" did not dim the joy he derived from musical interaction. Joy and energy abound throughout the disc, sometimes peppered with moments of absurdity, such as the end of "Stig" where I'd swear his drum kit falls over. This is wonderful music and a fitting conclusion to a long and innovative legacy."

DUSTED - Marc Medwin

credits

released April 11, 2019

1-2 Recorded in London (Conway Hall - 3rd Annual LMC Festival) by John Greenough - May 1994
3-6 Recorded in London (Red Rose) by Ian Vickers - January 1994
7-11 Studio recording in London - February 1993

Cover drawing by John Stevens
Editing/Mastering by Dave Hunt (1995) and Martin Davidson (2005)

license

about

John Butcher London, UK

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

johnbutcher.org.uk

contact / help

Contact John Butcher

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like A New Distance, you may also like:

Birdland, Neuburg 2011
by Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley

supported by 10 fans who also own “A New Distance”

Longtime fan of CT ... still assimilating his music, such breadth & depth! Appreciate your making this available .... Thanks very much! j4yheindeo
go to album
Drop me off at 96th
by Derek Bailey

supported by 8 fans who also own “A New Distance”

This might be my favorite album of his. Track 2 Listening to JR is some beautiful emotional music. It brought me to tears my first listen. liclon
go to album
THE COMPLETE IN BERLIN '88 (BOX SET)
by CECIL TAYLOR

supported by 8 fans who also own “A New Distance”

The music of Cecil Taylor is, in my mind, a grand codex to the hidden (occult) corners of the universe and mind. He had this ability to tap into what appeared to be chaos but in truth was not. We, the listeners, are invited to welcome the challenge of understanding his decryption. This monolithic slab of recordings is evidence of the incite and talent he possessed. Challenging is a word I don't use lightly and this comes from a lover of extreme metal. But, without challenge life is bland. Obstacle of Affliction
go to album
Time Hunt
by Sputnik Trio

The Spanish avant-garde jazz trio takes listeners on a journey through time on their thoughtful new album. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 4, 2022
go to album
MAROMAS
by Cecilia Lopez & Ingrid Laubrock

A brave experimental record from the Cecilia Lopez & Ingrid Laubrock running darting sax lines through dense electronics & processing. Bandcamp New & Notable Sep 10, 2023
go to album
Helicopter
by duffin

featured on Bandcamp Radio Aug 9, 2022
go to album
Lifting The Bandstand
by Cecil Taylor Quintet

supported by 7 fans who also own “A New Distance”
go to album