John Butcher

Here are ten improvisations between Brit saxophonist John Butcher and Scott vocalist Vanessa Mackness; ten pieces that skirt the edges of the very nature of what free improvisation is. Butcher's playing usually errs on the dry side of free improv, and this recording is no exception. His tonal palette is relatively limited (perhaps this is on purpose?), which gives most of his free work a samey-sounding ring to it. His valve work typically moves from high to low and then settles in the middle. Mackness, on the other hand, is a siren of free music. She's never concerned herself with formality, but only with her voice as instrument. She doesn't worry about taxing it or pushing it into places it won't go; she simply does whatever is necessary to make an improvisation work. Unfortunately, here it's not enough. Where Mackness sounds truly possessed with the spirits of incubus and succubus as well as those of Sirena, Butcher sounds instead dog-tired. Indeed, it seems as if the best he can do is match the dynamics of these duets. His attempts at microtonalism fall flat and his dualist progression of fast to slow and high to low are predictable and boring. It's too bad; had Mackness teamed with Evan Parker, Ellery Eskelin, Tim Berne, or Sam Rivers this date might have been a revelatory stream of heat seeking ululations and skittering skeins of angular, yet soaring notes. As it is, it's merely one person trying very hard to hold two up to the prism of imagination. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide