John Butcher - saxophones
Gino Robair - drums and percussion
Gino Robair and John Butcher first played together in 1997 and have released several albums both as a duo and with groups that include musicians such as Matthew Sperry, Paul Hession and Miya Masaoka. Gino Robair is also a member of the John Butcher Group. Their music is known for the great range of sounds that they produce both thanks to Butcher's virtuosity on the saxophone and Robair's unusual manipulations and performance techniques on percussion with the use of a number of objects such as e-bow, styrofoam or faux dax.
Ken Waxman writes about the duo's performance in Bluecoat Arts Centre, Liverpool in 2000:
"...Using tools that include styrofoam, a faux dax, an e-bow snare and motors as well as more (un) conventional percussion, over the course of four tracks here, he scraps, scratches, strokes, whizzes, twists and turns out an entire sound field from his instruments. Leaving very few aural spaces unaccented, the two players fabricate tones that, on the last track for instance, resemble motors grinding, garbage cans being dropped, and cash registers ringing. The climax, -- probably from Butcher's reed -- transmutes what could be feline wailing into a hiss of pure white sound.
Other members of the animal kingdom aren't neglected either, with the saxophone producing, with almost note-perfect replication, tiny bird sounds on the third track, while the bow of Robair's faux dax and fizzing styrofoam generate aviary cries that could be linked to larger fowl on the second. Both men have, in the past, relied on electronic aids, but this live performance shows that they're perfectly capable of creating these sounds in real time."
-published in Jazz Weekly March 2000. Online at: http://www.frakture.org/text/reviews/butcher_robair2.htm
John Butcher - saxophones, Gino Robair - percussion at Vortex Jazz Club, London 16-11-2008
Sources / More about the duo:
http://www.johnbutcher.org.uk/Robair.html
http://www.frakture.org/text/reviews/butcher_robair2.htm
http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/1882
Gino Robair is a composer and percussionist included in the book Percussion Profiles' list of the "25 innovative percussionists". Describing himself as a post-percussionist, his improvising style was greatly influenced by tabletop guitarists, especially Keith Rowe and Fred Frith, but also Eddie Prevost. He also draws influences by extra-musical improvising performance artists and Wayang Kulit puppeteers (Javanese shadow puppeteers) whose flow and skill has played a great role in developing his own style. In the following video he explains some of his techniques:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00vhysw
Sources / More about Gino Robair:
http://www.ginorobair.com/
http://thewire.co.uk/in-writing/interviews/gino-robair_unedited-interview-transcript
Gino Robair - drums and percussion
Gino Robair and John Butcher first played together in 1997 and have released several albums both as a duo and with groups that include musicians such as Matthew Sperry, Paul Hession and Miya Masaoka. Gino Robair is also a member of the John Butcher Group. Their music is known for the great range of sounds that they produce both thanks to Butcher's virtuosity on the saxophone and Robair's unusual manipulations and performance techniques on percussion with the use of a number of objects such as e-bow, styrofoam or faux dax.
Ken Waxman writes about the duo's performance in Bluecoat Arts Centre, Liverpool in 2000:
"...Using tools that include styrofoam, a faux dax, an e-bow snare and motors as well as more (un) conventional percussion, over the course of four tracks here, he scraps, scratches, strokes, whizzes, twists and turns out an entire sound field from his instruments. Leaving very few aural spaces unaccented, the two players fabricate tones that, on the last track for instance, resemble motors grinding, garbage cans being dropped, and cash registers ringing. The climax, -- probably from Butcher's reed -- transmutes what could be feline wailing into a hiss of pure white sound.
Other members of the animal kingdom aren't neglected either, with the saxophone producing, with almost note-perfect replication, tiny bird sounds on the third track, while the bow of Robair's faux dax and fizzing styrofoam generate aviary cries that could be linked to larger fowl on the second. Both men have, in the past, relied on electronic aids, but this live performance shows that they're perfectly capable of creating these sounds in real time."
-published in Jazz Weekly March 2000. Online at: http://www.frakture.org/text/reviews/butcher_robair2.htm
John Butcher - saxophones, Gino Robair - percussion at Vortex Jazz Club, London 16-11-2008
Sources / More about the duo:
http://www.johnbutcher.org.uk/Robair.html
http://www.frakture.org/text/reviews/butcher_robair2.htm
http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/1882
Gino Robair is a composer and percussionist included in the book Percussion Profiles' list of the "25 innovative percussionists". Describing himself as a post-percussionist, his improvising style was greatly influenced by tabletop guitarists, especially Keith Rowe and Fred Frith, but also Eddie Prevost. He also draws influences by extra-musical improvising performance artists and Wayang Kulit puppeteers (Javanese shadow puppeteers) whose flow and skill has played a great role in developing his own style. In the following video he explains some of his techniques:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00vhysw
Sources / More about Gino Robair:
http://www.ginorobair.com/
http://thewire.co.uk/in-writing/interviews/gino-robair_unedited-interview-transcript
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