Thomas Lehn
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BUTCHER / LEHN
John Butcher • tenor & soprano saxophone
Thomas Lehn • analogue synthesizer
John Butcher • tenor & soprano saxophone
Thomas Lehn • analogue synthesizer
© photo Urs
Althaus & photomusix/Cristina Marx
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about
Since first meeting in London in 1996 saxophonist John Butcher and analogue synthesizer player Thomas Lehn have collaborated in a remarkably wide range of projects.
These include the long standing trio Thermal, with guitarist Andy Moor from “The EX” and two groups with very distinctive pianists - John Tilbury (noted for his work with AMM, Cornelius Cardew, Morton Feldman a.o.) and US avant-jazz musician Matthew Shipp (David S. Ware, William Parker, Roscoe Mitchell).
During all this time they have continued to give duo concerts, valuing this format for exploring the intimate interactions possible within their acoustic and electronic worlds.
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press reviews
This is a magical journey in sounds, ideas and textures. Butcher has developed his own profound method of playing the saxophones. He converses in his own individual syntax, still radiating a surprising playfulness and commanding elegance. Lehn’s highly inventive, often aggressive playing of the synthesizer introduces elements of danger and surprise and adds textual references to psychedelia, and sixties electronic experimentation.
– Salt Peanuts
Thomas Lehn has radically reclaimed the synthesizer for spontaneity. He runs tightropes between control and accident. His collaborators are liable to find themselves on untried ground, dependent upon sharp reflexes and tangential intuitions. Saxophonist John Butcher, tempered in the unorthodox, has the technical cunning and listening skills to meet the challenge Lehn poses.
– The Wire
“Butcher and Lehn are both committed improvisers, and each has worked determinedly against instrumental prescriptions. The former has used soprano and tenor saxes to manage sounds most commonly accessed with the use of electronics, and the latter has confined himself to older, analogue synths that respond to the human touch.”
– Magnet
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biographies
John Butcher | Thomas Lehn
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John Butcher
Butcher is well known as a saxophonist who attempts to engage with the uniqueness of time and place. His music ranges through improvisation, his own compositions, multitracked pieces and explorations with feedback and extreme acoustics. His Resonant Spaces CD is a collection of site-specific performances recorded during a tour of unusual locations in Scotland and the Orkney Islands.
Since the early 80s he has collaborated with hundreds of artists – including Derek Bailey, Eddie Prévost, Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Steve Beresford, Okkyung Lee, Andy Moor, Christian Marclay, Phil Minton, Rhodri Davies, Tony Buck, Magda Mayas and Matthew Shipp.
Additionally he values occasional encounters - from the WDR Sinfonieorchester and EX Orkest to duos with Akio Suzuki, Liz Allbee, Keiji Haino, David Toop, Sophie Agnel, Fred Frith and Joe McPhee. Recent compositions include Penny Wands for Futurist Intonarumori, three HCMF commissions, Good Liquor… for the London Sinfonietta and Tarab Cuts (shortlisted for a British Composer’s Award).
www.johnbutcher.org.uk
Extraordinarily powerful, Butcher’s saxophone may test the limits of one’s ear to make sense of the close and complex relationships that are put forth, but there’s an undeniable emotional depth and sheer beauty in his work that supersedes technicality and concept.
– Tiny Mix Tapes
John Butcher is without question the most jaw-dropping technician we’ve ever heard wielding a tenor, equally capable of brawny assault and textural meditations at the very edge of audibility. What makes him so compelling, though, is the taste and poetry behind everything he does.
– Time Out, New
York
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Thomas Lehn
Thomas Lehn studied sound engineering and piano at the music academies in Detmold and Cologne. As a pianist in various ensembles - currently the ensemble]h[iatus - he has given numerous (premiere) performances of musical, music-theatrical and multimedia works.
Since 1989 he has been working in the field of live electronic music generated with analogue synthesizer systems.
In addition to his own electronic works realized in real time, he has also been active as a synthesizer interpreter for many years, including performances of compositions by Élaine Radigue, Bogusław Schaeffer, Zbigniew Karkowski, Anthony Pateras, Peter Jakober and Jürg Frey. His studio realizations of works by Schaeffer, Pateras, Jakober and Roman Haubenstock-Ramati have been released on CD.
International festival guest appearances and concert tours - as a soloist and as a member of a large number of internationally active ensembles - have taken him throughout Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Japan and East Asia, as well as repeatedly to North America. His work is documented on around 100 recordings.
www.thomaslehn.com
Thomas Lehn's ancient analogue synthesizer is an honestly electronic sound source, but he plays it with pianistic animation, a responsive improviser in an ever-shifting, fluid and powerful music.
– Coda Magazine
Thomas Lehn´s synthesizer, built at an early age of the technology, and looking more like a physics device than a musical instrument, was able to bridge the contradiction between technology and nature. Indeed, there was something extremely natural about the sounds it produced.
– Weserkurier
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collaborations
Thermal | with Gino Robair | with Matthew Shipp | with John Tilbury
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since 2003
THERMAL
John Butcher • amplified tenor & soprano saxophone
Thomas Lehn • analogue synthesizer
Andy "Ex" Moor • electric guitar
discography
Thermal
released 2003 on dutch label unsounds | www.unsounds.com | 04U | reviews | bandcamp
Ice In A Hot World
released 2023 on dutch label unsounds | www.unsounds.com | 78U | reviews | bandcamp
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since 2012
BUTCHER / LEHN / ROBAIR
John Butcher • tenor & soprano saxphone
Gino Robair • percussion, electronics, Blipoo Box, objets trouvés
Thomas Lehn • analogue synthesizer
discography
shaped & chased
12" vinyl LP released 2019 on Ni-Vu-Ni-Connu | www.ni-vu-ni-connu.net | nvnc-lp026 | bandcamp
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since 2014
BUTCHER / LEHN / SHIPP
Matthew Shipp • piano
Thomas Lehn • analogue synthesizer
John Butcher • soprano- & tenor saxophone
discography
Tangle
CD released 2016 on fataka | www.fataka.net | fataka 14 | bandcamp
The Clawed Stone
CD released 2020 on Rogue Art | www.roguart.com | ROG-0099
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since 2016
BUTCHER / LEHN / TILBURY
John Butcher • soprano- & tenor saxophone
Thomas Lehn • analogue synthesizer
John Tilbury • piano
discography
exta
CD released 2013 on fataka | www.fataka.net | fataka 7 | bandcamp
Lights
CD released 2023 on fataka | fataka.com | fataka 16 | bandcamp
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tour dates
upcoming | past
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2024
Sat. January 18, Vitoria-Gasteiz @ El Conservatorio / Festival Bernaola Zikloa
© by Ariele Monti and Irtijal
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past performances
2023
Fri. June 9, London @ Cafe OTO (with Thermal)
Fri. March 31, Saarbruecken @ Gemeindezentrum Alte Kirche (with Thermal)
Thu. March 30, Stuttgart @ stromraum (with Thermal)
Wed. March 29, Koeln @ Stadtgarten/JAKI (with Thermal)
2020
Sun. February 9, Bonn @ Dialograum Kreuzung an St. Helena (with Thermal)
Sat. February 8, Avignon @ AJMI (with Thermal)
Fri. February 7, Brussels @ Ancienne Belgique
2019
Fri. July 5, 2019, Viitasaari @ Parish Hall / Time of Music Festival
2017
Sun. October 29, Brugge @ Parazzar (with Matthew Shipp)
Sat. October 28, Fresnes-en-W. @ Festival Densites (with Matthew Shipp)
Tue. October 24, Oslo @ Cafe Mir (with Matthew Shipp)
Sun. October 22, Graz @ Stockwerk (with Matthew Shipp)
Sat. October 21, Ljubljana @ Gromka Club (with Matthew Shipp)
Fri. October 20, Cologne @ Stadtgarten (with Matthew Shipp)
Thu. October 19, Lille @ La Malterie (with Matthew Shipp)
Tue. October 17, Montreuil @ Instants Chavires (with Matthew Shipp)
Mon. September 18, Montreal @ Casa del Popolo (with Matthew Shipp)
Fri. September 15, Guelph @ Guelph Jazz Festival (with Matthew Shipp)
Sun. January 15, Forli @ Area Sisimica (with Thermal)
Fri. January 13, Huesca @ Centro Cultural del Matadero (with Thermal)
Thu. January 12, Barcelona @ L’auditori Sampler Series (with Thermal)
2016
Sun. July 24, Nickelsdorf @ Jazzgallerie (with Matthew Shipp)
Thu. May 26, London @ Cafe Oto (with John Tilbury)
Sat. March 12, St. Johann i. T. @ Alte Gerberei (with Thermal)
Fri. March 11, Pardubice @ Divadlo 29 (with Thermal)
Thu. March 10, Prag @ Vila Stvanice (with Thermal)
Wed. March 9, Wien @ Porgy & Bess (with Thermal)
2014
Wed. February 19, London @ Cafe Oto (with Matthew Shipp)
2012
Sat. June 9, Chicago @ The Empty Bottle
Fri. June 8, St. Louis @ Kerr Foundation Center
Thu. June 7, Nashville @ Downtown Presbyterian Church
Wed. June 6, Asheville @ ARTery Gallery (with Gino Robair)
Tue. June 5, Chattanooga @ Barking Legs Theater (with Gino Robair)
Mon. June 4, Columbia @ Conundrum Music Hall (with Gino Robair)
Sun. June 3, Tuscaloosa @ Green Bar (with Gino Robair)
Sat. June 2, Shreveport @ minicine? (with Gino Robair)
Fri. June 1, Austin @ Carousel Lounge (with Gino Robair)
Thu. May 31, Houston @ Nameless Sound (with Gino Robair)
Wed. May 30, Houston @ Nameless Sound (with Gino Robair)
Tue. May 29, Houston @ Nameless Sound (with Gino Robair)
2011
Sun. September 25, Boston @ Goethe Institut Boston
Wed. September 21, Philadelphia @ Bowerbird
Tue. September 20, Brooklyn @ Issue Project Room
2007
Sat. November 17, Graz @ Stockwerk (with Thermal)
Fri. November 16, Innsbruck @ Bierstindl (with Thermal)
2006
Sun. November 12, Wels @ Schlachthof (with Thermal)
2005
Sat. August 27, Mulhouse @ Noumatrouff (with Thermal)
2004
Sat. July 17, Parthenay @ Palais des Congres (with Thermal)
Thu. May 27, Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy @ Festival Musique Action (with Thermal)
Wed. May 19, Toronto @ Goethe Institute Toronto (with Thermal)
2003
Sat. May 24, Montreuil @ Instants Chavires (with Thermal)
Fri. May 23, Nantes @ Pannonica (with Thermal)
Thu. May 22, Lille @ Le Malterie (with Thermal)
Wed. May 21, Bruessel @ Cafe Central (with Thermal)
2001
Fri. November 16, Amsterdam @ STEIM (with Thermal)
2000
Thu. July 13, Amsterdam @ Overtoom 301 (with Thermal)
Sun. April 9, Bruessel @ Recyclart / Gare Bruxelles-Chapelle (with Thermal)
1996
Mon. December, 19, Cologne @ British Council [download flyer]
Sun. February 18, London @ Red Rose Theatre
© drawing by Geoffrey Winston, June 2023 at Cafe Oto London
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updated on June 8, 2024