Spring Garden Music

 		

jack wright.........pascal battus

saxophone sounds.............guitar pickup & objects

 

            

Jack and Pascal have had an impassioned and fresh experience playing together as a duo in Paris and in collaboration with others. The duo will be touring in April 2010 on the East Coast, from Manchester NH to Baltimore MD. .A short mp3 of the duo is available here.

Beginning in the 1960's Jack Wright taught at various universites, then left academia in the early 1970's to engage in radical politics. By the end of the decade he was re-directing his energies into the saxophone. He is today one of a small group of musicians in North America that has played improvised music exclusively since that time. Through years of near constant touring, often performing for audiences in cities and towns where improvised music had never been heard before, he came to be regarded as an underground legend, the "Johnny Appleseed of Improvised Music". He has deliberately avoided the conventions and socio-aesthetic limitations of musical careerism to pursue his own vision. Although his de-professionalized approach sets him apart from most musicians at his level of accomplishment, his art has always grown, expanded, and synthesized new information. He is unquestionably an original and virtuosic saxophonist, a master improviser who is deeply lyrical, with humor never far away.
 
Wright lives in Easton PA, centrally located on the East Coast. He tours frequently in Europe as well (and in Japan in 2006), making new musical and human connections, bringing Europeans to the U.S. to play with himself and others (
recent tours in Europe). His inspiration has provided crucial impetus to hundreds of musicians, even as he maintains that he is the one inspired by them.  His vast list of collaborators includes some “name” luminaries (William Parker, Axel Dorner, Michel Doneda, Andrea Neumann, Denman Maroney, Tatsuya Nakatani, Bhob Rainey to name a few) but more significant are the many obscure greats he has played with.  He has made over 40 recordings (many published on his own Spring Garden label), performed in over 20 countries, and written extensively and insightfully about music and society for journals such as Improjazz (France) and Signal to Noise (US), as well as his own website, .

.For more bio etc. info and discography go to www.springgardenmusic.com

Pascal Battus started out in music as a teenage rock guitarist, then studied percussion (ENM Le Mans et Noisiel) and finally focused on experimental music and improvisation, shaping his instruments to match his own gestures. He now presents a wide range of sound possibilities and experiences, including the surrounded guitar,
acoustic and amplified percussion, acoustic walkman, saz and pick-ups of guitar. He performed all over Europe, Middle-East, Japan, Canada with musicians as diverse as Thierry Madiot, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Thomas Lehn, Martin TÈtreault, Michel Doneda…but also with dancers, visual artists, notably in his duet EYEAR with Kamel Maad (video) and with light artist Christophe Cardoen.

He is developing what he calls Graphones, in which he produces sound and drawing on paper with the same gesture and the Sound Massages : low acoustic sounds sourced in everyday objects and tools are produced close to or directly into the listener’s ears.

With Thomas Lehn and Michael Johnsen Battus performed at Music Action in Nancy in 2008.

Pascal can be seen and heard playing with Bertrand Gauget on You-Tube here

more information: http://pbattus.free.fr
http://eyear.free.fr
http://soundmassage.free.fr

Reviews of the Battus' solo CD "Pickup": ''Pascal Battus plays table guitar. The instrument is laid flat and Battus works directly near or on its pick-ups with a whole range of objects, both electronic (e-bows, Walkmen, hand-held fans and various food mixers) and acoustic (springs, rulers, tubes and straws). Playing for him is a process of exploration, sonic research – and so, for us, is listening. The sounds Battus makes are at times quite extraordinary, and I'm often left scratching my head as to how they're produced...fine, representative example of everything I find positive and exciting in today's improvised music."-- Dan Warburton, Paris Transatlantic

and in Revue & Corrigée : Solo pick-up ou le microphone de la guitare enfin débarrassé d'elle
(micro guitare, percussions, clochettes) Affûtant et à l'affût de nouvelles matières sonores, Pascal Battus trouve des sons pour le silence, du silence pour les sons. Il développe sa pratique instrumentale autour de ce qu'il nomme la " guitare environnée " (micro-contact, électronique, objets divers) et les percussions (cloches, gongs…). Ici, il interprètera un solo de pick-up, c'est à dire du micro de sa guitare, mais sans l'instrument. Le pick-up a été conçu pour amplifier les cordes métalliques de la guitare. De la surface du micro rayonne un champ magnétique qui, comme un radar, étend une aire de captation pour tout bruit de fonctionnement d'appareil électrique, signal électronique et, bien sûr, tout acier vibrant. S'il place un objet métallique sur le micro, celui-ci réagit comme un micro-contact : ouvert au vaste champ de la percussion ou même convertible en instrument à vent. Il ne s'agit pourtant pas de définir un nouvel instrument mais plutôt de jouer avec les éléments démontés des outils qui nous entourent. Pascal Battus est dans le son. Pour sa matière, le décortiquant pour en extraire l'essence.
"

For information concerning booking
email Jack Wright

 





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