John Butcher / Florian Stoffner / Chris Corsano: The Glass Changes Shape

British saxophonist John Butcher cultivates a network of like-minded collaborators around the world, with whom he seeks to connect on an occasional to regular basis. Although only formed in May 2022, the trio with American drummer Chris Corsano and Swiss guitarist Florian Stoffner must be among the most potent combinations. Affirmation comes from the nine tracks included on The Glass Changes Shape that were culled from a live performance at Loft in Cologne in September 2023.

Each man possesses a distinctive individual voice. Butcher allies a staggering command of timbre and multiphonics to a keenly judged deployment of conventional vocabulary, with a phrasing sometimes sufficiently well-turned as to suggest melody. Corsano, another master of the idiom, lays out a stuttered grid of attenuated sounds that imply motion without any recourse to meter. Stoffner, perhaps the least well known of the three, amply justifies his place in fast company. His appealing mix of hard flinty picks, plump swelling tones and carefully controlled feedback, manages to be simultaneously unpredictable and exactly on the nose.

It's a date that is variously low key, intense, foreboding, but always expressive. The key to the success of such co-operative endeavors is the ability to listen deeply and respond appropriately at a pace so swift that it belies thought. Lots of improvisers can do that, but when the participants are as accomplished as these three it raises the bar to Olympic heights. Perhaps having reached the stage of having nothing to prove enables the supreme selflessness exhibited here. Technique is present in abundance, but sublimated entirely to the service of the musical intent.

Taken in isolation, this would be a straightforward recommendation, but such is the consistency of Butcher's output that it stands as just one more summit in a veritable mountain range. However, if unfamiliar but curious, this represents as good an entry as any. If already au fait, then this will likely be another desirable addition.

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