SAT 7/7 - Thomas Lehn and John Butcher @DPC

Voight-Kampff Music Proudly Presents

Thursday, June 7th 8:00pm

Thomas Lehn (analog synths - Cologne, Germany) &
John Butcher (woodwinds - London, England)

Opening Act: Mr. Natural (John Sharp)

@ the Downtown Presbyterian Church (154 5th Ave. N. in Nashville) - Map

$6-$10 sliding scale.  No one will be turned away due to lack of funds.

Thomas Lehn is one of the most highly regarded analog synth performers active today. He plays a modified EMS Synthi analog synthesizer from the early 70s. His music and method are very corporeal, with the subtle analog tones he coaxes from his setup possessing a very alien yet very acoustic dynamic. Notable projects include Konk Pack with Tim Hodgkinson and Roger Turner, duos with Gerry Hemingway and Paul Lovens, and larger ensembles with Frank Gratkowski, Ken Vandermark, and many others.

John Butcher is arguably one of the three or four leading saxophonists in European experimental improvisation. He is a master of extended sax techniques that produce other-worldly sounds and sonic landscapes. He has a way of bringing space alive wherever he plays, and his critically-acclaimed album "Resonant Spaces" (review) was recorded in unique environments such as caves, oil tanks, and underground reservoirs where sonic effects peculiar to each space become a significant part of the performance. He has collaborated with a Who's Who of improvising musicians all over the world, received numerous awards, and composed notable commissions for Rova, Polwechsel, Elision Ensemble, and other contemporary ensembles. Last fall Butcher was awarded a Composer’s Award from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. The Hamlyn awards are the largest cash awards to individual artists in the UK, £45K over 3 years with no restrictions on how it is spent, like the Macarthur Grants in the U.S.

The Chapel at the DPC will be an exceptional place to experience these two masters.

http://www.johnbutcher.org.uk/

http://thomaslehn.de/read/future_e.html

Mr. Natural (aka John Sharp) is a formerly Nashville and currently Knoxville musician who sculpts sound out of unlikely hand-built instruments—the Plank, a long section of lumber fitted out with a string, pickups and effects boxes, or simply wiring up a potted house plant so the incidental noises of tapping and brushing the leaves feed into electronics where they get converted into chunks of sound. He’s always had a knack for building connections with like-minded musicians around the world, and has collaborated with them on tour and as they’ve come
through Tennessee.