New Music Dublin 2025: Dublin Fixations
Kevin Barry Recital Room, National Concert Hall
Featuring: John Butcher + 11. John Butcher, saxophones;; Dieb13, turntables; Ståle Liavik Solberg, drums; Sophie Agnel, piano; Isabell Duthois, voice & clarinet; 6 others to be confirmed.
In John Butcher’s Dublin Fixations, the musicians bring their own, very personal languages into a composition based on what Butcher calls psychological orchestration: a process of imagining how particular musicians might respond to particular directives, in this work combining precise notation, text, imagery, instructions and pre-recordings. The latter are new pieces that use ‘close-miking’ to manipulate some of the ‘hidden’ sound possibilities of the saxophone. These are then cut to vinyl and manipulated live by turntablist Dieb13.
Dublin Fixations naturally moves between small-scale, highly individual combinations and the orchestral totality of these collective forces, aiming to create a coherent structure and sense of unity that still encourages improvisation, so that the musicians engage with the mystery of the work’s internal logic in the spontaneity of the moment.
Programme
John Butcher - Dublin Fixations
Tickets
€17.50. Booking at New Music Dublin.