John Butcher lives in London and began playing saxophone professionally in the early 80s. He initially worked in jazz (inc. the 'BBC Award' winning Chris Burn Group's "Mingus Suite"), contemporary dance and music theatre At this time he was completing his research in Physics with a doctorate on the theoretical properties of charmed quarks. Since leaving academia in 1982 he has worked almost exclusively in improvisation and 'new music'. His music ranges through free improvisation, various structurings, his own compositions (such as Funforall and no stops, only commas for Chris Burn's ENSEMBLE, and music for the Austrian group Polwechsel), multitracked pieces, work with pre-recorded tape, and also live electronics. His first LP was Fonetiks (1985) - a duo with pianist Chris Burn, whom he continues to work with in many contexts. In 1984 he began another long term commitment - a trio with Phil Durrant and John Russell - later adding Radu Malfatti and Paul Lovens to form News from the Shed. In 1987 he began running the record label ACTA, which now has 14 releases. Solo concerts have long been a particular enthusiasm and challenge. 2000/01 included performances in England, USA, Italy, Spain, Canada, Poland, Greece and France. He first recorded multitracked saxophones on Thirteen Friendly Numbers ('92) - receiving three Arts Council Bursaries to research this and multiphonic possibilities. His other solo CDs, London and Cologne ('96) and Fixations (14) (2001) focus on live performance. He was featured, performing solo, in the BBC TV series Date with an Artist. A long standing interest in electronic music has led to a recent live electro-manipulations duo with Phil Durrant - CDs Secret Measures and Requests and Antisongs. A selection of groups he has played with include Derek Bailey's Company Weeks - the final version of John Stevens' Spontaneous Music Ensemble - Frisque Concordance with Georg Graewe - The Phil Minton Quartet's mouthful of ecstasy project - Fred van Hove's t'nonet - Butch Morris' London Skyscraper - the Austrian new-music group Polwecshel. As an improviser he continues to play in many occasional, often once-only settings. These have included, for instance, duos with Fred Frith, Misha Mengelberg, Derek Bailey, Carlos Zingaro, Steve Beresford, Kaffe Matthews, Joe Morris, Jin Hi Kim.