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***On May 6, 2006, in the Broletto courtyard in Novara, Italy, a unique event took place, conceived by Luca Cerizza: one of the most intriguing talents of contemporary electronica, Adam Butler, performed a remix of all of the music that had appeared during the course of the festival, while the courtyard's medieval setting became the backdrop for the video installations of artist Luca Trevisani. The Sonig label, which in the last ten years has asserted itself as one of the most innovative labels, not just in the field of electronica, but in a multiplicity of styles, now presents a CD (dedicated to Jelly Roll Morton) of this event. Adam Butler, a Brighton native in exile who has spent the last seven years in Cologne, Germany, is something of a curiosity in the electronic music world: playing the piano since he was six; quoting Cage and Pynchon; deconstructing Keith Jarrett's Koeln Concert (2000's The Koeln Konzert, one of The Wire's CDs of the year); reprising utopian architect Buckminster Fuller's "Everything I Know" lecture by performing all his own music that he could still play or remember; and then, after losing all his equipment, computers, and data in a studio burglary, reinventing himself as a junkyard ragtime hip-hop singer-songwriter, in cahoots with other mavericks such as Noel Akchote and DJ Elephant Power (2006's Some Beans & an Octopus). In between, Butler also recorded two more CDs of exquisitely crafted chamber jazz electronica (9 Types of Ambiguity and Small Pieces Loosely Joined), remixed artists such as Dieter Roth (commissioned by Bayerischer Rundfunk and broadcasted live) and composers such as Michael Nyman (at the Approximations 7:1 festival in Duesseldorf), and toured throughout Europe, Asia, and the US (either supporting Mouse On Mars, or alone, or with one of his many backing bands-- he currently has three). New Thing at Novara, despite having been constructed in a one-week frenzy in a hotel room in Novara during the festival, incorporating recordings of each of the concerts immediately after they took place, is simultaneously two things: a richly representative document of the singular breadth of Vert's music, at once groovy, noisy, tender, beguiling, and slyly humorous; and a respectful testimony to the huge variety of musicians who performed at the Festival, without whose support this CD would not have been possible. 30-second MP3 excerpts: Is This Thing On? The Thing About Tony Jackson Things At Speed All Things To All People (People Get Ready) Monk's Thing (Nutty) The Light, The Femininity Of The Thing Something Else Fabrizio's Thing (Raga Del Cuore) All These Things I Know Thingumajig If you have a recent version of iTunes software on your computer, clicking on the link immediately below should open the iTunes application and take you to that album's iTunes page-- where you can listen to samples and buy this album, or individual tracks: Go to iTunes to browse downloads for VERT "New Thing at Novara" If you have a subscription account at emusic.com, you can download tracks for purchase here. This title is also available for download at AmazonMP3. For a complete listing of Midheaven exclusive albums available for download from the iTunes Music Service, emusic and Amazon MP3, please visit the Midheaven Mailorder/Revolver USA Downloadables page. |