The Empty Gallery is honored to present the world premiere of a duo performance between two of contemporary music’s most tireless innovators, Keiji Haino (Japan) and John Butcher (UK). These two musicians of startling intensity and originality come together for a once-in-a-lifetime meeting in the unique performance setting of The Empty Gallery.

For those who have been following experimental music during the last twenty years, Keiji Haino should need no introduction. An enigmatic multi-instrumentalist whose output spans work for guitar, percussion, voice, electronics, turntables, hurdy-gurdy, and even celtic harp, Haino is perhaps most well-known for his role in seminal psychedelic rock group Fushitsusha, whose influence can be heard on everyone from Sonic Youth to Skullflower. Recent years have seen him collaborating with a large list of international musicians, including Oren Ambarchi, Jim O’Rourke, Stephen O’Malley, Peter Brotzmann and Pan Sonic.

John Butcher is a former physicist turned saxophone player who has been at the forefront of the European improvised music scene for the last twenty-odd years. Through his explorations of circular breathing, multiphonics, acoustic feedback, and other extended techniques, Butcher has broken all aesthetic preconceptions of what the saxophone “should” sound like and taken it into wholly new territory beyond even the innovations of free jazz. A veteran of London’s improvised music community, over the years Butcher has played with names such as Derek Bailey, John Tilbury, Toshimaru Nakamura, Okkyung Lee, Otomo Yoshihide, Christian Marclay, Paul Lovens and Eddie Prevost.