Output details

Bartlebooth, and other works (Archie; Buckley’s Hot Licks; Sal’s Sax; In Praise of Dreams; Music for Cello and Strings; Clavinova Music)

Bartlebooth is Cutler’s début portrait disc. Issued for the first time in this format in 2008, while containing earlier, previously unassessed works, its eligibility status for submission has been confirmed with REF authorities.

These seven works, in varied but mutually coherent ways, build upon Cutler’s response to post-minimalism. Drawing upon time spent in Poland and Holland, they explore a physicality of sound owing some debt to the sonoristic approaches of certain contemporary Polish composers, as well as the viscerality of sound characteristic of the Hague school. The latter is most apparent in _Sal’s Sax_, described in the Guardian as a ‘hard-edged essay in Dutch minimalism driven along on a tide of brass and explosive keyboard and percussion chords’.

Vernacular music is never far from the surface. The raw intensity of Polish Goralski folk music is central to _Archie_, rubbing shoulders here with the baroque, whilst the spirit of Art Tatum’s stride piano is evoked in _Buckley’s Hot Licks_. _Music for Cello and Strings_ draws upon blues-based harmony in its brooding melancholia, whilst the final song of the song-cycle _In Praise of Dreams_ combines qualities of both Fauré and Joni Mitchell. Driving, rock-like rhythms are employed frequently, most notably in _Sal’s Sax_ and in the first song of _In Praise of Dreams_. On the relationship between Cutler’s time spent abroad and his choice of material: ‘It has given Cutler's music a tang all its own, and the stylistic freedom to incorporate whatever seems appropriate and integrate it comfortably into his language.’ (Andrew Clements, The Guardian, 19.06.08)

The disc has received broadcasts on BBC Radio 3’s Record Review, Late Junction, Pre-Hear, and airplay in Holland, Canada and New Zealand. It was one of Gramophone’s Top 20 Discs of 2008 and was among Critics’ Choice of 2008 on Seen and Heard Web Reviews.