Vert

A biography

At the age of 6, Adam Butler started his musical career with his first piano lessons. At the age of 13 he swapped the piano for the electric guitar. At the age of 20, after a night taking acid found him outside the local music shop at opening time, wanting to swap his guitar for a sampler. At the age of 24, ankle damage forced him to stop skateboarding, and he became Vert.

Along with Milky Boy and Animals on Wheels, he started the label Bovinyl, but after releasing 4 12”s (including Vert's Broken Breakbeat Bebop), they quietly faded away, assuming that the world just didn't care. But the world did, in fact, care, and shortly afterwards Animals on Wheels signed to Ninja Tune, while Vert started working with Mouse on Mars's fledgling label Sonig.

He then released 3 albums of intricated instrumental electronica, including the acclaimed The Köln Konzert, a sample-free bastardpopisation of the original jazz classic.

After a crippling studio burglary in 2004, he emerged butterfly-like into the world, having transformed himself into a rusty hiphop showtune singer-songwriter, and produced an album full of skewed pop classics, Some Beans & an Octopus (Sonig, October 2006), in cahoots with musicians such as rapper Noah 23, guitarist Noel Akchote, turntablist DJ Elephant Power and a mysterious Serbian double bassist. Reviewers were either enraptured or bemused:

“a very, very unique album... Listen from start to finish and you're guaranteed to come out of the experience with a newfound muscial mindset” BPM

“an album of extraordinary eclecticism... he's made Ragtime cool again” Resonance

“chaotic... alluring... almost metaphysical... confident displays of mastery” Treble Magazine

Since then, Vert has been performing across Europe, and in Russia and Israel, both solo and with his band (a trio featuring double bass and drums), and has remixed – apart from the usual tracks – artworks (Dieter Roth's Radio Sonata, commisioned by the Bayerischer Rundfunk), composers (Michael Nyman, remix to be performed with prepared pianist Hauschka in October) and jazz festivals (Novara Jazz 2006 – the remix, New Thing at Novara, is coming soon). He is currently working on a new album.

Vert

reviews

Laurent Guerel / Tsugi / FR / 12-2008
Vert - New thing at Novara (Sonig)
Sans doute l’album sur lequel Adam Butler se révèle le plus. Et paradoxalement il se cache derrière les artistesà l’affiche: Mina Agossi Trio, Trio di Terra, Louis Moholo & Stan Tracey, Jelly Roll Morton, Fabrizio Ottaviucci, Nik Bartsch's Ronin, et d’autres encore. Adam est toujours convainquant dans l’exercice de la composition effectuée dans l’urgence. Exercice de l’immédiat, qu’il reprend ici avec un remix de l'ensemble de la programmation du festival Novara Jazz Festival. Le tout diffusé dans la cour médiévale Broletto avec pour toile de fond une vidéo des installations de l'artiste Luca Trevisani… Incorporant des enregistrements de chacun des concerts immédiatement après leur diffusion, dans la frénésie d’une semaine passée dans un hôtel, Vert compose de façon bohème . Céleste ou enchanté, groovy ou expérimental, une musique morcelée ,(re)confectionnée.. Adamsemble avoir trouvé la formule magique en mode « collages » propice à la ballade numérique et la promotion du mélange des styles.

Utility Fog / FBi Radio / Sydney, Australia / 12-2008
Vert - New thing at Novara (Sonig)
Back in the mid-’90s, Adam Butler made some excellent drill’n'bass-influenced stuff as Vert. Soon after, he moved into a strange burbly processed (folk?)tronica unlike much else around. He’s also a fine pianist, and has an album of clever covers and originals performed live with piano and laptop, and an excellent album of weird cabaret songs on piano/vocals/electronics. This new one is notable for having been somewhat frenetically pieced together in a hotel room at the Novara Jazz Festival in 2006, from recordings of the performances Butler sourced over the duration of the festival, and performed live on the last night. Recognizably Vert a surprising amount of the time, the record is also blessed with some superb jazz performances, and comes strongly recommended from Utility Fog Towers.

Vert

pictures