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The Splatter Trio
Dave Barrett: saxophones, saxcello, ocarina, DX-7
Guitarist Myles Boisen likens a Splatter Trio show to watching an artist paint:
The name of the band reflects the messy act of creation: "We chose the name 'Splatter' because that's what we wanted the music to be like. Painterly, but also kind of bloody... half-Pollock and half-Peckinpah." Splatter formed after saxophonist Dave Barrett (then a member of Club Foot Orchestra) saw a 1987 performance of John Zorn's Cobra Ensemble that included Myles and Gino. Years of collective experience with the likes of Anthony Braxton, ROVA Saxophone Quartet, Snakefinger, Fred Frith, and Dead Kennedys gave the three exceptional skill with experimentation and improvisation. Rather than being slaves to song structure, they play with it. Gino calls structure "our main material, like sonic playdough... as if the playdough just sort of appears as we play." Myles says, "We don't get lost, but we also don't know where we're going." A Cambodian quotation on their first album Splatter Trio puts it well: "When musicians play together each goes his own way but they meet from time to time." When these musicians play together, they seem intent on surprising and delighting each other. They typically have no set list; instead, one of them starts playing something and the others play whatever makes sense at the time, sometimes complementing the other musicians, sometimes going off in a completely different direction. The result gives the audience a constantly changing stream of squawks, beats, swirls, jokes, splashes, and noise, an improv soundtrack for the listener's own private contribution. Later Splatter performances often included an improvisitory use of custom-made compact discs containing solo material from each of the Splatter members. In this way, they were able to create a virtual double-trio, or any combination derived from it. The custom discs were unmarked so that the players were unable to plan anything in advance - which is exactly how they like it! The 1996 limited edition CD (25 copies) called Recombinance (Live) documents a "performance" by the trio using only Splatter Trio-related compact discs. The Splatter Trio is currently working on their 9th release. A selected discography:
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