Blurt - Pagan Strings Restrung

Ted Milton

BLURT
Ted Milton - voice, saxophone, performance
Chris Vine - guitar (+ voice)
Paul Wigens - drums (+ voice)

Date - 18th October 2017
Venue - Iklectik Art Lab, London, UK
Current album - Live at Oto (Salamander Records, 2016)

BLURT recorded the Pagan Strings album in Ulm, Southern Germany, in ’92, at the end of a thirty consecutive dates tour. Ted Milton played sax and vocalised. On guitar was Chris Vine, who was with the band from ’90 to ’95, and Paul Wigens, Blurt drummer from ’85 to ’98. Some twenty years later the original line-up reformed to play this one-off Pagan Strings Concert.  Milton also performed “Molecule” – a short performance piece, and recited poems from the recently published Milton Text Book.

Ted Milton

Ted Milton once described himself as "a tone-deaf musician" and at the end of a sax-part during a Blurt gig in Antwerp he proclaimed with a broad smile: "Oh, why don't I just take some lessons?" All this to say Ted doesn't see himself as a ground-breaking nor virtuoso sax player. However, when in good form his instrument becomes an extension of his body and wonderful sonic landscapes enfold. 

Paul Wigens

Paul Wigens joined Blurt in 1986 after Jake Milton left. He can be heard first time on the "Poppycock" album. Paul is a human metronome, taking his musicianship very serious. He studied with American jazz drummer CLIFFORD JARVIS (Sun Ra/Archie Shepp/Pharoah Saunders) in the mid nineties. He has played with the groups Grand Drive (Sony/BMG), The Blue Aeroplanes and Cousteau and mosy recently with Eyebrow. As musician and composer with Cardiff-based physical theatre company Earthfall, he worked on the shows Forever and Ever, Fabulous Wounds, Rococco Blood and Bakkus and the BAFTA-winning short film Too Old to Dream.

Chris Vine

Chris Vine replaced Steve Eagles in 1990 to record the "Pagan Strings" album. Before he had lived in the U.S.A. and played in The Scientific Americans and with a.o. Eliott Sharp. Chris changed the sound of Blurt trough his fingerpicking guitar style, using a thumb pick to accentuate the low notes or to strum the strings very hard. He also made frequent use of an electro-harmonix analog delay and octaver-effects. Chris now spends his time between the UK and Brazil and writes music for theatre and dance companies.