Miaow Argument, Cath Roberts & Sam Andreae, Wire Review December 2021

This Friendship Is Sailing - Live on Curious Ear Radio Fotis Nikolakopoulos, FreeJazzBlog, 2022

“..Live on Curious Ear Radio is a treat, something that anyone who has been drawn to the weird, eclectic and edgy sounds of modern British improvisation shouldn’t miss out. Actually, to be more exact, anyone interested in modern improvisation. The origins of this music, if that has any historical significance for the here and now of all of us, come from the early days of British improvisation and everything (like the Company nights that were curated by Derek Bailey) that happened around the radicalism of Incus Records..

Both sessions, on both sides, are refreshing attempts on anything goes free collective improve, a mix of older generation improvisers (like Maggie Nicols who has been a pioneer working with a lot of important musicians) and a newer generation of improvisers. The pairing is amazing, because they share the same ethos in music making, one that it seems that has never died but still remains alive within the wide variety of musics that can be called free improvisation.

Both sessions feel like long stories that follow a thread that comes into being at the spot. Gurgles and voices, homemade junk (either be it “real” instruments or electronics), reed noises and a constant chatter of ideas and irony. One the best albums I’ve heard in a while. Don’t get fooled by the comparisons to the past, I only tried to provide an aesthetic lineage. This music stands on its own and is, absolutely necessary to be heard.”

This Friendship Is Sailing - Cafe Oto, Wire Review July 2021

Marshall/Blunt/Andreae reviewed by London Jazz News

“…all three employing bat noises and wolf tones to evoke an eerie kind of classical chamber improv. Extended techniques including blowing into the croft without the mouthpiece and manipulating the mute inside the bell of the horn, pizzicato clicks behind the bridge and whacking the bow against the neck. These are rhythmic and sonic methods to explore feelings less familiar to musical conventions but which always have oblique reference to them. Very much the hinterland of both contemporary composers as well as improvisers. it seemed ‘classical-ish’ not just because of the strings but because of the use of predominantly tones that were fully uttered rather than just percussive. It was carefully, delicately musical with a sustained but softly mesmeric sense of unease.”

Live at Ftarri - Andreae/Birchall/Nakamura/Willberg We need no swords, July 2018

“Andreae’s sax honks and parps are as grouchingly well-judged as ever, his vocabulary ranging from the clicks and scrapes of extended technique to mischievous twirls of abrasive melody. Every huff and blart create their own spaces within hectic sonic environs – check his joyful, elephantine wails on halfway through ‘Prism Dialect’ – or puncturing the emptiness with the perfect timing of a stand-up comic.”

John Doran, Quietus, 2017 on BBC 3 Late Junction

“what Sam Andreae does is liminal music, he shows you the clicks, the noises, the breaths, the rattle and hum that producers normally want to take off the record”

Hair in the Chimney reviewed by Radio Free Midwich April 2017

The sympathetic support of each instrument and player is super-palpable as each voice is selfless enough to bring out the best in each other. Be that a slow dripping, almost Sonic Youth-style, electric gamelan or a razor-sharp ladder of tones, each essential to the overall sculpture.

Hair in the Chimney reviewed in The Quietus, Stewart Smith, April 2017

Top-notch weirdo jams from the north of England…..Hair In The Chimney brings an underground sensibility to free improvisation, with the musicians using unconventional techniques to defamiliarise their instruments.

Cows In Large Pastures, Bleep, 2017

A saxophonist by trade, Sam Andreae has constructed a zany record of micro-music and absurdist compositions. All of the tracks here involve human voices, but rather than singing or speech we get garbled yelps or what sound like mouse-choirs. Accordions wheeze away before being discarded for solos on empty bottles or beats tapped out on table-tops. A tough nut to crack at first, the record soon charms you with its hair-brained schemes.

Cows In Large Pastures, reviewed by Art Is Not A Drill, Lee Adcock, 2017

Well, this is just the best thing you’re gonna hear today.

a spat raspberry at “art”

We could say “Stockhausen”, but you won’t believe us, so just imagine if you could re-enact your favorite Muppets skit with just glossolalia and roll with it.

Cows In Large Pastures, reviewed by Tiny Mix Tapes, Rick Weaver, February 2017

I know there’s a place for me in a doubles game at the ping-pong table and so I’ve been trying to get into the game room at any and all cost to my health and sanity.

Daryl Worthington, Decoder magazine, 2017

at times abrasive, others funny, yet always engaging — taking Phil Minton style vocal gymnastics into an ensemble setting.

…like an imaginary session for Smile for which Brian Wilson just told the performers to “let it all out”.

I Didn’t Mind You Improvising I just Wish You’d Done it Better reviewed in The Quietus, Tristan Bath, Feb 2015

musicianship is typically inventive and stunning, but more uniquely like Topography Of the Lungs, this trio seem to have evolved their own logic, evoking stark imagery through what sounds like total and utter chaos.

Soramame Exhibition reviewed on Local Sound Focus, Henriette Bond, May 2015

…had the audience listening to everyday noises with a dedicated intensity that would have allowed you to hear a pin drop…

“Solo” reviewed by Daniel Spicer, The Wire, 2015

“Andreae delves into an impressive vocabulary of skilfully controlled overtones, rapid keypad flutters and fragile harmonics, glistening like filaments held up to the light.”

Solo, Bleep, 2015

Sam Andreae, the Macclesfield-based saxophonist presents Solo, presents a 13-track exploiration of the sonic possibilities at the extreme end of the jazz spectrum. Each track focuses on a unique and distinctive set of parameters described by track titles. Compiled using an assortment of different microphone placements, a no input mixer, an assortment of live digital processing software and the expertise of recording engineer Jon Tipler and technician Rodrigo Constanzo Overall, this truly original release highlights just how masterful Andreae’s knowledge of the saxophone is.

Stereoboard review of “Solo”, Ben Bland, 2015

Sam Andreae has established himself as a notable young voice in Britain’s vibrant avant-garde jazz scene in recent times, particularly through his work with Andrew Cheetham and David Birchall. Here, however, the Macclesfield-based saxophonist provides the first evidence of his enormous potential as a solo artist. Don’t expect the squalling sax sound of free jazz legend, for ‘Solo’ is an altogether different exploration of the tenor saxophone’s physical capabilities than one might expect, one largely utilising acoustics, breath and feedback. The result is astonishing, and near impossible to analyse thanks to its distinctiveness of voice. ‘Solo’ is essential listening for anyone interested in the wild sonic possibilities at the extreme end of the jazz spectrum.

“Solo” reviewed by Paul Margee at Louder Than Noise, June 2015

Sam Andreae plots a new course for the saxophone in this album of solo improvisations

Trio Riot reviewed in The Guardian, John Fordham, April 2014

Silence Blossoms reviewed in MOJO Music Magazine, 2014

haunted and corrupted modern folk laments, possessed of a gelid Baltic beauty

Trio Riot reviewed by Daniel Spicer, Jazzwise Magazine, April 2014

uncompromising twin-sax ‘n’ drums attack and pugilistic energy