Old televisions screening work from auteurs, dangling scissors, and an otherwise intricate set make up Jeffrey Butzer’s stage. Without even hearing his music, it is clear the musician is indebted to the cinema. After listening to a few minutes of his compositions, then, the ties become even more apparent.

When played by the solo musician, Butzer’s music often comes across as minimal, melodic French musette. Typically instrumental, accordion, toy piano, bass drum, piano, and glockenspiel lead the songs into succinct, poignant narratives. With this style and instrumentation, Butzer has released two solo records, She Traded Her Leg (Lona, 2006) and The Garden of Scissors (Lona, 2009), and has completed a record entitled Collapsible (Lona, 2011).

With his band, the Bicycle Eaters, Butzer maintains an entirely different M.O. Comprised of Butzer on piano, accordion, melodica and glockenspiel, as well as players on guitar, cello, bass and percussion, the sound is closer to Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western scores. The original songs are left intact, but rendered in a wholly unique light, becoming more direct, intricate, and layered than the original counterparts. This, of course, is by design. Jeffrey Butzer & the Bicycle Eaters are releasing a debut 7” EP entitled Hiding Plastic Spiders in early 2012.

Butzer alternates between performing solo and with his full band. Every outing fits the occasion and occupies a specific place in a personal show history. In other words, it is the unexpected which defines Butzer’s shows. With his personal collection of songs regularly connected, altered, or reworked, it’s as if the shows become more like movements.

Butzer’s recent work includes an album and US tour with West End Motel featuring Brent Hinds (Mastodon) and Tom Cheshire (All Night Drug Prowling Wolves, The Rent Boys), a soundtrack to Raymond Carr’s film Wild is the Wind—which will be re-released as a solo record entitled Sleepwalking Winnipeg—and a score for the play Peter Pan, which will be performed by the Center for Puppetry Arts. He has ventured lately into the world of live scoring, where he performs to Buster Keaton’s The Balloonatic.

Other notable achievements include touring China and Western Europe, a annual sold-out performance of Vince Gauraldi’s A Charlie Brown Christmas, a collaboration with Claire Lodge on a guitar album entitled Past Wansted Flats, live collaborations with Molly Harvey (The Residents), and a score for Chris Hefner’s Birdcatcher, which earned him accolades from filmmaker Guy Maddin.

www.jeffreybutzer.bandcamp.com