Borbetomagus

Borbetomagus
Don Dietrich and Jim Sauter
Background information
Genres	Free jazz, noise rock
Years active	1979—present
Labels	Agaric
Associated acts	Voice Crack, Tristan Honsinger, Peter Kowald, Hijokaidan
Website	borbetomagus.com
Members	Don Dietrich Donald Miller Jim Sauter
Past members	Adam Nodelman

Borbetomagus are a free improvisation/noise music group. They are cited by critics as pioneers of aggressive improvised noise music.

Borbetomagus formed in 1979 when saxophone players Jim Sauter and Don Dietrich joined with electric guitarist Donald Miller. Bass guitarist Adam Nodelman was briefly a member, and they have occasionally collaborated with others.

Their aggressive music has been described as "a huge, overpowering, take-no-prisoners mass of sound." One extended technique they use is called "bells together" where Sauter and Dietrich place the bells (openings) of their saxophones against one other while playing.

While the core trio listed above has been responsible for most of Borbetomagus's music, they have collaborated with Swiss circuit bending duo Voice Crack, Dutch cellist Tristan Honsinger, German double-bassist Peter Kowald, multi-instrumentalist Milo Fine, and others. In 2006, they recorded a collaborative album with Hijokaidan live at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, Canada, and in 2007 their long out-of-print cassette Live In Allentown was released on CD with nearly twice as much material as the original. Sauter and Dietrich have also recorded a duo album and a collaborative album with Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore.

Borbetomagus refers to the Celtic origin of the German city of Worms.