Paul Dutton


Paul Dutton is a Canadian poet, novelist, essayist, and oral sound artist.

Early life and career

Dutton was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. A member of the legendary Four Horsemen sound poetry quartet, along with Rafael Barreto-Rivera, Steve McCaffery, and the late bpNichol, Dutton joined his soundsinging oralities and harmonica-playing to John Oswald’s alto sax and Michael Snow’s piano and synthesizer in the free-improvisation band CCMC. He has recently appeared in poetry festivals in Germany, France, and Venezuela, and at music festivals in Canada, the Netherlands, and Argentina. An accomplished writer, in addition to his published books, he has written dozens of published essays on music and writing.
Dutton has collaborated with a wide range of musicians, including fellow oral sound artists Jaap Blonk, Koichi Makigami, Phil Minton, and David Moss in the group Five Men Singing, John Butcher, Bob Ostertag, Phil Durrant, John Russell, Lee Ranaldo, Christian Marclay, Günter Christmann, Thomas Charmetant, Xavier Charles, and Jacques Di Donato. His soundsinging has been called "fascinating, inventive, grippingly obsessive".
" exposes every note, tone, timbre and texture that can be vibrated by the uvula, dredged from the throat and buzzed from the cheeks and lips."
More recently, he formed Quintet à Bras in company with two French poets and two French instrumentalists, and in 2009, Mr. Dutton performed at The Scream In High Park, which is an annual literary festival in Toronto.

Criticism