Over the past months my latest release “Ghost Trance Septet Plays Anthony Braxton” received quite a bit of coverage and reviews, from blogs and magazines in the US, Canada, UK, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, France and Scandinavia! Here’s a selection:
=> 2022 Album of the year, Avant Music News
=> Top 10 albums of the year, Free Jazz Blog
There’s a clear mastery of this often unwieldy material that’s almost giddy in its energy. Each of the four pieces, spread out over two CDs, is packed with detail and quick-blink episodes, delivering such densely crafted journeys that I hope others will follow suit and give Braxton’s pieces the treatment they deserve. - Best of Contemporary Classical on Bandcamp June 2022, P. Margasak
My own view is that Van Cauwenberghe and his septet have redefined the landscape of Braxton recordings.
- The Rambler, T. Rutherford-Johnson
Braxton's equations turn out to be readily accessible sounds if you leave your preconceptions about music and the nature of time at the door. Kobe Van Cauwenberghe's Ghost Trance Septet remembers both a Braxton future and a Ghost Trance past. - All About Jazz, M. Corroto
A festival of creativity, joy and surprise. - All About Jazz, J. Sharpe
Ghost Trance Septet plays Anthony Braxton is one of the best interpretations of Braxton’s music yet by an ensemble not including Braxton himself. Very well done. - Avant Music News, M. Borella
The Ghost Trance Septet have created a blueprint in how to play this music. More crucially, by emphasizing each member’s talent as well as Braxton sequences, they’re come up with an original piece of work true to themselves and the composer. - Jazz Word, K. Waxman
[…] exceptionally rich music that certainly performs Braxton's music to the spirit. It is an ardent plea for a body of work that should reach the stage much more often. - Jazzflits (No. 382), H. te Loo
It is ensemble music at its best, at times leaning firmly on the chamber music tradition, but also steeped in jazz as an ongoing art of transformation. - Gonzo (Circus), G. Peters
Great, inspiring performance. - Salt Peanuts, E. Hareuveni
Highly Recommended - Jazz Special (No. 182, 2022), T.S. Høeg
[…] a delight to both those with an ear for classical and those preferring a freer form of playing. […] The recording feels like an immersion; the music washes over the listener in waves, cleansing and pure. It is a stream of consciousness that emanates from the musicians, serving as a guide between that which is known and the unknown. Clear guidance to form is tempered beautifully with an allowance for freedom that this kind of music gives. There is a sense of connection to the past, a sense of being very much in the present and with the future. Listening to this music is an experience, not an act, and Braxton creates a sense of endless potential. The Free Jazz Collective, S. Stein
It is pretty rare for other ensembles to perform their own versions of Mr. Braxton’s compositions and even rare for anyone to do Ghost Trance Music. (...) After listening to the first disc, I will admit that this is some of the best versions of Ghost Trance Music that I’ve heard. Absolutely superb on all levels. - The Downtown Music Gallery NY, B. L. Gallanter
Mr. Van Cauwenberge’s septet – comprising musicians similarly attuned to Mr Braxton’s radical-speak – excel in their interpretations of the four works involved. (…) [A] marvelous musical architecture (…) Inside this dramatically expressive music is an altogether other kind of beauty exclusive to the music of Mr Braxton. (…) These recordings speak to the breakout of Kobe Van Cauwenberge – a musician with a fertile imagination capable penetrating virtually anything a composer might throw at him. - JazzdaGama, R. Da Gama
A wonderful achievement that will once again allow us to appreciate the idiosyncratic approach of this great American composer. - Citizen Jazz, F. Barriaux
How does one play Braxton? (…) This CD offers a convincing answer to this question. - Neue Zeitung für Music, D. Heißenbüttel
The Ghost Trance Septet hasn't just made an enjoyable (and very much so) record for the current moment; they've contributed to the future critical assessment of a musical mind as important as Ellington and Riddle on the one hand and Stockhausen and Xenakis on the other. - The New York City Jazz Record, Kurt Gottschalk
For a more complete overview click here.
Gonzo (Circus) also published a very nice double interview with James Fei and me. The interview is in Dutch, you can download it here.
Georges Tonla Briquet wrote a fine contribution in the Dutch magazine Jazzism. One would almost think with all this that I am a jazz musician, but the headline of this article somewhat contradicts this. 🙃 The point here is that it may be high time to discard artificial genre categories and just talk about the music itself.... Braxton's music would certainly benefit from it.
The album is available through el Negocito Records. LP’s have finally arrived!!