Anthony Braxton's Tri-Centric Thought Unit Construct in Post War Western Art Music.

This month I’m starting a new artistic research project at the Conservatory in Antwerp and the Antwerp University (ARIA). It will be a four-year project leading up to a PhD in the arts. It is an extension of a two-year research project that I started in 2019, focussing on Anthony Braxton’s Ghost Trance Music. For this PhD-project I intend to take a closer look at Braxton’s holistic vision of his entire oeuvre and explore the many different aspects of his work from a performer’s perspective. In doing so I hope to be able to contribute to broadening the canon of post-war western art music, which, still today, fails to recognise the vast and unique body of work Anthony Braxton has created over the past 55 years.

Excerpt from Composition 366 “Falling River Music” (c) Anthony Braxton

Excerpt from Composition 366 “Falling River Music” (c) Anthony Braxton

I described my intentions in the following research abstract (which can also be found here):

The perception of the canon of post-war western art music today is still strongly determined by a constructed dichotomy which keeps Western art music separate from evolutions and radical experiments in jazz and black American music. The very extensive oeuvre and philosophical body of thought of the American composer Anthony Braxton, what he calls his Tri-Centric Thought Unit Construct (TCTUC), can be seen as the metaphorical elephant in the room. This unique oeuvre has been ignored to this day as part of a larger canon of post-war Western art music and is rarely performed as such. This research project takes Anthony Braxton's TCTUC as a starting point to see how I, as an interpreter of Braxton’s music, can contribute to a broadening of this canon. 

The intention of this research is to approach a wide selection of Braxton’s compositions on their own terms. By putting these works as specific case studies on the agenda of relevant actors such as the conservatory, contemporary music festivals and concert series and through recordings and other media, I hope to make a canon broadening possible through my practice as an interpreter. In addition to this I will address the gaps within the existing discourse on post-war Western art music through Braxton's own writings (Tri-Axium Writings) as well as recent texts by George Lewis, Benjamin Piekut, Georgina Born, a.o.
The results of this research will be presented in the form of concerts, lectures, articles, workshops and recordings.

Ghost Trance Septet

This week I’m playing a first set of concerts with my newly formed Ghost Trance Septet, dedicated to performing Anthony Braxton’s Ghost Trance Music. Here are the dates:

01/02/2020 Post X (in double bill with Frederik Croene), Merelbeke

07/02/2020 Het Kip & De Ei (in double bill with Nadar Ensemble), Madame Fortuna, Antwerp

08/02/2020 Werkplaats Walter (in double bill with Evan Parker), Brussels

Anthony Braxton’s Ghost Trance Music
Balancing between notation and improvisation, Anthony Braxton’s “Ghost Trance Music” represent a unique body of “open works” that challenges traditional roles of composer, score and performer. In “Ghost Trance Music” Braxton’s entire fascinating musical universe comes together. You step into a ritual, guided by a melody without beginning or end, a stream of consciousness that serves as the central track leading you into the unknown. Originally inspired by the Native American practice of the Ghost Dance ritual, where surviving members of Native American tribes would attempt to communicate with their ancestors through transcendental ghost dances, the Ghost Trance Music pieces are specifically designed to function as pathways between Braxton’s different musical systems, between notation and improvisation, between past, present and future. It allows for a plurality of musical practices to join forces, transcending traditional genre boundaries. It creates an arena in which Braxton helps curate intuitive experiences for both performers and listeners.

Ghost Trance Septet:

Kobe Van Cauwenberghe, guitar
Teun Verbruggen, drums
Steven Delannoye, tenor sax, bass clarinet
Elisa Medinila, piano
Anna Jalving, violin
Niels Van Heertum, euphonium, trumpet
Frederik Sakham, double bass

Artist-residency at GMEA, Albi

Starting the year in full swing, I will retreat to the beautiful city of Albi in the south of France to spend a week long residency at the GMEA studio to develop my ongoing research on interpreting the music of Anthony Braxton. For this residency I will focus on solo interpretations of Braxton’s Ghost Trance Music:

Ghost Trance Solo’s explores the full extend of Braxton’s GTM compositions in the context of a solo performance. In order to generate what Braxton refers to as a field of activities in a solo-context, I developed an intuitive set-up using loops and live-electronics to have several layers of musical material develop simultaneously and spontaneously.

During the residency at GMEA I will make recordings of different versions of Braxton’s GTM compositions. More info here.

Here’s a recording of a recent live performance at the Conservatory in Antwerp as part of the Articulate Research days:

Live performance of Anthony Braxton's Ghost Trance Music composition 285 in a version for solo guitar and electronics. Kobe Van Cauwenberghe, guitar and electronics Articulate Research Days, 24/10/2019 Royal Conservatory Antwerp


The New Yorker

On friday 11/10 I will return to Spectrum in New York to play No [more] Pussyfooting once more. This concert is also featured in a “Goings on about town” announcement in The New Yorker, mentioning my set as a highlight. Come by if you’re around!

While in the US I’ll also give a talk at Peabody Institute about my current research project on the music of Anthony Braxton, followed by a solo set of Braxton ‘s music at Red Room in Baltimore on tuesday 08/10.

I’m also meeting with people from the Tricentric foundation and visiting Anthony Braxton’s archive in New Haven as part of this research project.