Official Press release:
Anthony Braxton’s Ghost Trance Music lets you step into a ritual, guided by a melody without beginning or end, a stream of consciousness that serves as the central track leading into the unknown. The Ghost Trance Musics are specifically designed to function as pathways between notation and improvisation, between past, present and future, unifying Braxton's entire fascinating musical universe. It allows for a plurality of musical practices to join forces, a trance-idiomatic arena in which Braxton helps curate intuitive experiences for both performers and listeners.
Recognising the uniqueness and almost unlimited potential of Anthony Braxton’s Ghost Trance Music system, Belgian guitarist Kobe Van Cauwenberghe made it a personal mission to come to a deeper understanding of GTM and its implications for the interpreter. After his acclaimed solo album (Ghost Trance Solos, ATD10), Van Cauwenberghe invited a group of musicians to take a collective deep dive into Braxton’s musical wonderland of the Ghost Trance Musics and explore its unique communal aspects. In the summer of 2021 this Ghost Trance Septet recorded four GTM-compositions, covering the entire spectrum of the four different ’species’ of the GTM system. The result is the present double album.
The musicians of this Belgian-Danish septet have excellent reputation, whether in the art of improvisation, the interpretation of new music, or both. Braxton's work is made for exploratory instrumentalists with such expertise. After the Ghost Trance Septet's performance at the rainy days Festival on November 13, 2021 in Luxembourg, the composer (who was booked for a trio concert at the festival) was sitting in the audience and could hardly contain himself with emotion and excitement. Understandably so. I dare say he had never experienced his GTM concept from the listener's perspective as varied, elaborate and fluid as on that day.
The Ghost Trance Septet does everything right on this production. Whereby "right" is not meant in the sense of correctness, which Braxton dismisses in his recommendations to performers above, but in the sense of astonishing creative, daring, lustful, sensitive, and thrilling. How to play Braxton? Whoever holds this album in his hands can put a very convincing answer on the record player. Over and over again.
- - Excerpt from Timo Hoyer’s liner notes.
Ghost Trance Septet
Kobe Van Cauwenberghe: guitars, synths, voice
Frederik Sakham: double bass, electric bass, voice
Elisa Medinilla: piano
Niels Van Heertum: euphonium, trumpet
Teun Verbruggen: drums, percussion
Anna Jalving: violin
Steven Delannoye: tenor saxophone, bass clarinet
All compositions by Anthony Braxton
Recording: at Werkplaats Walter, Brussels
Mixing: Nicolas Rombouts (Studio Caporal)
Mastering: Uwe Teichert
Production: Kobe Van Cauwenberghe & Rogé for el NEGOCITO Records
Art work / Title images: Anthony Braxton, courtesy of Tri-Centric Foundation
Lay-out: Jan De Wulf
In loving memory of Hugo De Craen (1951 – 2021), friend and friendly experiencer.
