Ghost Trance Sextet + Trance Map

ghost trance sextet

Ghost Trance Sextet

Anna Jalving, violin
Steven Delannoye, sax
Kobe Van Cauwenberghe, guitar
Elisa Medinilla, piano
Teun Verbruggen, drums
Frederik Sakam, bass

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.

Program:
Composition 284 by Anthony Braxton

evan parker - toma gouband - matt wright 'trance map'

Trance Map is well-named. When Anthony Braxton named one phase of his compositions “Ghost Trance Music,” the justifiable question was, “Where is the trance?” No such indignant query is necessary with this music. As Parker points out in his sleeve notes, it is multipurpose, depending on the volume at which it is played back. At normal volume it is over-brimming with aural information, much of it operating at a subliminal level. As such, it richly repays repeated listening and intense concentration being invested in it. At a much lower volume—perhaps late at night, on headphones—it is music designed to fall asleep to. Or even to induce a trance-like state. Either way, it is mesmerizingly beautiful.

Trance Map is originally Matt and Evan‘s collaboration, in a game of reflections with electronic and acoustic, an exploration of a territory out of time. Concerts are usually quite long, in order to take time to loose time and discover.