Anthony Braxton: Ghost Trance Music explained

Anthony Braxton is doing his fans a great favour by not only releasing an album yet again dedicated to the style (or more precisely, performance and composing method) he pioneered – Ghost Trance Music – but to also provide some extremely helpful insights into the exact meaning of the term. "Quartet (GTM) 2006" comes as a four-CD ten-panel digipack and includes an extensive, twelve-page essay by Anthony Braxton himself on the whys whats and whatevers of Ghost Trance Music. The album features Carl Testa on bass, Aaron Siegal on percussion and Max Heath on piano next to Anthony Braxton’s reeds. Together, the Quartet ripps and feels their way through four CD-long pieces of highly diverse moods. "Quartet (GTM) 2006" will be Braxton’s first album for Important Records – an outfit usually occupied with more sound art -oriented music and therefore a logical fit for a man who does consider himself a Jazz musician.

The mood on "Quartet (GTM) 2006" is of an uplifting and spirited energy, with Braxton’s Sax lyrical, penetrating the circle dance of his fellow musicians in a quiet way. It is music which has all the attributes of Free Jazz, but comes across as extremely relaxed and organic. Especially opening composition “340” (they’re all named by numbers) has a casual thrust going for it, a gentle propulsion which works a hidden muscle in the brain.

Next to providing an essay on Ghost Trance Music, the artwork of "Quartet (GTM) 2006" also offers listeners a look at extracts from Braxton’s colourful scores, inviting laymen and experts alike to an extended analysis.

Homepage: Important Records
By Tobias Fischer, published 2008-04-02

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