This tenor sax troupe blows everyone away with intense ensemble playing. ‘Mesmerizing... a music that throbs with tension between stillness and agitation, density and light’ (New York Times).
An ensemble consisting of four tenor saxophonists seems like a wild idea. The American quartet Battle Trance also happens to play long-form, narrative compositions that cannot be categorized and that demand extrordinary skills from the four players. However, the group has caught on to the press and (a young) audience. The key is in the compelling music written by band leader Travis Laplante, in which extended techniques such as circular breathing are put in the service of intense ensemble playing....
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This tenor sax troupe blows everyone away with intense ensemble playing. ‘Mesmerizing... a music that throbs with tension between stillness and agitation, density and light’ (New York Times).
An ensemble consisting of four tenor saxophonists seems like a wild idea. The American quartet Battle Trance also happens to play long-form, narrative compositions that cannot be categorized and that demand extrordinary skills from the four players. However, the group has caught on to the press and (a young) audience. The key is in the compelling music written by band leader Travis Laplante, in which extended techniques such as circular breathing are put in the service of intense ensemble playing.
Since its foundation in 2012, Battle Trance has been performing continuously. Their two albums, Palace of Wind and Blade of Love, have received unanimous critical praise. The group has been compared to ROVA and World Saxophone Quartet, as well as to younger horn players such as Colin Stetson. The band members come from the Brooklyn music scene and have played in bands such as Little Women, tUnE-yArDs, Claudia Quintet and Steve Lehman Octet.
‘There were certain specific sounds that I imagined being in Blade of Love, but I couldn't get close enough to them using traditional saxophone tone — sounds like arrows flying through the air, birds singing or flying overhead, bombs, water running, the wind, campfires, singing in church, making love, killing, waves crashing, fighting for your life, thunder, the sound of rage, howling, crying, laughing, the sound of my last breath… So I began working on different ways for the saxophone to get closer to these sounds, and the resulting techniques became part of the fabric of Blade of Love’ (Travis Laplante).
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