Getting the word out, part 6

Some excerpts from a review of the Braxton box by Henry Kuntz :

As he had done previously with his quartet, Braxton actively moved to include (as possibility) within the Ghost Trance Music all of the music that he had ever composed! But the implications of such a move with the GTM were more far reaching than with the quartet, for the effect was to now place all of his music within ritual time rather than within linear time; and whereas with the quartet, the different compositions that were played together almost always ran alongside each other, now pieces of pieces began to move continuously in and out of the music, restructuring the trance form along the way.
Concurrent with this, Braxton began to break down the Ghost Trance Music hierarchically; subgroups of three and sub-leaders were designated within the larger group who could make decisions about when and where and which parts of which pieces were to be included within the main compositional form. ... As much or more than any transformation of GTM species lines, this change marked the actual beginning of the new reality of where Braxton’s music now stands. With good reason, Braxton refers to the Ghost Trance Music on the Iridium box set as “THE point of definition in my work so far.”
What do the nine Iridium pieces sound like? They are nothing less than new orchestral archetypes. *** The orchestral range of the 12+1-tet is underlined by its broad instrumentation; it is the most varied of any group to have played the Ghost Trance Music. The music itself, as players navigate in and out of the main compositional line, takes shape through motivic and textural addition and subtraction. That sounds simple, but the players must make the choices of what to add or what to subtract in order to create engaging music. That they succeed in doing so throughout nine pieces of music over four evenings is a tribute to their musicianship and resourcefulness.
***
Note: The DVD included in the Iridium box features Jason Guthartz’s hour-long film of Mr. Braxton at Columbia University outlining the theoretical basis of the GTM. A performance film of “Composition 358,” the last of the nine Iridium pieces, is also included and is essential viewing. The players musical decision-making processes are illuminated, and we see how much fun they are having bringing the Ghost Trance Music to life.

Getting the word out, part 5

The raves keep comin': The Summer 2007 issue of Signal to Noise features a page-long review of the Braxton box by Michael Rosenstein; an excerpt:

Does the world need another Anthony Braxton multi-disk set?
***
Working through nine sets of music in a box set like this elicits a different type of listening. One can hear how the ensemble comes together around Braxton's strategies. In the accompanying DVD, Braxton discusses how he has increasingly strived to create music that develops a group of players into a community. Seeing limitations with complete freedom, Braxton explains how he has built structures that provide a formal framework for group improvisation. ***
The inclusion of a video of the complete performance of the final set of the run on the accompanying DVD helps in understanding just how things work. *** The documentary on the DVD does provide valuable insight by blending excerpts from a talk Braxton gave at Columbia during the week with musical examples from the performances.
So, back to the question... is a box like this really necessary? This set documents the culmination of a phase of Braxton's music played by an A team of musicians. For anyone with more than a passing interest in Braxton's music, the answer is an overwhelming yes.