THE FREE JAZZ COLLECTIVE: Battle Trance - Blade of Love
THE FREE JAZZ COLLECTIVE: Battle Trance - Blade of Love
By Derek Stone
"Battle Trance is an N.Y.-based tenor saxophone ensemble consisting of composer Travis Laplante, Patrick Breiner, Matt Nelson, and Jeremy Viner. Their debut album, Palace of Wind, was widely-acclaimed not only for its inventive arrangements, but for the technical prowess and physical ability of the musicians involved: from bouts of circular breathing, to stretches of ostinato that could best be described as “Reich-on-amphethamines,” the four members of Battle Trance brought Laplante’s stunning vision to life. Blade of Love, though preserving a 40-minute run-time, raises the stakes considerably - the techniques are more complex, the endurance needed greater, and the pieces themselves seem to reach even further into the ecstatic sound-world that the previous recording tapped into."