Battle Trance
Pushing Their Instruments to the Limit
Battle Trance is a genre-defying ensemble of four tenor saxophonists that performs the music of Travis Laplante whose members include Travis Laplante, Matthew Nelson, Jeremy Viner, and Patrick Breiner.
The saxophonists in Battle Trance push their instruments to the limit. They utilize the full sonic palette of the saxophone, shedding new light on it as an ensemble instrument. They circular breathe to build continuous and hypnotic waves of sound, layer multiphonics to create intricate textures, and use blistering fast lines that seem to liquify into each other. Unorthodox articulations and unusual fingerings are also a part of the vast sonic vocabulary that the members of Battle Trance are demanded to master. This being said, Battle Trance is also an ensemble that knows that a simple melody has the ability to shatter the heart.
In Battle Trance, all of the players are asked to surrender their personal expectations, agendas, and desires in service of the Whole Sound. It is then that the individuals can enter into the true structure of the whole ensemble. Paradoxically, it is the selfless structure that allows the capacity of the ensemble members to increase, in service to a sound that is far greater than the sum of its parts. By surrendering their egos to the best of their abilities, there is a heightening of the ensemble's collective force, control, feeling of space, sensitivity, freedom of movement, sonic spectrum, breath, and ability to penetrate to the heart. Once the separation between the individual players of the ensemble disappears, the ensemble itself is allowed to dissolve into the audience and the performance space, which opens a portal of resonance.