1984 - The forward Process - New Album

1984 : The Forward Process

Kobe Van Cauwenberghe (guitar), Sakina Abdou (saxophone), Mariam Rezaei (turntables)

All three musicians sharing the same year of birth, 1984, they see its eponymous Orwellian fictional counterpart as quite reflective of our time, but they aim to translate it into gorgeously beautiful noisy utopian complex dreamlike experimental music.  

The trio made it’s live debut at Summer Bummer festival in August 2025. Shortly after this, they went into the studio at Dropa House in Antwerp to record. The resulting studio album, called “The Forward Process”, features a collection of compositions by Van Cauwenberghe, arranged collectively in the studio with Rezaei and Abdou.

  • "A deliciously sounding dystopia... at times an overwhelmingly intense record. Even more than the thematic foundations or structural principles, what stands out most is how well these three understand each other musically."

  • "A fascinating ride (...) 1984 already sounds like a working band that is just beginning to explore its brilliant sonic vision." - Eyal Hareuveni, Percorsi Musicali

  • "One always has the sense that there is more to be revealed. (...) What lingers in the memory is the movement of individuals, around and through each other; a creation and negotiation of time and space." - Tim Rutherford-Johnson, Purposeful Listening

Book + CD publication

I’m very excited to share the news of my first book publication! “Anthony Braxton - 50+ Years of Creative Music” was co-edited with Timo Hoyer and presents the outcomes of the 2-day conference on the music, theory and legacy of Anthony Braxton that took place in Darmstadt in 2023. It contains an incredible collection of contributions by scholars, musicians and close collaborators of Braxton: Timo Hoyer, Paul Steinbeck, Marc Hannaford , James Fei , Nina Polaschegg, Elisabeth Harnik , Carl Testa , Nick Hallett , Kyoko Kitamura , Katherine Young , George Lewis, Anne Rhodes, Tyshawn Sorey and yours truly.

The book is published by Schott Music as a special edition of the series “Darmstädter Beiträge zur Neuen Musik”.

Order Book here

The book is accompanied by a CD release, "Anthony Braxton: 2 comp (2023)" (sold separately) featuring the world premiere of Thunder Music and the performance of the Darmstadt Creative Orchestra (conducted by Braxton, Katie Young and myself). The CD comes with extensive liner notes by Braxton himself, as well as additional texts by Timo Hoyer and myself.

Order CD here
 

New trio with Sakina Abdou & Mariam Rezaei

Last week this wonderful new trio with saxophonist Sakina Abdou and turntablist Mariam Rezaei came together for a residency at STUK in Leuven for the first time. Such a dream to work with these amazing and inspiring musicians !

We found out all three of us are born in 1984, a year with a somewhat ominous ring to it, quite reflective of current times (thanks Orwell), but also a great band name, this might stick : )

Sci-fi references don't have to be dystopian of course, like the great Ursula K. Le Guin, whose novel The Dispossessed served as inspiration to write music for this new trio. In a somewhat inconspicuous passage Le Guin describes how the main character, the brilliant physicist Shevek, meets a composer who translated Shevek's revolutionary theories into a musical composition:

“I’m writing a piece of chamber music. Thought I might call it The Simultaneity Principle. [Several] instruments each playing an independent cyclic theme; no melodic causality; the forward process entirely in the relationship of the parts. It makes a lovely harmony.”

I decided to write some melodies with this quote in mind, allowing space for improvisation, co-creation and experimentation, the musicians operating as a hybrid trio in between cycles and sequences, non-linearity as default yet all in one simultaneous forward process. Putting these ideas to practice during this residency together with Sakina and Mariam was fascinating, inspiring and fun ! More to follow soon (stay put for Summer Bummer festival in Antwerp :) )

#newtrio #1984 #sakinaabdou #mariamrezaei #turntables #saxophone #guitar #theforwardprocess #simultaneityprinciple #ursulaleguin #stuk #residency

Ghost Trance Music at Lucerne Forward Festival

In the week of 12 to 16 November I had the great pleasure to coach and play along some incredible members of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO) in a performance of Anthony Braxton’s Ghost Trance Music (Composition No. 255). Here’s a short video interview where I introduce the project:

The concert took place on November 16 as part of the Lucerne Forward Festival at KKL and the entire performance was broadcast on Swiss radio SRF. It can be listened to here:

PhD Thesis: Anthony Braxton's Tri-Centric Thought Unit Construct And Post-war Western Art Music

On October 26 I successfully defended my PhD! This particular event, which took place at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp, represented something of a closure of what has been a five year deep dive into the fascinating musical world of Anthony Braxton. A musical journey that that had an immense and transformative impact on my practice as a performing musician and human being. It generated incredibly unique musical encounters which I will carry with me for a long time to come and opened new pathways to creative music making.

My thesis was developed and published on the Research Catalogue platform and is available in the link below.

Enter Thesis Website