For the past twenty years Fabrizio Cassol has been the composer and saxophonist of the group Aka Moon, and has worked with choreographers and directors including Alain Platel, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Lemi Ponifasio, Faustin Linyekula, Philippe Boesmans, Luc Bondy and Tg STAN. For several years, his collaboration with KVS, under the directorship of Jan Goossens, followed a stint as artist-in-residence à La Monnaie De Munt Opera directed by Bernard Foccroulle.
Since 2012, he has been artist-in-residence at the Royaumont Abbey Foundation, near Paris, where he continues to explore world cultures. Since 2015, Fabrizio Cassol has been the musical director of the Medinea session at the festival Lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence, a training session open to young musicians and improvisers from the Mediterranean basin, coming from traditional Mediterranean music. He benefits since 2015 of an artist residency at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis (France).
During his many trips abroad, he has worked with the Malian diva Oumou Sangaré, the griot Baba Sissoko, Black Machine, the Indian master percussionist U. K. Sivaraman, and the Senegalese musician Doudou N’diaye Rose. He is also involved in improvised music, working with Mark Turner, Robin Eubanks, David Gilmore, Magic Malik, Marc Ducret and Joe Lovano. With DJ Grazzhoppa, he created the first big band of 14 DJs, and with the instrument maker François Louis he took part in the design of the aulochrome, the first ever chromatically polyphonic wind instrument. His work with oral traditions and composition, from chamber music to symphonic works, has led him to run regular workshops and master classes all over the world (Conservatoire national supérieur de musique in Paris, Royal Academy in London, Conservatories in Jerusalem, Algiers, Beijing, Berlin, Chennai and Tunis, and Royaumont). In 2017, he released a collector’s boxed set with Aka Moon to celebrate their 25th anniversary, including their new album ‘Now’, which returns to the group’s sources.
