Fabrizio Cassol (1964) has been a composer and saxophonist for 25 years in the band Aka Moon. He frequently works with choreographers like Alain Platel (vsprs, pitié!, Coup Fatal), Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (Rosas), the Samoan Lemi Ponifasio (Mao Company) and Congolese Faustin Linyye (studio Kaboka). In opera, he has worked with Philippe Boesman-Luc Bondy, and in theatre with Tg Stan. He has worked closely with KVS, the Flemish Royal Theatre while it was under the direction of Jan Goossens, and has been artist in residence at the Opera De Munt La Minaine in Brussels under the direction of Bernard Foccroulle. Since 2012 he has been artist in residence at the Foundation de l’Ábbaye Royamoun near Paris in order to continue his studies of world cultures.

He is particularly interested in non-European music, an interest which started with a visit to the Aka pygmies in Central Africa in 1992, and has since expanded to Asia, particularly India and Africa, where he collaborated with Mali’s big diva Oumou Sangare, Griot Bab Sissoko and The Black Machine, the Indian percussion maestro U.K. Sivaraman and the Sinhalese Doudou N´Diaye Rose. In terms of more improvised music, he has worked with Marc Turner, Robin Eubanks, David Gilmore, Magic Malik, Marc Ducret and Joe Lovano. Together with DJ Grazzhoppa, he formed the first band made up of as many as 14 DJs, and took part in the development of the aulochrome, a new polyphonic and chromatic woodwind instrument built by Francois Louis.

He shares his extensive musical knowledge of oral and written traditions, chamber music and symphonic music through workshops and masterclasses all over the world, at venues such as the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris, Royal Academy in London, and conservatories in Jerusalem, Algiers, Beijing, Berlin, Chennai, Tunis and Royamount. In 2017, he and Aka Moon jointly released a collection of recordings to celebrate the band’s 25th anniversary, which included a completely new album ‘Now’, in which they return to their roots and the original trio plays together.