L'Heure Dernière du Silence

CD – Creative Sources Recordings – CS 830, Lisbon 2024

1. May 1st - 36'12''

VARIABLE GEOMETRY ORCHESTRA

Ernesto Rodrigues - Conduction & Viola

Maria da Rocha - Violin

Miguel Ivo Cruz - Cello

Miguel Mira - Cello

Hernâni Faustino - Double Bass

João Madeira - Double Bass

Patrícia Domingues - Voice

Maria Radich - Voice

Ravenna Escaleira - Soprano Saxophone

Joana Sá - Soprano Saxophone

Nuno Torres - Alto Saxophone

José Lencastre - Alto Saxophone

Michel Stawicki - Tenor Saxophone

Daniel Cordeiro - Tenor Saxophone

David Gonçalves - Trumpet

Pedro Almeida - Trombone

Catarina Silva - French Horn

Bruno Parrinha - Flute & Alto Clarinet

Noel Taylor - Alto Clarinet

Paulo Galão - Bass Clarinet

Ziv Taubenfeld - Bass Clarinet

Miguel Almeida - Acoustic Guitar

Manuel Guimarães - Acoustic Guitar

Nuno Rebelo - Acoustic Guitar

Guilherme Carmelo - Acoustic Guitar

Jorge Nuno - Acoustic Guitar

Pedro Bicho - Acoustic Guitar

Pedro Gomes - Electric Baritone Guitar

Abdul Moimême - Prepared Custom Guitar

Luísa Gonçalves - Church Organ

Carlos Santos - Electronics

Carla Santana - Electronics

Flak - Electronics

André Abreu - Drums

Monsieur Trinité - Percussion & Objects

Recorded May 2024, Lisbon

Cover design Carlos Santos

https://ernestorodrigues.bandcamp.com/album/lheure-derni-re-du-silence

Reviews

Le label Creative Sources est un point de rencontre de l’improvisation contemporaine radicale qui explore sans relâche toutes les occurrences sonores sous la houlette collective d’Ernesto Rodrigues et ses comparses Carlos Santos, Guilherme Rodrigues, Miguel Mira, Nuno Torres, Bruno Parrinha, José Oliveira, João Madeira, Hernani Faustino, Flak, et de nombreux autres, tous localisés au Portugal. Dans l’exceptionnelle production du label, exceptionnelle tant en quantité d’enregistrements qu’en qualité musicale, qui documente leurs musiques, il convient de distinguer deux types de projets. D’une part, les enregistrements consacrés au travail collectif des Lisboètes proprement dit, lequel a une forte identité dans leur recherche sonore, et d’autre part leurs tentatives de plus en plus souvent réussies avec des artistes extérieurs à leur cercle, même si ces musiciens ont une esthétique bien différente (récemment Frank Gratkowski, Floros Floridis, Alex von Schlippenbach et antérieurement, Birgit Ulher, Alex Frangenheim, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Sharif et Christine Sehnaoui, etc…. «The knowledge that our time is limited can inspire us» est le parfait exemple de la vivacité et de la continuité créative de la galaxie Rodrigues et compagnie. Miguel Mira est un super violoncelliste avec un jeu sensible et raffiné dans les moindres détails en complète empathie avec les trames et ondulations oscillatoires d’Ernesto Rodrigues, lequel entretient une relation musicale intense avec son fils Guilherme, violoncelliste lui aussi et établi à Berlin depuis un certain nombre d’années. L’alto est un instrument plus compliqué que son petit frère le violon, mais Ernesto en tire les sonorités les plus irisées, soyeuses, sifflantes ou éclatées en frôlant les cordes de son archet magique au plus proche du silence. Son sens de la dynamique est absolument extraordinaire et la réalité de sa (leur) pratique musicale va bien au-delà du vocable «réductionniste», «textural» ou «minimaliste lower-case», enzovoort (etc…en flamand !). Miguel Mira rivalise d’inventivité et de sensibilité, conférant avec son collègue un miroitement lyrique irrésistible à leurs décoctions instrumentales alternatives. Il faut tout le talent et l’esprit d’à propos de Carlos Santos au synthé modulaire - une machine hérissée de câbles colorés et de boutons pour s’intégrer au plus près des textures chatoyantes et étirées des deux cordistes durant une longue improvisation de 37:58 enregistrée le 2 octobre 2024 à Cossoul, Lisbonne et déjà publiée, car urgence. La précision extrême et la présence active, mais presque différée, de Santos apporte une dimension éthérée, cosmique à cette musique qui se liquéfie ou se gazifie en apesanteur dans une autre réalité gravitationnelle. Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg (Orynx) 

Mimesis

CD – Creative Sources Recordings – CS 837, Lisbon 2024

1. I - 43'50''

Ernesto Rodrigues - Viola & Crackle Box

Joana Sá - Soprano Saxophone

Luiz Rocha - Bass Clarinet

David Rodrigues - Trumpet

Catarina Silva - French Horn

Tiago Varela - Melodica

Luisa Gonçalves - Piano

Flak - Electric Guitar & Fx

Monsieur Trinité - Percussion

Recorded June 2024, Lisbon

Fotolazy by Elisa Scarpa

Cover design Carlos Santos

https://ernestorodrigues.bandcamp.com/album/mimesis

Reviews

Primarily an acoustic ensemble of nine improvisers led by Ernesto Rodrigues on viola — including saxophonist Joana Sá, percussionist Monsieur Trindade, guitarist Flak, and pianist Luisa Gonçalves — performs a live, extended improvisation of tightly controlled, deeply detailed conversation as part of the 2024 Creative Sources Cycle in Lisbon. (Squidco)

Synopsis

 CD – Creative Sources Recordings – CS 829, Lisbon 2024

1. I - 46'22''

Ernesto Rodrigues - Viola, Crackle Box

Nuno Torres - Alto Saxophone

André Hencleeday - Piano

Carlos Santos - Modular Synthesizer

Recorded May 2024, Lisbon

Cover design Carlos Santos

https://ernestorodrigues.bandcamp.com/album/synopsis

Reviews

Recorded live during the Creative Sources Cycle at Lisbon's Cossoul on May 2, 2024, this collaboration brings together Ernesto Rodrigues (viola, crackle box), Nuno Torres (alto saxophone), Andre Hencleeday (piano), and Carlos Santos (modular synth) in a delicate journey of reductionist improvisation, blending acoustic and electronic textures to craft an intricate, lower-case performance of subtle sonic dialogues and dynamic restraint. (Squidco)

Cobra

CD – Creative Sources Recordings – CS828, Lisbon 2024

1. I - 34'33''

LISBON STRING TRIO & CARLOS SANTOS

Ernesto Rodrigues - Viola

Miguel Mira - Cello

Alvaro Rosso - Contrabass

Carlos Santos - Modular Synth

Recorded May 2024, Lisbon

Collage by Dilar Pereira

Cover design Carlos Santos

https://ernestorodrigues.bandcamp.com/album/cobra

Reviews

Carlos Santos (b.1967) has been something of a fixture in this space as well, although usually more in the background: Santos has designed most of the Creative Sources packages for years, so his work has often been in front of my eyes (as I've remarked upon it here at times...), but often in front of my ears too — as Santos has appeared musically on many albums, mostly with Ernesto Rodrigues. And usually he's been credited with "electronics," but these are rarely of the "in your face" sort, rather an added high (or low) pitch here & there, extending tones, shaping harmonics... & now more often on "modular synth," although his actual contributions seem similar. Santos hadn't been as active musically the past few years, at least not so that I noticed anyway, but that's changed lately with a recent burst of albums (all on Creative Sources). I particularly want to focus on Cobra then, the latest album from Lisbon String Trio, recorded last month with Santos as their guest: Cobra continues to be something of a departure for LST (Rodrigues, Miguel Mira & Alvaro Rosso), first in that it adds electronics, and second in that it continues a trend of adding a frequent Rodrigues collaborator — as opposed to the earlier recordings, which involved relative unknowns, then followed more with "stars" of the Portuguese scene. Recordings have become less frequent as well: Isotropy (with Luis Lopes, there on acoustic guitar...) was reviewed here in May 2020, and already presents less of a concertante interaction, with Lopes fitting more into the texture, and often (somewhat tentatively) following the trio. The next LST album was then Dada (reviewed in May 2022) with Bruno Parrinha, who'd been making an extensive series of recordings with Rodrigues at the time, likewise staying (as usual) within the texture, inflecting resonances etc. — to yield an album exploring a variety of motivic shadings & inflections. So these descriptions might fit Cobra as well, now with electronics! The result is a sort of supercharged string trio, with extra range & richer harmonics, yet not immediately noticeable as involving electronics. In this, an obvious comparison is with the latest from string trio KSZ, now also electric (& more noticeable as such) on Black Forest Diary (as reviewed here in April): There the string players employ electronics themselves (rather than involve a fourth musician), and the result is more novelty, almost creaturely at times (pace industrial hybridity...), various extremes, but also evolving within an ethos of quiet/Silence. Cobra can sometimes be more quiet or thin, but is also generally assertive, maintaining a sense of a coherent arc — already a feature of LST since their trio-only Proletariat debut (reviewed here in July 2017, as part of a massive entry...) — with the coordination of e.g. its opening gesture being among the most striking of its passages (i.e. before the texture loosens at times...). Of course, orientations around silence are not uncommon for Rodrigues, and Santos has been involved with various such projects: Impulses and Signals, from their trio with Nuno Torres (named Rotor... so presumably intending more?), recorded in early 2023 (but not released until later, as mentioned here in March...), had already projected more of an open, Cageian vibe (although not especially quietly) — even a sense of desolation developing over its relatively long length.... That vibe then continues to a degree with the new Synopsis (also recorded last month, two days before Cobra...), with André Hencleeday (another regular collaborator...) joining the "Rotor" trio on piano: That album ends up with more clashes & (motivic) intricacy around piano, although it begins with modifications of already struck tones... & both highlight individual sounds more than the denser interactions typical of LST. It's also typical of Santos to be a "second keyboard" there (as arguably also on Mars Reveri, as reviewed in April...), per e.g. Quelque chose prie la patience des nuages — reviewed here in May 2022 as part of the same "set" of post-pandemic Rodrigues releases as Chiaroscuro, a bass-less quartet (albeit sans Santos) that might also be worth comparing to Cobra: The former can come off as "more classical" at times, but conversely features percussion (e.g. yielding a sense of attack, pace piano elsewhere — i.e. versus the generally smoother tones of Santos...) & a sort of "crispness" grounded in the acoustic realm (with clarinet handling more of the "electronic" background resonances...). Maybe that's a strained comparison, but the "shifting waves" of so many recent Rodrigues projects are well developed on both, tending darker or even becoming stormy on Cobra.... And then there's also the new Surrealistisk, a long quartet album (recorded this past April) with Rodrigues & Santos joined by Girilal Baars (voice) & Monsieur Trinité (percussion): The latter returns already from e.g. Free to Open (also reviewed here in April), while Rodrigues is also on crackle box (again, per Synopsis & Impulses and Signals...), adding to the sense of overall weirdness (apparently including squeeze toys from Trinité, as already speculated in the earlier review...) with its vocalization vibe. (And Surrealistisk once again features a generally open texture or landscape, quite a bit of distension, with an emphasis on strange sounds. The same might be said of Die Zwitscher Maschine as well, recorded already in May 2023 — after Impulses and Signals... — by Rodrigues & Santos with Parrinha & Flak, and featuring its own rendering of a sometimes-desolate landscape amid both zoomimesis & ringing "new age" tones.... And maybe I should mention Santos' earlier duo with cellist Ulrich Mitzlaff, I/O & their 2021 album Studies on Colour Field Modulation too....) And then I should explicitly note Baars, who varies his level of presence here (& does sometimes involve some words, but often remains low in the texture... including as a sort of distant howling at times), having appeared previously on Lab H Tapes (where he also plays hurdy-gurdy, so evokes a particular folk style, as noted in a March 2020 entry...). So coming back to Cobra, the sense of "waves" there takes on added dimensions, not only via the larger resources of the string trio, but in terms of sophistication & coordination, including by Santos "enriching" the strings in a variety of (usually non-obvious) ways. (And perhaps the best comparison for this sort of "intensifying" contribution is then actually Echoing the Chorus of Life, with Carlos Bechegas, reviewed here in March....) So although the synth/electronics do bring a sense of "extra," a sense of mystery perhaps (never really asserting...), there's also a bracing sense of physicality already from the strings on Cobra, i.e. not so akin to the more Cageian & open textures around Santos on these other albums. (Including via its quasi-classical string context then, LST remains oriented more toward the human-rhetorical musical pole, i.e. neither as depersonalized nor especially naturalistic....) Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts

The Lisbon String Trio — Ernesto Rodrigues (viola), Miguel Mira (cello) and Alvaro Rosso(double bass) — collaborates with Carlos Santos (electronics, modular synth) to create a sophisticated, assertive set that enriches the trio's soundscape with nuanced electronic textures, building on the trio's nearly telepathic coordination and harmonic depth, blending physicality and subtle electronics to evoke mysterious, wave-like motifs and dynamic subtlety. (Squidco)