Ernesto Rodrigues' Discography

CD – Creative Sources Recordings – CS 849, Lisbon 2024

CD I

1. Berlin 1 - 43'22''

2. Berlin 2 - 10'41''

3. Berlin 3 - 01'06''

CD II

1. Köln 1 - 27'12''

2. Köln 2 - 04'12''

3. München 1 - 23'21''

4. München 2 - 22'07''

Ernesto Rodrigues - Viola

Guilherme Rodrigues - Cello

Nuno Torres - Alto Saxophone

Recorded November 2022, Berlin, Köln & München

Cover design Carlos Santos

https://ernestorodrigues.bandcamp.com/album/whispers-in-the-moonlight-in-seven-movements

Reviews

O prolífico improvisador Ernesto Rodrigues continua a editar gravações a um ritmo alucinante. O seu mais recente registo, em trio com Nuno Torres e Guilherme Rodrigues, regista três atuações do grupo na Alemanha, em Berlim, Colónia e Munique.

Tem sido impossível acompanhar a intensa produção da editora Creative Sources, com um catálogo que ascende às centenas de edições (esta é a 849.ª) e do seu mentor, Ernesto Rodrigues. Violinista, prolífico improvisador (Lisboa, n. 1959) continua a editar gravações num ritmo alucinante (24 discos editados em 2024, até ao momento). O seu mais recente registo, “Whispers in the Moonlight”, em trio com Nuno Torres e Guilherme Rodrigues, documenta três atuações do grupo na Alemanha, em três cidades: Berlim, Colónia e Munique. A acompanhar Ernesto Rodrigues, na viola d’arco, estão dois colaboradores habituais: Nuno Torres (n. 1977) no saxofone alto e Guilherme Rodrigues (seu filho, n. 1988) no violoncelo. Este disco duplo, com o subtítulo “In Seven Movements”, regista as gravações de Berlim no primeiro disco e as atuações de Colónia e Munique na segunda rodela.
Musicalmente, “Whispers in the Moonlight” é um mergulho no habitual universo sonoro atmosférico e textural característico de Rodrigues e da editora Creative Sources. No seu diálogo e interação, os três músicos criam paisagens densas: se a viola de Ernesto (sempre muito ativo e irrequieto) explora um registo mais agudo, o violoncelo de Guilherme entra num espectro mais amplo (e também, pontualmente, mais rugoso) e o saxofone de Nuno atravessa sobretudo uma exploração textural e minimal. Juntos, com instrumentos entrelaçados, enformam uma massa sonora comum que vai evoluindo de forma coerente. Se em alguns momentos se ouve um perfeito entrosamento, noutros os instrumentos parecem estar mais distantes, como acontece no arranque de “Köln 1”.
Em permanente “escuta ativa”, estes músicos vão procurando pontos de encontro e rapidamente se intersectam em ideias partilhadas e, em cada tema, o trio atravessa diferentes ambientes, contínuo processo evolutivo. A peça mais breve “Köln 2” (quatro minutos) é um exemplo de permanente conflito e turbulência, sempre em enérgico debate, que só abranda no “fade out” final. Este álbum duplo inscreve-se na tradição da livre improvisação europeia, com uma proposta musical aberta. Numa contínua exploração textural, assente na interação instrumental pontilhística, o trio não se aproxima muito de formas melódicas, preferindo concretizar esboços, miniaturas e momentos de espessura dramática, moldados pela contenção, deixando o ouvinte cativo na imprevisibilidade. Nuno Catarino (Jazz.pt)

Turning next to a different sort of horn trio, Ernesto Rodrigues has been cultivating reed (mostly...) & two strings combos, particularly viola & cello, allowing for more middle texture interplay & less thinking in terms of a "rhythm team" (& generally absent drums). Although various rhythmic agitation & syncopation is still possible, the result is perhaps more in the realm of chamber music than it is free jazz. Yet, this sort of trio is capacious as well — particularly in terms of harmonic interplay — & continues to be cultivated extensively by Rodrigues, with a wide variety of both frequent & infrequent collaborators (including non-horn players, in sometimes-different dynamics...). And now such a trio, with two of his most frequent musical partners, son Guilherme & Nuno Torres (alto sax), has released an extended concert tour program, Whispers in the Moonlight - In seven movements, recorded in November 2022 across three (non-consecutive) dates in Berlin, Köln & Munich. So the release is already unusual for Rodrigues & Creative Sources, packaging three different concerts into one (double, although it could be triple, at well over two hours total...) album, but due also to its deferred release. I wasn't aware of these concert recordings until last week, but they actually illuminate an already-exciting chronology for this trio: To open November 2022, the Rodrigueses & Torres recorded the quintet album (with Alexander von Schlippenbach) Conundrum (belatedly reviewed here in October 2023, just over a year ago...), followed the next day by another (more diffuse) quintet album, Letters to Milena as already noted in that earlier review. Next was the Berlin concert (the longest...) for Whispers in the Moonlight, followed (on the fourth consecutive day) by the quartet album (with guitarist Dirk Serries) Brecht (as noted here in a January 2023 entry...). A few days later was the second trio concert in Cologne (for which I don't know an obvious pairing...), including e.g. an extended "traffic" passage (mostly absent from this release otherwise...). And then the München concert was actually preceded (for two consecutive days, beginning the day after the Köln concert) by recording the double album Conspiratorial and fulminate things happen with Udo Schindler (as reviewed here in May 2023): The latter in particular — & its second day in particular, live & much less preliminary... — belongs to the same (or similar) story here, i.e. Rodrigues' development (as well) of quartet formations for two horns & two strings.... (The present double/triple album is certainly one of the most sophisticated of the trio releases, while my touchstone for the quartets has been the more human-rhetorical 2016 classic New Dynamics, already including Torres....) Moreover, the specific notion of "stories" is better suited to Whispers in the Moonlight itself — & I don't know that its "In seven movements" subtitle really means much, as I would suggest listening to the three concerts (totaling seven tracks) individually — whereas Conspiratorial and fulminate things happen can be almost impossibly intricate, sometimes exhausting, more urban at times (but with a quieter or even nocturnal feel sometimes too...), always something new coming along very soon.... Whispers in the Moonlight does have its more detailed passagework at times too then, but there's more a sense of affective sweep... of easing & openness. And of course, these three musicians have performed together often... although this is their first trio release (pace what I see in the massive Rodrigues discography). Another obvious comparison though is Setúbal (reviewed here May 2020) with Miguel Mira as cellist (but already with Ernesto Rodrigues & Torres...), another sort of (more singularly...) gestural album, also affectively potent, but a kind of braided one-d timbral wave, i.e. focusing on overall continuity.... Whispers in the Moonlight does also involve a strong affective sweep then, as noted, but with more sense of variety (& e.g. counterpoint...) along the way: There's a richness of detail — a telling of stories that seems to fit the featured concert setting... — that both animates & enriches the overall flow. (And then Torres was apparently the choice for this tour for his more extrovert horn style, relative to other regular Rodrigues collaborators anyway, building again from a variety of past work together: I actually most recently mentioned Torres here with quartet album Synopsis, as part of a review of Cobra — on which he does not appear — from June this year, also noting his more recent trio album Impulses and Signals with Rodrigues & Carlos Santos doing live processing.... And along with having joined his father again for this consequential 2022 tour, Guilherme Rodrigues continues to embark on more projects without Ernesto, e.g. quartet album Fields as reviewed here this past March, and more recently e.g. the more enigmatic — & also electroacoustic — Materials and Structures No1 with Ulf Mengersen & Wolfgang Seidel....) And then this is certainly not the first trio album of this sort from the Rodrigueses, e.g. Sans oublier les arbres (reviewed here in May 2022) being the first such release with Bruno Parrinha.... (And not long after this 2022 tour, the duo would go on to record e.g. the trio L'âge de l'oreille & quintet Dérive together as well, continuing to involve varying musicians for each....) These trio albums are all different though, and Whispers in the Moonlight has its own distinctive qualities: Beyond a generally calming affective vibe (post-Cage, perhaps...) & senses of easing — to which one might compare e.g. the more overt naturalism of Rodrigues' Suspensão series (& e.g. its shadings of light, dating back to at least 2010...) for larger ensemble (e.g. chamber octet), so less pared & direct... — there's a sense of shared vocabulary, almost the "clichés" of many a Rodrigues performance, here actually presented more starkly in some ways (wonderfully articulately, one could say...), weaving a rich tapestry, again moving well beyond senses of (contrapuntal) abstraction into a clear projection of style, an often soft & receptive style (albeit colored by subtle noise at times...), an ecological style I might say.... This is thus both flowing & conscious music, bursting with (not overpowering, but never in stasis...) momentum, that I find both engaging & helpful in easing my own mind — particularly in the evening & via its invocation of night (or dusk) colors & moods (even including a bit of the sultry or noir at times...): I've tried listening in the morning, out of curiosity, but this is evening music (& do note that e.g. Indian classical music has long presented clear ideas on times of day for different music, something that I sometimes consider too...), indeed continuing the theme of various nocturne-style albums & passages from Rodrigues (as only belatedly noted here explicitly, but also as becoming increasingly clear...). Whispers in the Moonlight fuses that orientation with his frequent naturalism, forged here via (quasi-jazzy, perhaps...) concert setting, highlighting the human element, i.e. affectivity & story.... Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts

Ces enregistrements du trio Ernesto Rodrigues, Guilherme Rodrigues et Nuno Torres s’étalent en sept mouvements sur deux compacts, le premier mouvement (Berlin I) atteignant les 43 minutes qui résume et développe simultanément à lui tout seul l’essence de leur musique improvisée aérienne tour à tour élégiaque, lunaire, raffinée, affairée. Entre l’alto d’Ernesto et le violoncelle de Guilherme s’insère discrètement le saxophone alto de Nuno Torres à la sonorité travaillée spécifique. La lingua franca du free-jazz ou du be-bop fait appel à cette sonorité tranchante, brillante, pleine de sève, colorée, une expressivité pétillante, pleine d’altérations de la gamme pour accentuer le phrasé quasi-agressive. Parker, Coleman, Dolphy, Osborne, Watts, Lyons, ou même Marion Brown. Mais le son de Nuno Torres n’a tout autant rien à voir avec ceux de Paul Desmond, Konitz ou Pepper. Il semble qu’il vise à intégrer son souffle aux timbres des deux instruments à cordes, à leurs frottements, à leurs sons graves avec un son granuleux, lunaire, une texture proche de celle de l’alto d’Ernesto, des giclées de staccatos cotonneux, cette sonorité détimbrée imitant les qualités sonores des vibrations des cordes. Il faut vraiment tendre l’oreille et se concentrer pour isoler et entendre réellement où se situe le son du saxophone au sein du trio. Berlin 1 est à lui tout seul le contenu d’un album qui se suffit à lui-même et constitue une œuvre que les trois musiciens auraient pu publier isolément dans un album. On y trouve une belle suite dans les idées dans l’évolution de leur improvisation avec une variété de climax et d’assemblages de formes, de sonorités diffuses, de traitement du son d’ensemble et celui de chacun des trois protagonistes.
Mais, ils ont choisi d’accumuler les témoignages de leur tournée avec un morceau de durée moyenne de 10 minutes , deux pièces très courtes et trois longues improvisations de 27, 22 et 23 minutes durant lesquelles ils distendent la musique, recherchent les sonorités, s’étalent en drones scintillants, agrégats lumineux ou ombragés, murmures de rayon de lune, frottements délicats ou subtilement grinçants, coups de griffes, grattages, pizzicatos oscillatoires, sonorités voilées sur lesquelles le souffleur répand parcimonieusement notes désincarnées, effets de souffle, pépiements ralentis. On y trouve des chassés croisés bruitistes, sifflants ou vif argent accidentés…. Les propriétés du mercure qui s’assemble dans une masse et éclate dans une multitude de bulles qui s’agrègent instantanément à la moindre secousse… Le premier mouvement cultivait des formes tangibles, une écriture précieuse dans une série de constructions « logiques ». Par la suite, on cherche, on gratte, on frétille, fait tournoyer des spirales ou projeter des éclats mats qui se métamorphosent dans des motifs volatiles complexes ou ces échanges ludiques, voire rebondissants. Et ce sens de la dérive poétique, de la fuite en avant et de l’infini des configurations sonores multipliées sans frein procurent un plaisir intense à l’écoute et à la sensibilité pour les instruments à cordes dont l’adage souligne l’empathie innée entre eux mieux que face à un autre instrument. Adage démenti ici par la superbe démarche de Nuno Torres au sax alto qui s’allie merveilleusement avec les trames sonores des deux cordistes à l’alto et au violoncelle. Quand on pense que ces même messieurs sont parvenus à enregistrer un album remarquable et cohérent avec Alex von Schlippenbach et Willi Kellers ou avec Udo Schindler.
Un enregistrement majeur dans le parcours discographique massif des Rodrigues, E. & G. et la mise en valeur des ressources insoupçonnées de l’improvisation libre. Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg (Orynx)

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Whispers in the Moonlight - In seven movements

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