CD - Creative Sources Recordings – CS907, Lisbon 2026
1. Nether - 32'38''
Ernesto Rodrigues - Viola & Crackle Box
Guilherme Rodrigues - Cello
Ulf Mengersen - Double Bass
Wolfgang Seidel - Electronics
Recorded October 2024, Berlin
Cover design Carlos Santos
Reviews
Les deux Rodrigues, Ernesto et Guilherme, respectivement alto & crackle box et violoncelle se sont adjoints le contrebassiste Ulf Mergensen, avec qui ils ont déjà enregistré, et l’électronicien Wolfgang Seidel. Obsidian Radiance est le dernier des innombrables enregistrements du tandem Rodrigues avec d’autres musiciens et met en évidence la musique d’instruments à cordes frottées de la famille des violons dans le cadre de l’improvisation totale, à laquelle s’ajoute ici une dimension électronique dans le chef de Wolfgang Seidel et l’utilisation par Ernesto du légendaire crackle-box de feu Michel Waiszwicz. Le crackle – box est un petit instrument bricolé dans la première partie des années septante avec un sorte de boîte à cigares sur laquelle on a collé deux fois quatre points de contact pour les doigts qui en glissant, s’appuyant ou s’écartant de ces carrés fatidiques modulent un ou des sons électroniques sifflant et oscillant dans de multiples fréquences… du grave craquelant aux glissandi des extrêmes aigus. Vendu à un prix démocratique et facile à manipuler, le crackle-box a été adopté par de nombreux musiciens improvisateurs autour de Derek Bailey, Steve Lacy, Günter Christmann, Han Bennink ou Steve Beresford comme instrument d’appoint. On l’entend d’ailleurs siffler et onduler à mi-parcours d’une seule longue improvisation de 32 :38 intitulée Nether (soit bas, inférieur ou souterrain). Cet unique « long » morceau se développe autour de multiples modes de jeux de frottements d’archets sur les cordes qui percutent, grincent, sifflent, bourdonnent, hoquètent, glissent, frictionnent les fréquences et les timbres, alors que l’électronique s’agrège, glougloute, construit un univers en parallèle qui se fait l’écho fantomatique des actions des cordistes comme dans les minutes 24 à 32 et un peu plus d’un mouvement suspendu en crescendo – decrescendo qui se révèle riche en harmoniques. En la réécoutant on saisit clairement des phases de jeu distinctes construites spontanément, mais très judicieusement. Mention très bien à Wolfgang Seidel qui s'intègre intelligemment dans ce trio de cordes lui donnant une autre dimension. Ce n'est pas la première fois qu'Ulf Mergensen joue avec Ernesto et co et on apprécie sa présence. Le tandem Rodrigues est rompue à l'art de la cohérence dans la disruption, l'élégance elliptique et l'énergie diffuse. Une improvisation collective de la galaxie Rodrigues qui se distingue encore de leurs tout précédents albums. On a beau écouter leurs nombreux albums impliqués dans cette esthétique très précise, on conclut qu'à chaque fois leurs groupes successifs dévoilent une autre facette de leur univers qui s'étend inexorablement au fil des parutions grâce aussi à ces excellents collègues conviés dans ces recherches exploratoires de sonorités et modes de jeux. Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg (Orynx)
Wolfgang Seidel (b.1949) is a significant figure in the history of "krautrock," a genre about which I know very little.... But in 2024, Seidel also recorded & released the enigmatic Materials and Structures No1 with Guilherme Rodrigues & Ulf Mengersen (as noted here that October in a review of Whispers in the Moonlight from the Rodrigueses...), credited there both with synth & drums. The former, immediately abstract, is quickly striking, as the three musicians later settle into more of a "free jazz cello trio" format around drums — i.e. forge an intriguing (transitional?) & exploratory album, self-released by Rodrigues with a title seeming to promise more.... (Seidel had moreover appeared already on Creative Sources in 2016 with Squidlux, a post-rock quartet interaction, still mainly on drums & guitar....) Another recording by the trio hasn't appeared, but there's now a quartet album adding Ernesto Rodrigues, Obsidian Radiance recorded in Berlin (also) in October 2024, with Seidel credited only on electronics. So 2024 isn't so long ago for this space (as e.g. Fieldfares, reviewed last month, was recorded in 2023...), but it's still unusual for Ernesto Rodrigues to release older material, i.e. having appeared here most recently with electroacoustic trumpet trio Jardin Sémantique (recorded February 2026, reviewed in June), following e.g. the most recent collaboration between the Rodrigueses to be featured here, quartet album Fragments of the Unseen, recorded March 2026 & reviewed in April. (Double bassist Mengersen has also released collaborations previously together with both Rodrigueses, i.e. most recently Xafnikes synantiseis with Floros Floridis, first noted here April 2024, following quintet Echoes in a further range with two altoists, reviewed March 2022....) To summarize then, Obsidian Radiance features Rodrigues string interactions alongside a creative & distinctive approach to electronics, i.e. highlighting various overtones & details, but also projecting an overall sense of formal momentum — presumably inspired from rock music, but not obviously so. So Obsidian Radiance is unusual in the Rodrigues output for having been recorded a couple of years ago — including enthusiastic applause as well, i.e. in a live setting, as many Rodrigues albums — but actually fits readily into an electroacoustic quartet sequence from 2024: Cobra with Lisbon String Trio & Carlos Santos, i.e. an identically constituted ensemble (pace entirely different individual collaborators around Ernesto), had been recorded that May (& reviewed here in June), and then the also-enigmatic Mistika jpeg oscillations (reviewed here belatedly in October 2025) was recorded the day after Obsidian Radiance. Both Cobra & Mistika jpeg oscillations can then involve low tones, often a sort of skulking... mysterious & lurking (& ready to pounce?) in the former case, various harmonics & escaping resonances for the latter... also more insistently. Obsidian Radiance can thus be similar, percussive to open, electronics subtle at times, but emerging through various arcs of sound (including more excursions from Ernesto on crackle box...), often projecting stronger senses of momentum, i.e. via its strong rhythm team (who may have played together more often...?), but also through a sort of overlapping series of calls... calls falling away to forge a further ground. Within a single track (of telling title "Nether"), Obsidian Radiance emphasizes bass as well, gritty string textures exposed & illuminated (pace Mistika...), highly active at times, various evocations quickly passing (e.g. cityscape, noir...), but proceeding more mysteriously at times too, simmering & sometimes rather ominous.... It's a short album but quite dense in turn, worlds passing through one another (haunting each other...) in barely more than half an hour.... Yet the quartet's sound also seems increasingly integrated (especially after a couple of resets along the way...) apparently via overall articulation from Seidel (as a stealth "drummer's album..."), as Obsidian Radiance does come to sound less like other Ernesto Rodrigues albums, more like something assertive & new, perhaps even (dark) prophecy. Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts
