Self Eater and Drinker

CD - audEo 0399, Porto 1999

The duet of Ernesto Rodrigues and Jorge Valente was once named Orquestra Vermelha (the Portuguese name for Red Orchestra). The reasons for this choice – let it be remembered that it was thus the espionage network set up by the Soviet secret services in the III Reich called itself – are understandable, as well as those making them change their minds. Clearly orchestral is the approach to electroacoustics made by these two improvisers who, faithful to the principle that any sound is apt to be put to use when craeting music, fall into the Cagean tradition. Thanks to the “extension” of the violin operated by electronics and to the polyphonies concocted by Quatour, an interactive program on a Max basis fed by a Yamaha DX7 II synthesizer, the sound planes are multiplied, gaining an ambience we might call symphonic. On the other hand, the symbolic and rather ironic allusion to the existence of communist “submarines” among the Nazis is enlightening with regard to the ways of both, since they infiltrate musical aesthetics and typologies which have little or nothing in common so as to obtain dividends alien to those areas. I’m speaking about post-serialism and free jazz of which they consider themselves to be followers by crosslinking elements with no apparent affinity. From this geometrical progression there are results what is normally called “stochastic music”, a name which does define though it does not label, this being an impossibility (a desired one, on top of it) in so far as i tis a hybrid music. It happens that both violinist and key player don’t think about music in terms of a finished product, be it a composition or a piece of work. For them, the musical activity is more important than what results therefrom. Blending the sounds each one of them creates into an indiscernible amalgam, the purpose of which would lie in itself, doesn’t interest them. More attractive is to get hold of their respective personalities and seize the inner voice of both in order to try, based on the latter, a mutual stimulation, a dialogue or, better still, a “creative dialectical dynamics” to make use of their own words. Such being in fact the route to improvisation given the understanding it implies of “the other” (meaning either the public or the musician(s) with whom one plays). After all, before playing the improviser listens. Better still: he does it with the prioritary prospect of being listened to. Silences, challenges and not necessarily foreseeable (the less the better!) reactions, contrasts and complementarities, ostinatos, glissandos, embrionary structures, bits of phrases never taking form, “self-intonations”, cascades of notes, “drones”, only apparently non-musical noises (Cage, always Cage), microtonalities, audio landscapes, false solos, inflexions of discourse, breaking of linearity as soon as it becomes a menace, simple murmurs or convultions, all this together becomes the working material of a twosome music, freely shared and directed to the “systhematic exploitation of the moment”, a music which elects real time both as substrate and cause. Let it not be believed, though, that by having chosen to individuate their names on this CD’s cover Ernesto Rodrigues and Jorge Valente have solved their dilemma. The music they play between themselves is rather different from the one played by the former in contexts such as Lautari Consort or IK*Zs, and by the latter while member of the group Trioto Flêumico or Fromage Digital. There’s something which finally prevails over their respective influences and wills, something of which the two of them together rather than separately are simultaneously subject and object – a “something” which belongs to the sphere of indetermination, of chance. Improvisation is a music of accidents, and these not only do give birth to events, they also change beings. What two (or three, or six, or twenty...) musicians result in while playing together depends on the circumstances and on the way they adapt to each other, not only on what is most constant in them. Improvised music, an individualistic cry of freedom (let’s face it: he who is partial to improvisation will always be regarded as, to say at least, bizarre...), is also – in a deliciously noteworthy paradox – the most gregarious of musics, one that longs for collectiveness. It is not surprising, in fact, that in the musical case histories of Ernesto Rodrigues and Jorge Valente one comes upon popular if not actually traditional music. Ernesto Rodrigues has played with Fausto and presently integrates Jorge Palma’s band; Valente is an applied student of the music of African Portuguese speaking countries, which he even produced and edited. In spite of their devotion to a minority musical practice, they take an interest in Portugal’s and Africa’s common patrimony including it, though perhaps not consciously, in their improvisations. The way Ernesto Rodrigues plays the violin bears testimony to this with its “folk” dimension and crudeness which is the stamp of the popular violin anywhere in the world. As to Jorge Valente... Isn’t it true that, nowadays, the computer is the popular instrument by excellence? Rui Eduardo Paes

1. Parte I – 09’27’’

2. Parte II – 07’28’’

3. Parte III – 07’42’’

4. Parte IV – 09’06’’

5. Parte V – 07’16’’

6. Parte VI – 05’41’’

7. Parte VII – 04’55’’

8. Coda – 04’25’’

Ernesto Rodrigues – Violin, Prepared Violin, Signal Processor

Jorge Valente – Synthesizer, Computer

Recorded in February 1999, Lisbon

Cover design Cristina Sampaio and Gonçalo Calheiros

https://ernestorodrigues.bandcamp.com/album/self-eater-and-drinker

Reviews

I thought about fragments of life, caught glimpses of extra sensorial activities, intercepted dialogues between strange alien creatures...The duo of Ernesto Rodrigues (processed and prepared violin) and Jorge Valente (computer, synth) leaves a lot of space, both literally - by respecting the principle of silence and sound being equally fundamental - and to the imagination, as one is forced to use his own mind to figure out what's going to happen, right after the very first moments of their interconnection. The alternance between strange waves of hallucinating auras and the spiky hits of the strings mixed with computer-processed electronics is the strongest point of this record: eight movements flowing without any fatigue, showing everybody that no definition is necessary when intelligence is involved. Massimo Ricci (Touching Extremes)

Com formação clássica e uma grande paixão pelo free jazz, Ernesto Rodrigues é um improvisador bastante influenciado pela escrita musical contemporânea e em especial a de Emmanuel Nunes, tendo desenvolvido no violino e na viola de arco um estilo bem distinto do de Carlos Zíngaro. Bem evidente, de resto, neste duo com um teclista que pertenceu aos Plexus do dito Zíngaro, Jorge Valente, um dos primeiros a utilizar o computador em Portugal. Alguma da ambiência do pós-serialismo passa por “Self Eater and Drinker”, mas é bem outra coisa o que propõem. Rui Eduardo Paes

En duo avec Jorge Valente («"Self Eater And Drinker") au synthétiseur et à l'ordinateur, Ernesto Rodrigues utilise uniquement le violon (préparé ou non, dans une démarche qui doit beaucoup à John Cage). L'interaction des sonorités acoustiques et électriques brosse un tableau intrigant au sein duquel l'élément de surprise vient continuellement brouiller les séquences répétitives. Thierry Quénum (Jazz Magazine)

His duo from 1999 with Jorge Valente (synthesizer and computer) finds the pair (Rodrigues on violin, prepared violin, signal processor) in very scratchy, skittery mode on one piece, loopy and bloopy on another, spacy here, harsh there, less, as I hear it, expansive in exploration of areas than unfocussed. Within this, there's still a good measure of call and response, in solid efi fashion, less of a concern with the space. Now, to my ears, this makes things not so interesting, but especially at the time of its release, I could imagine it being door-opening to someone coming out of the (say) Wachsmann/Turner environment. Brian Olewnick (Just Outside)

This record predates the inception of Ernesto Rodrigues’ Creative Sources label. Back in 1999, Ernesto wasn’t even playing viola, but violin. Yet, his original take on free improvisation was already in full development. This studio session in duo with keyboardist/computer musician Jorge Valente features a single long-form improvisation split into eight sections. The violinist uses short and targeted noise-based sounds, while Valente adds electroacoustic treatments and synthesized sounds. More busy than the ultra-delicate improvisations Rodrigues will take part to later on, this record is nevertheless successful. And it offers an interesting window on a pivotal period in the evolution of a unique improviser. François Couture (Monsieur Délire)

On retrouve le même désir de diversité et de non-répétition dans «Self Eater and Drinker». Cage n’est pas loin, le violon déréglé s’étire, l’archet s’abat, la caisse de résonance du violon devient percussion à part entière. Il y a juste un petit peu plus d’austérité par rapport à «Multiples». Il y a le débit irraisonné des computers de Jorge Valente, les renversements arides d’Ernesto Rodrigues. Il y a en tout cas une personnalité émergeante singulière dont on attend les prochains enregistrements avec impatience. Merci boss! Luc Bouquet (Improjazz)


Terceira edição da etiqueta do Porto, este é o CD que coloca finalmente em primeiro plano dois dos músicos nacionais que há mais tempo circulam nos meios da improvisação - Jorge Valente, por exemplo, pertenceu a uma das formações dos Plexus de Carlos Zíngaro, nos idos anos 70. José Ernesto Rodrigues participou recentemente em metade de «Projects», de Carlos Bechegas, lançado pela britânica Leo Lab, mas tem aqui a «visibilidade» que lhe faltava. Musicalmente, reconhecem-se influências do pós-serialismo e das práticas mais convencionais daquilo que ficou conhecido como «live-electronics». Introspectiva, minimalista no sentido da economia dos materiais sonoros e das técnicas utilizadas (o violinista procura utilizar apenas certos motivos em cada tema, restringindo o seu âmbito de acção), esta suite em oito partes dedicada a Martin Kippenberger ouve-se com bastante agrado mas nunca surpreende nem tem grandes rasgos. Rui Eduardo Paes (Jornal de Letras)



Dos artistas que se mueven en mundos tan diversos no podían menos que aportar un cierto aire renovador ante el saturado y empalagoso mundo de la tecnología digital. Rogelio Pereira (Margen)

Due to courtesy of Ernesto, I obtained some very early, historical recordings of the family, distinguished by the fact that they are all in plastic CD boxes. "Self Eater and Drinker" is a duo of Ernesto with Jorge Valente: a wonderful example of totally new approach to electroacoustic music, yet firmly rooted in the Cagean tradition employing fragmented motifs and plenty of silences and pauses. The work consists of 7 parts "Part I-VII" and

"Coda". It is dedicated to the memory of Martin Kippenberg.

Kippenberg (1953-1997), following Wikipedia, was a German artist and sculptor known for his extremely prolific output in a wide range of styles and media, superfiction as well as his provocative, jocular and hard-drinking public persona. "Kippenberger was 'widely regarded as one of the most talented German artists of his generation, according to Roberta Smith of the New York Times. He was at the center of a generation of German enfants terribles including Albert Oehlen, Markus Oehlen, Werner Büttner, Georg Herold, Dieter Göls, and Günther Förg."  Maciej Lewenstein