Le beau Déviant

CD – Creative Sources Recordings – CS194, Lisbon 2011

1. Le chant de la pluie – 09’06’’

2. Singulier grain de sable – 06’19’’

3. L'arbre qui ne cache – 09’28’’

4. Tempête éteinte des passions – 10’51’’

5. L'échec des machines formidables – 05’33’’

6. Un beau matin, la déchirure – 10’07’’

Ernesto Rodrigues – Viola

Abdul Moimême – 2 Prepared Electric Guitars

Heddy Boubaker - Alto & Bass Saxophones

Recorded in October 2010, Lisbon
Cover design Carlos Santos

https://ernestorodrigues.bandcamp.com/album/le-beau-d-viant

Reviews

Enregistré en 2010 pour le label portugais Creative Sources, Le Beau Déviant est le fruit d'un trio franco-ibérique: les portugais Ernesto Rodrigues au violon alto et Abdul Moimême aux guitares, accompagnés d'Heddy Boubaker aux saxophones. Répartie en six pièces, cette heure d'improvisation est assurément abstraite et minimaliste, comme on peut l'attendre d'un album paru sur le label de Rodrigues.

Car venant de ce dernier, on ne s'étonnera pas que ces six improvisations soient principalement basées sur l'agencement des textures et l'exploration de techniques étendues. L'archet racle plus qu'il ne frotte, les guitares sont souvent méconnaissables, et les saxophones sont autant joués à partir du souffle seul ou du plateau que sur les notes. Six improvisations abstraites, réductionnistes et minimalistes, où rythmes et mélodies brillent par leur absence. Bien sûr, la musique est ici fondamentalement concentrée sur l'exploration sonore du timbre, elle est produite en partie par l'interaction des différentes textures: des paysages poreux et vastes, mouvants et beaux, nés de l'imbrication et de la superposition de trois strates, de trois processus d'individuation. Le Beau Déviant pose des textures architecturales riches où les couches peuvent se confondre magiquement et être donc homogènes, quand elles ne sont pas distinctes et hétérogènes dans leur superposition. Le trio franco-portugais exploite de nombreuses possibilités et potentialités qui forment à chaque fois une dynamique différente: un son compact ou hétéroclite comme je le disais à l'instant, ou encore une exploration alternée de techniques étendues ou traditionnelles qui se confrontent, etc. Chaque membre s'en tient néanmoins à une idée souvent unique et toujours précise qu'il déploie longuement à l'intérieur d'une dynamique collective où toutes les idées se rejoignent, se soutiennent, et s'enrichissent.

Ces six improvisations sont merveilleusement concentrées sur des formes d'agencement très fécondes et aussi riches que les timbres utilisés, déployés et explorés. Les paysages sonores et les dynamiques varient à l'intérieur d'une amplitude très large, ce qui contribue à former un espace sonore vraiment profond et vaste, d'une richesse vertigineuse. Un exercice d'architecture réductionniste original, assumé, travaillé, et riche, un exercice réussi en somme. hjulien (Improv Sphere)

Here’s one that might amuse some of you. The two new Michael Pisaro albums on Gravity Wave arrived here yesterday, and, this morning I planned to try and listen to one of them on my way to work in the car. This isn’t a great way to listen of course, but I was eager to hear how they sounded, so I took the disc out of its sleeve so as to make it easier to just slide into the car CD player, went and put-on my work clothes and then headed out to the car. I slid the disc into the player a I pulled away, and was really surprised within minutes at how different the disc sounded for Pisaro, and found myself amazed that Greg Stuart had managed to make his percussion sound so much like a saxophone. For about two more minutes as I drove I continually remarked to myself what a huge sidestep this was for Pisaro, and it was just while I was trying to work out how much I liked his new direction that it dawned on me that I had picked up the wrong disc and was playing something else entirely.

The CD I had been playing, was in fact a trio recording by current TWE regulars Heddy Boubaker, (alto and bass sax) Ernesto Rodrigues (viola) and Abdul Moimeme (prepared electric guitars). Released on Creative Sources (disc 194!) the album is titled Le Beau Déviant. I listened again on my way home from work, and then again a couple of times properly this evening on a decent stereo through which I could never have mistaken it for Michael Pisaro…

Le Beau Déviant (deviating beauty?) is indeed a quite good title for this release. Its a set of six straight-up improvisations of three instruments played non-melodically, non-conventially and yet sounding much like we might expect, a mix of squealing, slithering reeds, rasping and groaning strings and the less predictable hum and crack of electric guitar. Moimeme’s contributions here, perhaps unsurprisingly form the main branching-out point for this music, as his sounds barely resemble a guitar, instead having the feel of an intimate form of industrial or mechanical processes, all thuds and fizzes and various other points in between. Its all a quite aggressive affair, not really loud or dynamically confrontational, but somehow the music feels like a tussle over important issues, a hot headed debate rather than anything soft and beautiful. Things rasp and wail and bubble around one another, not too fast and not without a sense of space, but this equally isn’t a subdued affair.

I’m not sure as to how much the musicians had played together at the time of this recording in October last year, but there does seem to be a nice balance here, perhaps formed in part from the mix of instrumentation which brings a little of everything to the equation. While there is a confidence to the playing though, and no sign of any “feeling out” of the musical scenario it does’t all just build to some kind of climax. The trio tussle and tubule around each other at an even pace and with considerable thought throughout.

I can’t make any great claims of this disc to be any more than it is- a CD of a well chosen improvising trio producing a disc that is a pleasure to wallow in, thoroughly engaging to sink your ears into. As I spend more and more time with his music, I find myself enjoying Ernesto Rodrigues’ work more and more though. Its not that anything he appears on attempts to rewrite the rules, and it often sounds how you imagine it might, but my enjoyment of his music, and also of Le Beau Déviant comes out of this factor. We can put innovation to one side here, and just spend some time listening to musicians lock horns and find a way to make music together. The end result is a pleasing, well recorded set of six works, but the journey we follow as listeners here, perhaps trying to break apart the music in our heads to figure out which sound comes from where, perhaps doing the opposite and trying to meld it all together is what makes listening to this release so worthwhile. One of these days I will try and narrow down the albums of Ernesto Rodrigues to four or five I can really recommend, but when I do I suspect that several from this recent rich vein of form will be on the list. None of them though, sound like Michael Pisaro. Richard Pinnell (The Watchful Ear)

Now this is more like it. Six pretty incisive, thoughtfully considered improvs from Boubaker (alto and bass saxes), Rodrigues (viola) and Moimeme (prepared electric guitar). Not earthsaking but solid. Most things I've heard involving Boubaker over the past several years have shown well-learned lessons from AMM without descending into slavish imitation and this is another. The pieces are quiet and spacious, relaxed but concise. Boubaker manages to avoid both saxophonics and post-Butcher tropes, really just disappearing into the mix, no mean feat. All contribute at moments and with sounds that tend to feel exactly right at that time. Just a good, strong session, very enjoyable. Brian Olewnick (Just Outside)

Experiencing this disc is like sitting in your back yard and listening to the environmental sounds. A breeze lifts here, a bird chirps there, a lawnmower starts up, a car whizzes past, someone is raking leaves, a bee buzzes by, someone is hammering nails on a deck, a dog barks.

But such a description only begins to tell the story of the aural sculptures of Le Beau Déviant, six tracks that form a cohesive, coherent sequence of moments in time. One thing is for sure: with limited means (saxophone, viola and prepared electric guitars) the trio manages to conjure a plethora of sonic textures and shapes and tell stories that make one lean in and listen.

Heddy Boubaker's fragments of reedy saxophone sputters (alto and bass) blend imperceptibly with Ernesto Rodrigues' minimalistic viola lines and the spare shreds of Abdul Moimême's electric guitar. Weaving mostly textural composition of the electro-acoustic variety, this trio confabulation is a seamless unity, albeit made up of six tracks with poetic French titles like "le chant de la pluie" ("the song of the rain"), "L'echec des machines formidables" ("The failure of the formidable machines") and "un beau matin, la déchirure" ("One beautiful morning, the break-up").

An impressive coherence evolves from track to track and the whole disc feels like one long meditation on time passing, how sound is evidence of that, and how sounds help make up the stories that we return to for meaning or simple solace. This disc has plenty of both.

With judicious use of silences and hyper-sensitive attention to the innate qualities of the slightest sound, the three musicians have thrown together a highly interesting detour for curious ears. Paul Serralheiro (The Squid's Ear)

La pochette est sobre et les noms des morceaux (Le chant de la pluie, Singulier grain de sable, Tempête éteinte des passions…) sont des indices donnés par Heddy Boubaker (saxophones), Ernesto Rodrigues (violon) et Abdul Moimême (guitare électrique préparée) pour aborder leurs improvisations. L’écoute de leur disque confirme que ces indices étaient fiables.

Car leur « déviant » est « beau » ET attentionné. Les instruments sifflent & soufflent & chuintent, l‘improvisation balance deux notes de violon, ronronne près de l’oreille de l’auditeur ou se meut au loin. Ce qui était promis est donc tenu : la conversation dévie souvent. et est d'une très belle harmonie. Pierre Cécile (Le Son du Grisli)



Earlier this year, I noticed the Creative Sources label for the first time, via the new release listings at Squidco. This label has a distribution association with Clean Feed, was started at the same time, and is almost as prolific. However, Creative Sources is directed by Portuguese violist Ernesto Rodrigues (b.1959), and a large portion of the catalog includes his playing. Rodrigues' work exemplifies some of the discussion above, in that it's a free-form and often slowly moving exploration of texture between sometimes unusual instrument combinations. There is a sense of sonic tapestry perhaps, but definitely a close sense of timbral relationships between sounds and very detailed listening experiences both between the musicians and for the audience. Rodrigues is involved in so many recordings, it's difficult to know where to start, but I've been listening to a couple from 2011, particularly Le Beau Déviant featuring Heddy Boubaker on saxophone and Abdul Moimême on prepared electric guitar. Although this sounds little like traditional Western music, one obvious thing to note is the technical prowess of these performers. They seem to be carefully under control in even the most extreme sonic production from their instruments. The web suggests that something happened with Boubaker, and he is no longer able to play saxophone, but here his breath control is phenomenal. Moimême with the prepared electric guitar acts as percussion or even gongs at times, not an electric screech (leave that to the other two), and exemplifies the attention to detail in this style. All tracks are less evocative of human music (so to speak) than they are scenes from nature, perhaps finding the apotheosis of a French trend beginning in the late 1800s, and originally derived from Orientalist tendencies. This somehow becomes music about the natural environment, seeming distinct from humanity, as opposed to some of the other items I've discussed recently which incorporate the mechanical sounds of civilization into a soundscape. In any case, although I have found Le Beau Déviant rather interesting, and do enjoy the first track with its piercing saxophone, I've ultimately found the recording more interesting than compelling. Mainly, I guess, it doesn't fit my emphasis on human interaction in music, although obviously such is occurring. This is at least as true for the most recent recording including Rodrigues (as well as Moimême), Brume (still dated 2011), featuring a laptop-objects-drum duo called Diatribes. Although the tracks are not titled, this improvisatory sextet is said to evoke the mysterious sounds of a dark forest at night. While generally quiet and subtly mixed, it's a wide open canvas of pretty much any sound that can be made, including static and feedback. 3 April 2012. Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts

Deviant beauty from the trio of Heddy Boubaker (sax), Ernesto Rodrigues (viola) and Abdul Moimeme (prepared electric guitar), dark and sinister improv using extended techniques and a quietly turbulent approach. (Squidco)

Suspensão

CD – Creative Sources Recordings – CS189, Lisbon 2011

CD1

1. 24'04''

2. 24'50''

CD2

1. 24'20''

2. 19'45''

Ernesto Rodrigues – Viola, Harp, Metronomes, Objects

Guilherme Rodrigues – Cello

Abdul Moimême – 2 Prepared Electric Guitars

Gil Gonçalves - Tuba

Nuno Torres - Alto Saxophone

Armando Pereira - Accordion, Toy Piano

Carlos Santos - Electronics, Piezo elements

José Oliveira - Percussion

Recorded in June 2010, Lisbon
Cover design Carlos Santos

https://ernestorodrigues.bandcamp.com/album/suspens-o

Reviews

[...] Esse é também o nome aplicado para identificar este octeto liderado pelo violetista Ernesto Rodrigues. Pelos músicos envolvidos (Guilherme Rodrigues, Nuno Torres, Gil Gonçalves, Armando Pereira, Carlos Santos e José Oliveira, além de Abdul Moimême), poderíamos pensar que se trata de um "redux" da Variable Geometry Orchestra, mas na verdade consiste numa expansão das coordenadas que Rodrigues vem aplicando às suas pequenas formações. Ou seja, não se encontram aqui as massas sonoras e os choques de frequências da VGO, mas, simplesmente, uma Lilliput mais povoada. A linha estética adoptada é, pois, a do reducionismo ortodoxo, com foco nos jogos tímbricos e na manutenção de texturas. A esse nível, o que ouvimos é muitíssimo digno. [...] Rui Eduardo Paes

Finally, from a bit later in the same year, we have "Suspensão",an double disc octet date with Rodrigues (viola,harp, metronomes, objects), Guilherme Rodrigues (cello), Gil Gonçalves (tuba), Nuno Torres (alto sax), Abdul Moimeme (prepared electric guitars, objects), Armando Pereira (toy piano, accordion), Carlos Santos (electronics, piezo elements) and José Oliveira (percussion). In some ways, it recapitulates the journey of the previous decade, a bit over-busy here but well integrated and spaced there (no mean feat with eight players). The second and fourth of the four lengthy pieces here work excellently, really establishing a true-sounding space (the accordion helping out greatly). The other two, perhaps intentionally, harken back to the busier, scratchier approaches of prior years. Brian Olewnick (Just Outside)

A free improvisation octet recorded in June 2010. A large group, a double CD, with four 20-minute improvisations, all different and unique, but all proceeding from a single silence-and-sound-based approach. The fourth piece contains surprising passages, and the first one irradiates a strange beauty. I note that Ernesto Rodrigues is playing harp, metronomes and objects alonside his trusty viola (a first?). Nice interplay of confusions between extended techniques on acoustic instruments (Gonçalves’ tuba, Oliveira’s percussion, G. Rodrigues’ cello) and electric/electronic instruments (Moimême’s prepared guitars, Santos’ electronics). This album does not reinvent the approach of Rodrigues and company, but it does provide a potent illustration of it. François Couture (Monsieur Délire)

Today was a lovely day, with the exception of a trip to the supermarket I spent it alone in relative peace and quiet, catching up on no end of bits and pieces I needed to catch up on, the results of which I should be able to share soon, and cooking and eating far too much nice food. I’ve also listened to an awful lot of music, both on CD and on the radio (Mahler’s second at The BBC Proms) before finally settling on a double CD on the Creative Sources label for extended listening. The disc in question is a studio recording named Suspensão by an octet of (I think mainly Portugese) musicians. The group consists of: Ernesto Rodrigues, (viola, harp, metronomes, objects) Guilherme Rodrigues, (cello) Gil Concalves, (tuba) Nuno Torres, (alto saxophone) Abdul Moimeme, (prepared electric guitars, objects) Armando Pereira, (toy piano, accordion) Carlos Santos, (electronics, piezo elements) and José Oliviera (percussion).

Now, in my experience, when you put eight improvisers together in a studio, one of two things happen. Either the music becomes incredibly dense, loud and soupy as everyone tries to be heard, or, compensating against this, the musicians end up making very quiet music as nobody wants to take the lead. Assuming that the music here is indeed improvised (there is nothing on the sleeve notes to suggest otherwise) it actually manages to avoid both of the aforementioned scenarios and is quite remarkably well balanced. There are four long pieces, two on each disc, and while there are characteristics individual to each of the four, all of them share a slow pace, a feeling of laminal juxtaposition and overlap rather than call and response and aside from the ending of the fourth track, where a series of clicking metronomes coalesce into a hypnotic mass, a soft, earthy set of sounds is used throughout. In fact, letting this music colour the room around me as I have worked on things today has been a real pleasure.

Assuming that Suspensão translates from Portugese to mean Suspension, this is a fitting title for this music. From the off it feels light and airy despite the large number of musicians, as if the eight sets of sounds are hovering over one another, accumulating and snagging in places but generally existing free of each other. Some of the instruments are easy to identify, E. Rodrigues’ harp standing out when it is heard, the depth of the tuba easy to spot and the accordion, an instrument which, when played “properly” I really can’t abide is used to good effect as well, adding little spots of colour here and there when it does indeed sound like an accordion, lost in the masses when it doesn’t. The first of the four tracks is maybe the lightest, sounding almost tide-like as little swells of instruments rise together for a few moments before falling away to near nothing for a brief while before the next little wave. Throughout all of the tracks though the sounds continually shift and evolve, with no one element ever holding a continually dominant position, a softly bowed cello replaced by a growling guitar pick-up then a spry of toy piano, an electronic hum and a fluttering sax line. Its all very well recorded as well, some feat with such a large group.

At the end of the fourth track, everything stops and Ernesto Rodrigues, presumably having discussed this in advance sets a number of metronomes running, initially just one, then several more. At first it seems easy to follow the ticking, find the patterns, but then too many sounds quickly appear and it all becomes a mass of clicks, all pitched the same, quickly moving from something clearly rhythmic to something chaotic. After a few minutes of this everything cuts out slowly until a single metronome remains, ticking alone for a few seconds before it is stopped to end the album. I’m not certain how this little epilogue relates to the rest of the music, though clearly it has been placed there deliberately. It works well though, and acts a little like a cleanser, clearing out the ears and mind after approaching two hours of richly coloured music.

Suspensão is a fine two discs of lovingly considered and created music. If your preference is for the textural over the torrential, purr over power, then this set of electroacoustic improvisations will suit you fine. As nice a recording of a large group as I’ve heard in a good while and one of the best of a considerable bunch of releases from this Iberian group of musicians. Richard Pinnell (The Watchful Ear)

Silence with two is one thing, but silence with eight musicians is a real feat. The band is Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, harp, metronomes, objects, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, Gil Gonçalves on tuba, Nuno Torres on alto saxophone, Abdul Moimeme on prepared electric guitars, Armando Pereira on accordion and toy piano, Carlos Santos on electronics and piezo elements, and José Oliveira on percussio. The "suspense" in the title is well chosen, as the music's minimalism creates the kind of tension that you wish would explode, come to a paroxysm, come to an orgasm, but it doesn't. The sound is the calm before the storm, the fear before the killing, the sensitivity before the climax. That kind of tension. Slowly evolving, close to silence, with instruments adding shades of sound, whispers, scrapings, bows, ... Stef (Free Jazz)

Deux CD, quatre pièces improvisées, huit musiciens. Une équation simple mais qui a quelque chose de monumental pour ce disque paru sur le label d'Ernesto Rodrigues, également présent sur ce disque, à la direction, à l'alto, mais aussi à la harpe, aux métronomes et différents objets acoustiques. A ses côtés, on retrouve de nombreux fidèles de la scène portugaise, la plupart étant des collaborateurs réguliers d'Ernesto, tels son fils Guilherme, au violoncelle, Abdul Moimême à la guitare électrique préparée et Carlos Santos à l'électronique et aux "éléments piézoélectriques"; mais également Gil Gonçalves au tuba, Nuno Torres au saxophone alto, Armando Perreira à l'accordéon et au piano jouet, et enfin, José Oliveira aux percussions.
Une formation instrumentale impressionnante, dense et presque exhaustive (dans la mesure où on retrouve toutes les familles d'instruments). Mais contrairement à ce qu'on pourrait présager, ces quatre longues improvisations sont tout de même très espacées, les musiciens ne sont que très rarement plus de quatre à jouer simultanément. La musique semble dirigée, et Ernesto prend bien soin de laisser de la place à chacun, un peu à la manière d'une Klangfarbenmelodie mais très étirée ici. Pas de pointillisme à la Webern, les musiciens portugais posent plutôt des nappes longues et étirées, où l'espace entre chaque timbre prend autant d'importance que le timbre luimême.
Un timbre rentre, donc, puis un second, puis un troisième, tandis que le premier se retire et ainsi de suite. L'espace sonore n'est jamais saturé, le temps est lisse mais les fractures sont constantes, fractures de timbres à l'intérieur d'une durée lisse et d'une pulsation indéterminée parce que absente. Les changements d'ambiances et de textures sont incessants, aucun son ne reste en place et s'impose, et pourtant, la linéarité de ces pièces est monolithique (à l'intérieur d'une pièce comme des quatre qui s'enchaînent sans que l'on ne s'en aperçoive). La cohérence qui s'établit dans la continuité est impressionnante et majestueuse. Les cellules de timbres qui s'agencent peuvent parfois être très intenses, très plates, certaines très originales (comme ces métronomes dissymétriques, ou les nappes discrètes de Carlos Santos qui parviennent si bien à appuyer et enrichir n'importe quel type de texture, la profondeur et le charisme du tuba) et d'autres plus convenues. L'octet s'amuse à déployer toutes les combinaisons instrumentales possibles et explore différents agencements de familles instrumentales tout en développant des réponses logiques relativement à chaque cellule, et à l'ensemble de la pièce.
Et pourtant, je n'y arrive pas. Peut-être que j'ai un peu trop écouté Ernesto ces derniers temps, je ne sais pas, mais en tout cas, cette continuité constamment brisée par les ruptures texturales tout en étant maintenue dans une temporalité linéaire m'a franchement fatigué.
L'espace et l'agencement des timbres est très bien géré, des textures se font à l'intérieur d'un espace vaste, mais le fait que ces textures soient constamment modifiées par le retrait ou l'ajout d'un instrumentiste fait qu'elles n'ont pas le temps de prendre véritablement sens. Malgré une inventivité exceptionnelle de chaque musicien comme du groupe pris dans sa globalité, les architectures sonores proposées ici me paraissent trop froides du fait de leur absence de déploiement dans le temps et de leur fracture incessante. Comme une sorte de pointillisme étirée, de "lignisme" pourrait-on dire, car le groupe trace des lignes sans forcément de rapport les unes avec les autres, des lignes qui s'agencent et se superposent pour former un certain volume (géométrique) précis et déterminé. Et même si la créativité dans la production des lignes est impressionnante, autant que la sensibilité de l'écoute, et l'attention au collectif, l'inconstance des volumes pris dans une temporalité elle très constante dans sa linéarité monolithique m'a plutôt ennuyé. Une musique qui laisse une étrange sensation d'éphémère et d'éternité. Hjulien (Improv Sphere)

Deux disques et deux plages à chaque fois. Donc : Quatre plages en suspension sur lesquelles évoluent Ernesto Rodrigues (violon, harpe, métronome, objets), Guilherme Rodrigues (violoncelle), Gil Gonçalves (tuba), Nuno Torres (alto), Abdul Moimême (guitare électrique préparée, objets), Armando Pereira (piano-jouet, accordéon), Carlos Santos (électronique) et José Oliveira (percussions).

Un tuba du bout des lèvres, un archet sur une note, un timide piano-jouet, se font entendre l’un après l’autre sous des chapes de nébulosités qu’ils perceront bientôt pour s’être entendus, motivés par les promesses de l’accordéon de Pereira et l’électronique de Santos, sur un brillant assaut. S’ensuit alors une série de revendications, chaque intervenant ou presque réclamant d’être l’autorité derrière laquelle il semble nécessaire de se ranger.

Charmantes, les tergiversations peinent à s’imposer tout à fait et les musiciens décident alors d’incarner leurs expressions : diverses, souvent courtes, presque toujours inquiètes. Les plages du second disque sont minées et les improvisateurs rivalisent maintenant de précautions : l’archet d’Ernesto bourdonne et celui de Guilherme claque, ailleurs des cordes sont frottées. Avec l’exercice, les rivalités s’éteignent. Leurs ambitions perdues sur Suspensão courent toujours. Guillaume Belhomme (Le Son du Grisli)



A large group under the direction of violinist Ernesto Rodrigues (also on harp, metronome & objects) in 4 extended improvisations of great suspense and tension through sound and silence. (Squidco)