Alba

CD – Creative Sources Recordings – CS248, Lisbon 2013

1. Alba I - 15'53''

2. Alba II - 10'22''

3. Alba III - 09'57''

4. Alba IV - 12'36''

Ernesto Rodrigues - Viola

Louis Laurain - Trumpet

Guilherme Rodrigues - Cello

Ricardo Guerreiro - Computer

Recorded in June 2012, Lisbon

Cover design Carlos Santos

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

Reviews

Neste trabalho com as presenças, também, de Louis Laurain e Guilherme Rodrigues ouvimos o que poucas vezes sucede nos domínios da informática musical: um “laptop” gestualista. Lá está esse precioso elemento de ambiguidade – o gesto sonoro “imagina” um gesto corporal, mas este é teatralizado. Na realidade, o “laptoper” fica imóvel diante do ecrã. Rui Eduardo Paes (Jazz.pt)

[...] Begin with Alba, which contains four improvisations by Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Louis Laurain on trumpet, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello and Ricardo Guerreiro on computer. All four pieces exist within a sonic space of subtle movement. The basic sound shape running throughout most of the recording is a slowly mutating, ambiguously dissonant chord wrapped in an outer shell of electronic white noise. Although the identity of individual instruments is largely submerged, here and there their signature traces emerge, such as slow, pressure-heavy bowstrokes; a rush of breath; the scrape of hair or the tap of wood against strings. Somehow, it’s hard not to hear Alba through the impressions suggested by its title. “Alba” is Portuguese for “white”, and the four improvisations individually and collectively bring to mind Kandinsky’s or Ryman’s white-on-white paintings. As with the paintings these four tracks seem at first to be monochromatic, but on closer attention they reveal a spectrum of shadings in their details. With this recording, one can almost visualize the plasticity of sounds as they respond to each other across the surfaces of audio space. A rewarding listen individually and taken together. Daniel Barbiero (Avant Music News)

I’m starting to think that no free improvisation group that includes Ernesto and Guilherme Rodrigues could displease me. Alba is a session from June 2012. The instrumentation (in the order above) is: viola, trumpet, cello, and computer. Perfect chemistry, sonic molecules meet, briefly fuse, then go their own ways. Fine, subtle, sustained playing, and there’s no real dichotomy between acoustics and electronics (Guerreiro’s work is remarkable). Four 10-to-16-minute pieces, four highlights. François Couture (Monsieur Delire)  

O trompetista francês Louis Laurain é o principal ponto de destaque de um quarteto que reúne colaboradores regulares, que se conhecem muito bem, de muitas gravações e muitas actuações. Ao lado de Laurain estão Ernesto (na viola), Guilherme (no violoncelo) e Ricardo Guerreiro (no computador). Mais uma vez apontando a um registo de extrema sobriedade, com o trompetista a integrar-se facilmente no alinhamento sonoro do grupo, as contribuições de cada elemento são precisas. O laptop de Guerreiro volta a destacar-se entre o quarteto, com uma prestação sólida. Nuno Catarino (Bodyspace.net)     

I have lost count of the number of collaborative releases on Creative Sources where Ernesto and Guilherme Rodrigues got involved, but I'm often surprised about the fact I have not get bored by them yet as they maybe managed to involve many different collaborators. The two other musicians who took part to the four long-lasting improvisations they recorded on 9th June 2012 at Tch3 by Joel Conde are Louis Laurain on trumpet and Ricardo Guerreiro whose computer darned the sounds so masterfully that it's really difficult to understand when each instrument got filtered or not. The introduction of each track sounds like the awakening of an instrument after some centuries of hibernation and each musician could act like a cronics technician so that you are not going to listen to a series of abstract detained impulses, but the four parts of "Alba" sounds like the troublesome rescue of the decreased metabolism of improvisation after excessive sedation which often results in trembling tonal muttering that each instrument manages to find as if it renders an almost completely trophied muscle which begins to move again after endless seasons of idleness. Vito Camarretta (Chain DLK)

"Alba" (Portugese for "white") presents 4 improvisations by Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Louis Laurain on trumpet, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello and Ricardo Guerreiro on computer, slowly building subliminal works of subtle dialog using extended techniques and white noise. (Squidco)