Micrographía

CD – Creative Sources Recordings – CS477, Lisbon 2017

1. Μικρογραφία I - 05'45''
2. Μικρογραφία II - 02'49''
3. Μικρογραφία III - 09'43''

Thanos Chrysakis - Piano

Ernesto Rodrigues - Viola 

Guilherme Rodrigues - Cello

Abdul Moimême - Electric Guitar

Miguel Mira - Double Bass

Recorded January 2015, Lisbon

Cover design Carlos Santos

https://ernestorodrigues.bandcamp.com/album/micrograph-a

Reviews

The extremely short duration — less than 19 minutes — classifies Mikrographía as an EP. However, such a restricted temporal frame is inversely proportional to the interplay’s quality, made explicit across three tracks of mysterious counterpoints bathing in relatively ambiguous resonance.
Aside from Chrysakis’ piano — obviously more identifiable than the rest of the palette and, in a way, dictating the extemporaneous harmonic paths of the spontaneous fluxes — the overall dynamics follow the rules of a hide-and-seek game of sorts. Think an evacuated neighborhood enshrouded by grayness, but occasionally illuminated by entrancing oblique lights. When the Rodrigueses emit whispered upper partials via viola and cello, Moimême’s guitar is probably generating a humming cloud in the background. Mira’s double bass is at the same time unobtrusive and impressive in its growling hoarseness, whenever the human entity behind it decides that a little vibrational momentum is necessary to slightly alter the mix’s balance.

In spite of its regular exploitation of noisier components, this music’s character could be generally described as Feldman-esque. Still, those murmurs, creaks and clatters suggest a subterranean tangibleness that keeps the ears on constant alert, and the mind active. On the whole, the combination of conciseness and intriguing timbres constitutes the work’s actual winning card; we can definitely accept the conventional “less is more” in this case. If only the innumerable periphrastic nonentities who inhabit the universe of improvisation followed this quintet’s example, the task of a commentator would not include so many hours wasted in acoustic tedium. Massimo Ricci (The Squid’s Ear)

Recording in Portugal, the quintet of Aural Terrains label leader Thanos Chrysakis on piano, Creative Sources label leader Ernesto Rodrigue on viola, son Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, Miguel Mira on double bass and Abdul Moimeme on electric guitar, three parts of microscopic collective electroacoustic improvisation of highly focused, detailed interplay. (Squidco)

Two albums recorded with a phenomenal Greek pianist, laptop and synthesizers virtuoso, Thanos Chrysakis. "Micrographia was recorded in January 2015 at Jazztras Estudios in Lisbon,while "Skiagraphía" in June 2016 at Art Total Sound Recording Studion in Moscow.

"Micrographía" contains one, title track in three parts. The focus is on fantastic, very lyrical and peaceful piano lines, supported phenomenally by the strings of Ernesto and Guilherme, and amazing electric guitar of Abdul Moimême. Miguel Mira's role is also primary: he plays here double bass, rather than his standard cello. Beautiful music, full of subtle accents, colours and shades. Maciej Lewenstein

The Afterlife of Trees

CD – Creative Sources Recordings – CS471, Lisbon 2017

1. The Afterlife of Trees - 13'39''
2. The Multiplied Self - 05'33''
3. Suddenly Forgotten - 07'05''
4. Elective Affinities - 08'11''
5. Notes on Blindness - 05'31''

Biliana Voutchkova - Violin

Ernesto Rodrigues - Viola 

Guilherme Rodrigues - Cello

Magda Mayas - Piano

Recorded October 2016, Berlin

Cover design Carlos Santos

https://ernestorodrigues.bandcamp.com/album/the-afterlife-of-trees

Reviews


Biliana Voutchkova! Ernesto Rodrigues! Guilherme Rodrigues! Magda Mayas! ‎The Afterlife Of Trees … and Strings!

Czy istnieje muzyka postsmyczkowa? Czy wystarczy nam wyobraźni, by wzbudzić w głowie obraz takich dźwięków? Może łatwiej będzie jednak sięgnąć po muzykę, skoro jest już z nami od kilku tygodni.

Historia jest następująca. W październiku 2016 roku do Berlina zawitała para przesympatycznych Portugalczyków. Ernesto Rodrigues i Guilherme Rodrigues, wyposażeni odpowiednio w altówkę i wiolonczelę, w Studio Borne 45, napotkali parę przeuroczych berlińskich rezydentek – Bilianę Voutchkovą i Magdę Mayas. Pierwsza miała w rękach skrzypce, druga posadowiona była u podnóża fortepianu. Wspólnie postanowili zagrać kilka dźwięków. Powstała muzyka, którą nazwali The Afterlife Of Trees.

Dziś, dzięki wydawnictwu pierwszego z Portugalczyków, Creative Sources, możemy poznać owoce ich ciężkiej pracy. Pięć odcinków z tytułami, jak niżej, potrwa równo czterdzieści minut. Mamy dopiero początek marca, a już jest z nami muzyka, która z pewnością zawłaszczy sobie tegoroczne listy najlepszych płyt w naszej ulubionej kategorii swobodnej improwizacji.
The Afterlife Of Trees. Wielogatunkowy szum, rodzaj napięcia na strunach, które znamionuje chęć wydania pierwszych dźwięków. Sonorystyka strun, które gotowe są niemal na wszystko, ale na razie postanawiają wymownie milczeć. Wewnątrz fortepianu dzieją się już pewne zdarzenia akustyczne, które możemy potraktować w kategorii wydawania dźwięku. Cisza, która jest grozą chwili obecnej. Pasaże mikrodronów, które próbują łapać punkty styczne. Towarzyszy temu zatracenie źródeł dźwięku, które dopada każdego słuchacza tego spektaklu. To opowieść, która ma bohatera zbiorowego. Rodzaj elektroakustyki, która nie wymaga jakichkolwiek amplifikacji. W 5 minucie nisko posadowiony dron buduje zręby narracji, pozbawionej wszakże typowych dla tego zestawu instrumentalnego dźwięków. Incydentalnie na strunach pojawiają się drobiny meta noise’u. W oddali pojedyncze, suche, młoteczkowe akordy piana. Trochę wzajemnego siłowania się na strunach. Wszystko odbywa się w bezpośredniej bliskości ciszy. Na finał kilka epizodów akustycznych na gryfach i inside piano, które przypominają nam, że obcujemy z czterema całkiem żywymi instrumentami.
           
The Multiplied Self. Jakby kilka upalonych pozytywek wyszło na długooczekiwany spacer. Narracja toczy się w oparach dronów, sprawia wrażenie jednego wielodźwięku, który drąży skałę. Chwila industrialnej wręcz zadumy – trzy strunowce drżą, rezonują i kaleczą się wzajemnie. Piano przyjmuje zaś rolę dosadnego komentatora. Jakże błyskotliwy moment na płycie! Magda wkleszcza się jeszcze głębiej w swój instrument i udowadnia, iż także on jest strunowcem i to na pełnych prawach członkowskich.
           
Suddenly Forgotten. Cisza w ciszy, nanodźwięki, akustyczna uroda tej ekspozycji wprost eksploduje. Ciąg dalszy dronowej symfonii. Drżenie, rezonans, ejakulacja. Narracja ma urok i delikatność baletnicy na balu u księcia. Dziewicy, która nie spotkała jeszcze prawdziwego mężczyzny. Cisza Cage’owskiego 4:33, to przy tej muzyce hałas! Skupiony słuchacz obcuje jednak z czymś wyjątkowym. Minimal art of noise! Silent noise! Niebywałe chamber, które wyszło z fiharmonii i zapomniało drogi powrotnej.
           
Elective Affinities. Ciąg dalszy błyskotliwych wzmagań z ciszą akustyki perfekcyjnej. Polerowanie strun, frazy urywane w ćwierć słowa. Piano Magdy wciąż w roli genialnego strunowca, które jest ledwie dotykany końcami palców. Kind of chamber fire music in deep silent! Repetycja i pętle, jako wyjątkowo skuteczna i precyzyjna metoda twórcza. Znów, delikatne jak puch, palce Magdy czynią możliwym zjawiska całkowicie niemożliwe… Być może, to ona jest królową tego balu! Oczywiście precyzyjne wskazanie who is who w tej narracji nadal graniczy z cudem. Ponownie ostatnie dźwięki odcinka improwizacji budzą w naszych głowach obraz prawdziwych instrumentów. Tak, pamiętamy: skrzypce, altówka, wiolonczela i fortepian.
           

Notes On Blindness. Na start call & response. Być każda improwizacja choćby w ułamkowej części bazuje na tym kanonie. Szumy i szmery, rezonujące przedmioty różne. Inside piano, outside strings. I na odwrót. Tu może zdarzyć się wszystko. Chwila akustyki normalnej. Jeśli to słowo cokolwiek znaczy w trakcie tego spektaklu. Zejście na poziom prostej percepcji akustycznej wzmaga poczucie przyjemności z obcowania z dźwiękami niezwykłymi, jakie były naszym udziałem od początku tej opowieści. Na finał eksperymentalny kontrapunkt. Czy strunowiec potrafi szumieć? Retoryka pytania wybrzmiewa, podobnie jak cała płyta. Bliska doskonałości! Andrzej Nowak (Spontaneous Music Tribune)

Since I first heard of Biliana Voutchkova by her impressive and forceful solo work ‘Modes of Raw’  (2016), I’m eager to know more of her musical activity. With ‘The Afterlife of Trees’ there is a new  opportunity. It has Voutchkova (violin) in the company of Ernesto Rodrigues (viola), Guilherme  Rodrigues (cello) and Magda Mayas (piano). This is a release by Creative Sources, a label founded in  2001 by Ernesto Rodrigues as an outlet of his own music. The label soon became a very profilic label  for improvised music that focuses on sound, texture and timbre, on silence and spatial aspects of  music. Also Guilherme Rodrigues is present on many of the releases on this label, and often we meet  them together. Like on this new effort that is completed by Mayas. She is a Berlin-based pianist who  works with many improvisers from all over the planet. Often with Australians Tony Buck, Jim Denley  and Chris Abrahams, a.o. The CD contains five improvisations that perfectly fit within the focus above  mentioned, recorded by Dietrich Petzold on 22nd October 2016 at Studioboerne in Berlin. The  improvisations are intense and concentrated. They move slowly forward and give time to notice and  enjoy all the little movements and gestures that are created. The sound textures breath a dark  atmosphere, created by acoustical means only, using some extended techniques. Improvisations  are created from a very reduced set of parameters, by improvisers who know to tell intriguing  stories within these limitations. Dolf Mulder (Vital Weekly)

After fifteen-years-plus writing about music — nine of those for Squid's Ear — I am sometimes stumped while trying to say something other than "this is good" with even the best work; really, it's easier to review something...less than stellar, as I know many more negative synonyms than positive. There are times where I think I've heard just about everything and the best version of everything, and that really bums me out.
When the jaded me reads "prepared piano," I mentally shudder and anticipate a "put some screws and rubber balls in there" pedantic, blasé approach that many incorporate into their keyboard work. But then I hear someone such as Magda Mayas who isn't merely extending what a piano (and clavinet / pianet) is capable of, but, even without electronic manipulation, transforming it into a new instrument with unexpected sonic possibilities. Along with a few others (i.e. Olivia Block), I would put her in the "Best Version of Prepared Piano." Anyway.
The opener of The Afterlife of Trees commences with a nervous clamor of wooden raps and seeming hand cranks with a gently oozing flow of high frequency slides, whirrs and shimmering harmonics hovering above courtesy of violinist Biliana Voutchkova (violin), Guilherme Rodrigues (cello) and Ernesto Rodrigues (viola); the visual inspired by the work is that of spirits slowly waking and released from a sarcophagus. The soundboard tapping and squeaky finger rubs continue as (Guilherme) Rodrigues mires the piece in a temperate drone. Over the course of the next twelve minutes, the quartet focuses more on reach than arrival. The members revel in the aforementioned gestures, largely eschewing pitch material in favor of raspy bowing, muted key thumps and clangs — and a claustrophobic dependence on one another's participation in the pending storm.
The motif of "The Multiplied Self" could be simply put as "rattling." Mayas snaps objects that wiggle, wobble and, uh, rattle (think door stop springs) to create brief resonant metallic swaths. The string trio answers with variances of rich and full to spidery and stunted to lilting to somber, like flickering appendages discharging pinches, plucks, trills, vibrato expressive, and glissandi.
Though mostly performing in a placid fashion, the group does band together into a series of enormous Minimalist / Spectral gusts on "Suddenly Forgotten." Starting with pointillistic blips and strums, the players lean into rugged, gnarled grinding and haphazard harmonics to create an unresolved tension.

This music charges me with optimism that there is still something interesting to be had in various experimental genres. Though not a wholly unique aesthetic, Voutchkova, Rodrigues, Rodrigues, and Mayas commit to intriguing explorations of their instruments to present inventive sound art. The Afterlife of Trees is a reason why I still write. Dave Madden  (The Squid’s Ear)

One of the "selection bias" issues that concerns me in this space is my treatment of labels (or other units, for that matter) that issue albums only occasionally versus those that release dozens a year: I have a tendency to pay attention to the single release, while neglecting e.g. album nineteen of twenty. This is normal, I suppose, and I've already noted the most obvious corrective: Concentrate more on the big labels (& so performers) I know & appreciate, rather than seek random one-offs. Yet such an approach never seems quite right: For one thing, the sense of "discovery" is displaced to someone else (i.e. the label editor whose judgment I've already embraced), "jealousy" of which could be taken as merely a point of vanity, except that discovery does remain a service, and discovering the already discovered is largely worthless — at least beyond my own enjoyment. (One could observe that the latter is the only possible situation here anyway, but there are still matters of degree.) Another issue concerns the fact that large, unknown outputs are intimidating: Where does one start? I've noted this issue with respect to individual musicians' discographies as well. Finally, does attempting e.g. to choose a "favorite" among ten similar albums really make sense? From the perspective of a reader who might not want to allocate so many resources, it probably does, but conceptually, particularly in parallel with choices made in different contexts, such a choice suggests an artificial outcome. Whereas these issues can be theoretical, and that's often the format within which I obsess over them, they can also be quite practical, and perhaps nowhere more powerfully so than in the dual example of Creative Sources as a label & Ernesto Rodrigues as a musician. Even as I continue to follow Rodrigues' work more closely, there are still dozens (if not hundreds) of albums I've never heard, and the same goes for the label: Does the fact that I'm paying more attention now mean that the earlier releases are of lesser value? Obviously there's no basis for that conclusion, other than (perhaps) my own orientation toward the most contemporary production. (I like to believe that individual musicians do develop their ideas, but such development is not necessarily linear, as various examples could illustrate.) Moreover, as e.g. noted last week around Alexander Frangenheim's output, these albums aren't always released in the (chronological) order in which they were performed & recorded either. For instance, today's album of interest, The Afterlife of Trees — recorded in Berlin in October 2016, i.e. the same month as Traintracks Roadsides Wastelands Debris — dates from about half a year after Underwater Music (as recently noted again around Frangenheim), but prior to e.g. Xenon (discussed here in May) & the Lisbon String Trio series. So where does it fit into Rodrigues' recent work with mostly-string ensembles? Well, it's generally less polyphonic than those other examples, with a sometimes ethereal feel that can suggest distance or a landscape. Of course, that distance might be implied by the "afterlife" concept itself, and one is indeed reminded not only that trees do have a concrete afterlife (as summarized by e.g. the term "wood"), but that it's an aspect of these musical instruments. (Moreover, although The Afterlife of Trees has little in the way of overt human evocations, such a tangible "afterlife" applies to human remains as well: Sometimes they're called relics.) While Ernesto Rodrigues records with some of the same cellists (especially) & bassists again & again, the violinists with whom he's recently collaborated vary: On The Afterlife of Trees the violinist is Bulgarian-born & (at least partially) US-educated Biliana Voutchkova, who had appeared on the 2015 Creative Sources release 77 Kids (with Rodrigues & horn player Micha Rabuske), and more recently on As Found with Michael Thieke & Roy Carroll ("electro-acoustic media") on Sound Anatomy (the label formed by Richard Scott, recently noted here for his wonderful participation on Trialectics). Joining Rodrigues & Voutchkova in the quartet are Guilherme Rodrigues & Magda Mayas — the latter having appeared on at least three prior Creative Sources albums, including Flock by Great Waitress, concerning which she was first mentioned in this space in May 2014. Most of the productions already named originated in Berlin, suggesting another (location-based) variant on the high-volume versus low-volume "selection" dilemma with which I opened, and farther afield in the Berlin scene (if one can evoke such an image for a locality), Nashaz (another album with Thieke, by the way) might be the "most" (pace my selections) similar release to The Afterlife of Trees in its sonics & evocations — although as the considerably different titles suggest, not all that similar. There is a sort of moderately paced, open & "airy" quality in common, however, sometimes calmly rattling along (almost like being on a ferry — here, of the dead?), as well as a density, although regarding the perceived airiness, The Afterlife of Trees doesn't involve a wind instrument: It's unclear what generates such sounds, whether it's viola harmonics, rubbed piano strings, etc. Another obvious recent comparison is Chant for its bowed strings with tuned percussion combination, there including bass to form a quintet (versus the quartet here), and recorded in Lisbon rather than Berlin. Chant is not only generally (highly) contrapuntal, but invokes (neo-Romantic) tonality at times as well, and so usually has a denser sound, whereas The Afterlife of Trees is not generally as (sonically) rich, i.e. has a more singular sense of flow while remaining timbre-based & atonal (non-motivic), perhaps even "minimalist" at times. As suggested, the latter often involves blurring lines between instruments in a collective sound, such that even piano & violin (surely the two poles of the quartet) cannot always be distinguished (in sharp stylistic contrast with e.g. Trialectics). Further, The Afterlife of Trees seems to make a more intense intervention into concepts of naturalism (whereas Chant uses nature as a straightforward pole against abstraction) via the danger & mystery of the afterlife notion itself: It can be both quiet & intense, yet suggests hearing at a distance (and so evokes ocularcentrism for me — despite what might be figured as intimacy — perhaps only intensified by the final track naming blindness). There's also a bit of a "traveling ethos" (particularly on track three) per Traintracks..., but the latter comes off as both more forceful & more mechanical. Some passages of The Afterlife of Trees do have a contrapuntal feel, particularly around percussive sounds (presumably arising from the piano as well as from striking the string instrument bodies), and its sometimes flute-y harmonics (evidently) arise from & so combine all the instruments, sometimes as set against a humming or croaking (organ-like?) bass (rather, bowed cello). Scelsian scraping "mutes" can also be heard (apparently, e.g. on track two) as part of a terrain ultimately formed by noisy & shifting resonances, and within which a few clearly tinkling notes on piano can stand in partial contrast to the generally amorphous sound. (So individual personalities do not emerge from the instruments in this style, but rather something of a post- or inhuman scene.) Does the stark, shimmering, "windswept" sense of landscape really differ in quality from some of the "soundscapes" I had dismissed in previous years? I'm not sure, but I am sure that with The Afterlife of Trees, the way that I personally hear Rodrigues, Creative Sources & the Berlin scene does continue to evolve. What's next for a group such as this? Probably going their separate ways, at least until some other recombination.... (As this discussion hopefully suggested, these relations crisscross from a variety of directions & at a variety of times.) 12 December 2017. Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts

This chamber quartet features four classically-trained free-improvisers - Portuguese viola player Ernesto Rodrigues (head of the Creative Sources label), fellow-Portuguese, Berlin-based cellist Guilherme Rodrigues, and fellow-Berliners violinist Voutchkova and pianist Magda Mayas, known from the duo Spill with The Necks’ drummer Tony Buck, and the trio Great Waitress. The quartet album was recorded at Studioboerne 45, Berlin in October 2016.


These four improvisers form a left-of-center string quartet, as all apply extended bowing techniques and Mayas employs preparations and objects on the piano strings and only briefly plays the piano keys. The music sounds at first patient and emphatic. The quartet develops slowly the title-piece as a quiet, dreamy drone where all the conventional string instruments and the prepared piano blend into a close, almost tangible sonic entity, and all together often sound as a low-frequency electric hum. Slowly, more nuanced, fleeting colors and distant percussive noises are added to this minimalist, dark texture. The following pieces are shorter and offer more intense and urgent textures, still comprised by minimalist gestures but manage to suggest detailed, mysterious atmospheres. “Elective Affinities” even introduce exotic, Eastern ideas with very few ritualistic, percussive sounds. Eyal Hareuveni (The Free Jazz Collective)

Sounding almost electric through unique string manipulations and harmonic overtones and inside playing on the piano, the quartet of Ernesto Rordigues on viola, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, Biliana Voutchkova on violin and pianist Magda Mayas render an eerie and atmospheric examination of trees, the self, blindness, and other obscure topics through cautious and slow-moving improvisation. (Squidco)

The nicely titled The Afterlife of Trees finds Voutchkova in a piano quartet with violist Ernesto
Rodrigues, cellist Guilherme Rodrigues and pianist Magda Mayas, the latter’s activity generally falling on the inside of her instrument’s case. Recorded in a Berlin
studio just two months before the Thieke/Voutchkova tour (and released on Rodrigues’ Creative Sources imprint), it’s a lovely bit of alien atmosphere with close-mic’d strings providing either actual or simulated
electronic feedback and piano giving a resonant bass percussion. As with Blurred Music, the quartet creates a satisfying sense of space and enticing sonic envelopes
in which to lose the burden of frontal lobe fixity. Unlike the duo disc, however, the quartet doesn’t (and perhaps
doesn’t try to) work within a collective unconscious. There are sectors of activity, individual foci, crossed paths and occasional dialogues, but most of the time the players seem happily and obliviously lost in a mist.
It makes for an enjoyable listen, at least for those who enjoy such listens, not distinguishing itself from scores

of other such encounters and perhaps not needing to, but never finding the symbiosis that gives Blurred Music its clarity. Kurt Gottschalk (The New York City Jazz Record)