CD – Creative Sources Recordings – CS 733, Lisbon 2022
1. I - 14'41''
2. II - 10'30''
3. III - 10'28''
4. IV - 12'55''
Anna Kaluza - Alto Saxophone
Edith Steyer - Clarinet & Alto Saxofone
Ernesto Rodrigues - Viola
Guilherme Rodrigues - Cello
Ulf Mengersen - Double Bass
Recorded November 2021, Berlin
Fotolazy by Elisa Scarpa
Cover design Carlos Santos
Reviews
And per the previous entry, bowed string instruments retain a fascination for me, meaning that I've surely discussed a disproportionate share in this space.... That includes albums by a prolific string player such as Ernesto Rodrigues, who besides his amazing work curating Creative Sources, continues to release a variety of stimulating & enjoyable ensemble results of his own. While that embraces a wide variety of style, there's something of an orientation on other string players there too, including of course cellist Guilherme Rodrigues. And the latter made the recording of the recent quintet album Echoes in a further range last November in Berlin: It's another substantial album from the Rodrigueses, including Ulf Mengersen on double bass, as well as Anna Kaluza & Edith Steyer on alto saxes (with the latter also on clarinet). There's also more of a classical-romantic traditional approach to the music being articulated across what can feel like a four-movement "sonata" form, including a lyrical orientation that seems to suit Guilherme Rodrigues well, but also some extended techniques & investigations of stillness. In this, both viola & cello participate regularly in the "front line" of the interaction, including virtuosic contributions (e.g. double stop passages) at times. There's still a sense of register, though, such that Echoes in a further range doesn't present as as "egalitarian" as e.g. the (D)IVO sax quartet (reviewed here last month), i.e. the bass plays a more foundational role: Upper registers thus suggest a kind of font or flowering from below, with cello-tenor at center (or as stem?). Although Ernesto Rodrigues is actually the only musician in common, the result recalls the Lisbon String Trio for me too, i.e. their inclusion of different horn players, e.g. Blaise Siwula on K'Ampokol Che K'Aay: There's a similar sort of intricacy & formal arrangement, although the albums differ thematically — & of course Echoes in a further range now involves two horns, forging a quintet. (And I was unfamiliar with Kaluza, but Steyer had been mentioned here, in April 2019, with the Bertch Quartet, in an entry around Henk Zwerver. And Mengersen had also appeared on Creative Sources already, but his previous mention here was actually with the "DIY"-vibe album, Grappling with the Orange Porpoise, in July 2020....) Per (D)IVO, the interaction also involves great clarity & spacing, i.e. often a classical sense of chromatic space & counterpoint. There's also more contrast in tempi. Indeed, Echoes in a further range projects considerable mastery around a "classical" (but extended...) string backbone, horns coming both to intensify & mellow the timbres of that backbone. There's then a relatively easy sense of melody & harmony, far ranging, but not really pushing boundaries. (And so notable for its fluency....) I thus tend to think of this configuration as developing a newly-classic idiom for contemporary improvisation around strings (i.e. still a quintet, but instead of percussion/piano). And that does include a jazzy, & certainly a rhetorical (or even languid...), feel at times — wrapped in a satisfying (overall, formal) package. A lot happens too, i.e. alluding to a wide range of human activity & feeling.... Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts
What is the essence of Ernesto and Guilherme music? I would say is a perfect, creative, unrepeatable and irreplaceable mixture, or better to say superposition of free improvisation, free jazz, free minimalism, and last, but not leas contemporary chamber music. "Echoes in a Further Range" is a masterpiece, recorded in Berlin
with two phenomenal female read players: Edith Steyer, and my beloved Anna Kaluza½, who has already several entries in this book. There is nothing to add, just listen to this outstanding music and enjoy. Me, I have to nish version 2 of this book! Maciej Lewenstein
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