CD - Creative Sources Recordings – CS896, Lisbon 2026

1. Éveil - 27'08''

Ernesto Rodrigues - Viola

João Silva - Trumpet

Carlos Santos - Modular Synthesizer

Recorded February 2026, Lisbon

Cover design Carlos Santos

https://ernestorodrigues.bandcamp.com/album/jardin-s-mantique

Glow

CD - Creative Sources Recordings – CS898, Lisbon 2026

1. Escape - 19'02''

2. In the Dusk - 10'56''

3. Apple - Green - 15'15''

4. Flowers Undone - 05'47''

5. Cloak and Hat - 11'03''

Ernesto Rodrigues - Viola

Guilherme Rodrigues - Cello

Chris Heenan - Soprano Saxophone & Contrabass Clarinet

Stephen Flinn - Percussion

Recorded March 2026, Berlin

Cover design Carlos Santos

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

Reviews

Fragments of the Unseen

  CD - Creative Sources Recordings - CS894, Lisbon 2026

1. I - 03'26''

2. II  - 01'41''

3. III - 01'38''

4. IV - 03'12''

5. V - 01'30''

6. VI - 02'53''

7. VII - 03'20''

8. VIII - 03'25''

9. IX - 01'56''

10. X - 03'53''

11. XI  - 02'19''

12. XII - 02'25''

13. XIII - 02'31''

14. XIV  - 01'25''

15. XV - 04'03''

16. XVI - 03'19''

17. XVII  - 03'35''

18. XVIII - 01'40''

19. XIX - 02'06''

Ernesto Rodrigues - Viola

Guilherme Rodrigues - Cello

Jung-Jae Kim - Tenor Saxophone

Andreas Willers - Acoustic Guitar

Recorded March 2026, Berlin

Cover design Carlos Santos

https://ernestorodrigues.bandcamp.com/album/fragments-of-the-unseen

Reviews

Fragments of the Unseen suggests a completely different kind of free improvisation. It is the second album of the chamber, acoustic, free improvising quartet of violist Ernesto Rodrigues, cellist Guilherme Rodrigues, their frequent collaborator, Korean, Berlin-based tenor sax player Jung-Jae Kim, and German guitarist Andreas Willers, following the live recording of Points of Dichotomy (Creative Sources, 2025). But the studio recording of Fragments of the Unseen was captured seven months before Points of Dichotomy, and whereas the live recording featured two extended pieces, this studio one offers nineteen short fragments. Fragments of the Unseen focuses on concise and reductionist, patient, deep listening and carefully balanced improvisations, focusing on introspective, restrained textures, exploring tension, complementary string resonances, friction, and fragmentation, employing extended bowing and breathing techniques, and most of the time avoiding dramatic sonic collisions. Eyal Hareuveni (Salt Peanuts)

Fragments of the Unseen (recorded last month) then reprises the quartet formation from Points of Dichotomy (recorded in October 2025), as noted here in the review of quintet Crossing the Floor (in December). The latter was already a reprise featuring Ernesto & Guilherme Rodrigues with Jung-Jae Kim (tenor sax), while Points of Dichotomy — recorded the following day — replaced its drums & electronics with Andreas Willers (on acoustic guitar). For the nineteen short tracks of Fragments of the Unseen, Ernesto Rodrigues also eschews crackle box, making for an all-acoustic quartet — with Willers' work here on acoustic differing substantially from some other recent releases on electric guitar, e.g. his latest with Udo Schindler, Analytical Pre-Summer Retreat (recorded last May), where he continues to project a sustained, organ-esque sound world.... And then the Rodrigueses were most recently together here for quartet Untitled Dream (as noted in a review last month), there featuring electronics more than usual, but also suggesting a series of studies.... So Fragments of the Unseen continues Ernesto Rodrigues' extensive post-Cage explorations, immediately with a sense of quiet & acoustics, subtle ringing tones developing an ongoing sense of both space & interaction.... It also takes up the "ghostly" orientation of Crossing the Floor (pace Kim...), now almost more as a catalog of material (or series of studies...), often gestural, sometimes emerging as surprisingly assertive. Versus the relatively more blunt juxtapositions of Points of Dichotomy though, Fragments of the Unseen also enjoys a more subtle & sophisticated interaction overall, presumably deriving from the quartet's previous experience together. Is the result a single tapestry? It does come off well in a single sitting, but also suggests less the sense of filling spans of time (pace Cage) than of sculpting time per se (again per Kim & pace the prior review of Crossing...). And for this newest album, that sculpting is then more via series of gestures or vignettes, often fleeting themselves & so invoking senses of transition & transformation & emergence. Fragments of the Unseen is a relatively lengthy album, seemingly often merging with everyday sounds, but I've usually also been wishing it'd continue... maybe all day. (It's definitely more appealing than the usual clatter & now e.g. aircraft noise around my place.) Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts

A Question Asked by the Empty Horizon

 CD - Creative Sources Recordings – CS888, Lisbon 2026

1. A Question Asked by the Empty Horizon - 30'04''

SUSPENSÃO

Ernesto Rodrigues - Viola, Crackle Box

Inês Ferreira - Violin

Hernâni Faustino - Double Bass

Flak - Electric Guitar

André Hencleeday - Oscillator

João Silva - Trumpet

Tiago Varela - Melodica

Carlos Santos - Modular Synthesizer

Monsieur Trinité - Percussion

Recorded February 2026, Lisbon

Cover design Carlos Santos

https://ernestorodrigues.bandcamp.com/album/a-question-asked-by-the-empty-horizon

Reviews

Suspensão (Suspension in Portuguese ) is one of the many free improvised ensembles that prolific violist Ernesto Rodrigues leads. A Question Asked by the Empty Horizon is the thirteenth album of this ensemble that has been operating since 2016 with a rotating line-up of local musicians coming from different backgrounds, with different instrumentation. 

The current version of Suspensão features a nonet with violinist Inês Ferreira, double bass player Hernâni Faustino, trumpeter João Silva, melodica player Tiago Varela, guitarist Flak, André Hencleeday on oscillator, Carlos Santos on modular synthesizer (and mastering the recording and doing the graphic design), percussionist Monsieur Trinité, and Rodrigues. The album was recorded live during the Small Formats #8" cycle at Galeria Monumental in Lisbon in February 2026, with the nonet sitting in a lf circle.

The thirty-minute piece, with its poetic-cryptic title, is focused on Rodrigues on reductionist and almost silent dynamics, and sustained or suspended treatment of notes. The ensemble explores subtle and nuanced electroacoustic timbral and textual interplay in a patient and methodical way, while employing a set of extended techniques, but allows some urgent and sharp sonic collisions. The ensemble finds the piece's intimate, organic, and collective inner logic and sonic identity almost immediately and keeps it throughout the performance without reaching dramatic or cathartic climaxes. It creates a horizontal, almost static sonic landscape that suggests a fine lesson of deep listening and in sonic humbleness. Eyal Hareuveni (Salt Peanuts)