CD - Creative Sources Recordings – CS896, Lisbon 2026
Ernesto Rodrigues - Viola
Carlos Santos - Modular Synthesizer
Recorded February 2026, Lisbon
Cover design Carlos Santos
Reviews
Taking up some threads from my thoughts in the previous three entries, Jardin Sémantique — recorded in Lisbon this past February — finds Ernesto Rodrigues (on viola only) in the musical company of João Silva (trumpet) & Carlos Santos (electronics). Silva appeared for a while in a variety of larger groupings with Rodrigues, being mentioned here explicitly with Stratus (reviewed January 2019) — there featuring a series of "open air" calls & hazy, pastel colorings — & then in trio for the quietly nocturnal Nightwalk (recorded in 2021), emblematic of windswept pandemic-era solitude.... And Rodrigues hasn't involved trumpet as much in his smaller ensembles (pace reeds especially, but also e.g. flute & voice...), but per e.g. Parcours d'Impulsions (also from Lisbon, reviewed here last month), the instrument has much to offer for quieter or more resonant (spectral) textures. So the renewed collaboration with Silva can make for a striking listen on the short Jardin Sémantique, including e.g. passages recalling classical violin — as articulated through a generally loose, three-way flow. And of course Santos has collaborated extensively with Rodrigues, but much like Thomas Lehn (per Critical Values & the previous entry here...), it can be difficult to summarize his sonic contributions. He's often been more quiet & in the background (including e.g. on Stratus...), e.g. manipulating harmonics. But he's also been increasing his foreground participation, e.g. already with trio Rotor with Rodrigues & Nuno Torres, their prior work there (their first release Impulses and Signals being noted in the June 2024 review of Santos' album with the Lisbon String Trio, Cobra...) serving as a ready comparison for the trio interaction on Jardin Sémantique — i.e. now with trumpet instead of alto sax. (Santos was specifically named here most recently with Suspensão, for a December review, and also appeared e.g. on the more recent quartet album — likewise with more readily audible electronics — Untitled Dream, noted already in March.) There're indeed then naturalistic evocations, i.e. as associated with various Creative Sources productions, but also sometimes perhaps a sense of being (pace Where the Stars from last month...) inside an industrial space (or even spaceship): Jardin Sémantique is close-mic'd with plenty of presence in general (even becoming aggressive at times...), some high picking to open, soon a ghostly howl... sounds often remaining relatively mutually sparse, with their interactions twisting into different shapes via shifting frames & foregrounds. Senses of anticipation thus develop (including via calls...), the three instruments blending into unusual or unclear timbral combos at times too, i.e. continuing onward in a sense of intertwined (i.e. quasi-linear) unfolding. Another Rodrigues trio with Torres (& with cello rather than electronics) is thus recalled, Setúbal (reviewed May 2020), with Jardin Sémantique sometimes suggesting as well a sort of burbling, eventually watery flow around Silva on trumpet... figured now (per the accompanying poem, from 2000) as an awakening. Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts
