Ordinary Music Vol. 35 "Textures"

CD – Creative Sources Recordings – CS314, Lisbon 2015

Ordinary Music Vol.35: TEXTURES (for creative ensemble)

First of all this piece does not really meet the standards of a composition; the score is rather a working basis for a creative musical process, providing both musical and extra-musical signs, along with a range of loose instructions on how to combine them. 

The term “creative” however refers to the Braxtonian term “creative music”, which is somehow rooted in a Jazz tradition, but allows for a wider range of artistic means; in particular those that have been developed in western avantgarde music over the course of the 20^th century, including a-tonality, noise production, non-thematic development and not least graphic notation.

The agreement upon a predefined set of materials enables the ensemble to create homogenous or heterogeneous sound-textures, while a conductor can influence the process, by inducing changes of tempo, register, timbre or even source material at any moment. The score’s basic function is actually to prevent free improvisation, in order to deliver the ensemble-sound in its consistency, i.e. regardless of individual inventiveness. The latter embraces both the selection and combination of instruments (almost an aspect of composition in itself) and the musicians’ collective attitude towards the interpretation of compositional guidelines. 

In terms of the western classical music tradition, the only legitimate attitude for an interpreter is devotion to the work; i.e. the musician’s individuality is supposed to stay outside the process. “Interpretation” means to fulfil the composer’s intentions to the best of one’s knowledge and belief. On the other hand in Jazz the demands are quite contrary: the interpreter regards himself not as the composer’s instrument, but as a creative artist himself. In this case however the conditions are quite the opposite: the composer is almost a mere service provider, since the composition by itself is basically a medium through which the performing artist expresses his individuality by means of his own sound. The term “sound” again is virtually a synonym for an interpretive style, embracing not only the individual approach to the instrument, but also a great deal of improvisational self-expression. 

My approach is to eliminate both composition and improvisation, in order to deliver the sound itself; however neither as a physical phenomenon, nor as sensual experience, but as an artistic form of expression. Therefore I ask the musicians to perform the most basic exercises.

Each of four tracks on this album is centred on (and named after) a single sign, indicating the source material, which is always being modified in its parameters (in correlation to other signs): track 1: “drone” (a static orchestral chord); track 2: “loop” (any sequence to be repeated a.l.); track 3 “absent minded” (simulated unintentionally); track 4: “moments” (alternation of sounds and silences).    

These basic patterns, which are more or less familiar from avantgarde music of the past fifty years, serve to provide for a before/after comparison on the basis of which the ensemble sound can be explored under ever changing conditions, while it always reveals the parametric modifications on its surface.

Since my creative agenda matches neither with New Music nor with Modern Jazz, or any other form of contemporary music, I have decided to select my own generic term “Ordinary Music” which is founded on the recognition that music by itself is not necessarily a form of art. First of all it is only a medium. Similar to spoken language, music for the most part is engaged in merely functional ways, including information transfer and rituals of interaction. That is to say, art is not to be found within the music, but rather within that which is performed through the music. In order to appreciate a work of musical art, the listener must be able to separate the artistic components from the merely functional ones, more or less in the same way as one, in order to appreciate a piece of poetry, must have a command of the language in which it is written. 

Since I intend to emphasize the performative elements of the music, I consequently must reduce the functional ones to a minimum, so to speak, to the lowest common denominator of an audience that cannot be expected to be musically educated; in fact this also includes myself. My approach as an autodidact is to transmit the process of my own self-education through the medium of music. In other words: I provide a model for the listener to educate himself and create his own music. 

Nikolaus Gerszewski, 28 February 2015

1. I - 15'23''

2. II - 14'51''

3. III - 07'06'
4. IV - 06'23'

Nikolaus Gerszewski - Piano & Melodica
Ernesto Rodrigues - Viola

Guilherme Rodrigues - Cello

Pedro Roxo - Double Bass
Nuno Torres - Alto Saxophone

Armando Pereira - Accordion

Carlos Santos - Electronics
Pedro Castello Lopes - Percussion

André Mota - Drums

Recorded in January 2011, Lisbon

Cover design Oliver Bulas

https://ernestorodrigues.bandcamp.com/album/ordinary-music-vol-35-textures

Reviews

Közönséges zene – a szó egyszerű, szerény, és a legkevésbé sem pejoratív értelmében. Nikolaus Gerszewski, jelenleg Budapesten élő német zeneszerző 2007 óta írja klasszikus képzettségű-, autodidakta-, vagy éppen nem-zenészek által egyaránt előadható kompozícióit, melyek instrukciói grafikus diagramok mentén rendeződnek. A korábban vizuális művészetekkel és műkritikával foglalkozó Gerszewski darabjai az absztrakt képi gondolkodás egyenesági folytatásai, ha úgy tetszik, precízen konstruált hangfestmények, amelyek szónikus kontextusba helyezett kulcsszavai a terek, a felületek, a rétegek, vagy éppen a tárgyak.

Ahhoz, hogy megkíséreljük körülírni Nikolaus Gerszewski közönséges, egyben megfoghatatlan zenéjét, a vizuális ábrázolás, az elvonatkoztatott képzőművészetek felől kell közelítenünk. A konceptualista szerző érdeklődésének középpontjában mindig is az absztrakt, a konkrét vagy a nem-ábrázoló festészet állt: informális művészet vagy tachizmus, konstruktivizmus, absztrakt expresszionizmus, minimalizmus, radikális- vagy akciófestészet. Ezek voltak tipikusan azok az irányzatok, amelyek az ötvenes-hatvanas évek New York-i kortárs zenéjére is meghatározó befolyást gyakoroltak. A New York-i iskolához hasonlóan, Gerszewski Ordinary Music kompozíciósorozatát is ez az erős képi gondolkodás jellemzi.

Az autodidaktaként induló zeneszerző addig tanulmányozta és játszotta John Cage, Christian Wolff és Cornelius Cardew egyes grafikus partitúráit (Four6, Edges, Treatise és a többi), mígnem megtalálta azt, amit maga is szeretne. Főként képes instrukciókon alapuló, kellő előadói szabadsággal interpretálható zenét, ami megszólaltatása után pontosan annak tűnik, mint ami: predeterminált agyagból épülő ad-hoc kompozíciónak. Jelen darab sem igazán találkozik a hagyományos művekkel szemben támasztott elvárásokkal. A kotta például sokkal inkább egy kreatív zenei folyamatot segítő munkaalap, ami vegyesen biztosít zenei és nem-zenei jeleket, továbbá megengedő utasítások sorozatát, hogy ezeket a jeleket az előadók hogyan-miként használják.

Gerszewski célja az Ordinary Music-darabok esetében, hogy kijátssza a kompozíció és az improvizáció fogalmát és gyakorlatát. Mindkettőt megpróbálja kiküszöbölni, kizárólag magukra a hangokra koncentrál, ám azokra sem mint fizikai jelenségekre vagy szenzuális élményekre, sokkal inkább mint a kifejezés művészi formájára. A zeneszerző bevallása szerint például grafikus kottáinak alapvető funkciója, hogy meggátolja a szabad improvizációt, mindvégig konzisztens zenekari hangzást biztosítson, ami teljesen független az előadásban részt vevő zenészek leleményességétől, egyéni invencióitól.

A szériában a harmincötödik darab címe: szövetek; vagy struktúrák. Konkrétan meghatározott hangszer-összeállítás ezúttal nincsen, a zárójeles alcím mindössze ennyit köt ki: kreatív nagyzenekarra. Az előadó együttes egy Gerszewski portugál zenészbarátait tömörítő elektroakusztikus nonett, a zongorán és melodikán játszó szerző mellett Nuno Torres szaxofonossal, Armando Pereira tangóharmonikással, Ernesto Rodrigues brácsással, Guilherme Rodrigues csellistával, Pedro Roxo nagybőgőssel, Carlos Santos laptopzenésszel, Pedro Castello Lopes ütőhangszeressel és André Mota dobossal. A négytételes, szűk háromnegyed órás darabot négy és fél éve rögzítették Lisszabonban, lemezen való megjelenésére egészen mostanáig kellett várni. Megérte. Dusted Hoffman (Improv.hu)

Cloud Voices

CD – Creative Sources Recordings – CS316, Lisbon 2015

1. Cloud Voices I - 22'07''

2. Cloud Voices II - 11'20''

3. Cloud Voices III - 29'03'

Ernesto Rodrigues - Viola
Eduardo Chagas - Trombone

Abdul Moimême - Electric Guitar

João Madeira - Double Bass

Recorded in March 2015, Lisbon

Cover design Carlos Santos

https://ernestorodrigues.bandcamp.com/album/cloud-voices

Reviews

Au bord du silence, Cloud Voices, soit les voix des nuages, voient les sons des musiciens se déplacer très lentement dans l’espace comme un nuage en métamorphose permanente, se décomposant et se recomposant continuellement dans un ciel gris. Toutes les nuances des murmures, du souffle, de la vibration minimale, de légers frottements, un zeste d’harmonique pointe çà et là. On devine l’air traverser le tube du trombone d’Eduardo Chagas jusqu’au pavillon le plus lentement possible. Le bout des doigts d’Abdul Moi-même effleure les cordes de sa guitare amplifiée. La contrebasse de Joao Madeira émet de longues notes tenues, soudes presqu’impalpables. Le rythme, complètement absent au départ, s’exprime par des variations de la dynamique individuelle de chaque instrument, à tour de rôle. L’ensemble s’anime dans un crescendo d’intensités très lent au fil des trois mouvements de l’unique « composition » instantanée. Même s’il repasse de temps en temps sous le niveau, l’activité du groupe s’intensifie et les sons deviennent légèrement plus denses de manière imperceptible. Dans le troisième mouvement, le trombone bourdonne et des harmoniques se déchirent de courts instants et puis les sons se posent sur un drone et tout devient mystère. Il faut encore attendre bien des minutes pour que des sons métalliques de la guitare résonnent. La musique peut devenir plus sourde, plus grave, vibrer comme un moteur à l’arrêt et puis retomber à la limite de l’audible moins un détail. …. Le challenge consiste à renouveler entièrement les sons, leurs traces, les détails infinis, une multitude de vibrations infimes qui se distinguent des précédentes tout en maintenant cette sensation de glissement sans fin, cette stase indistincte de la troisième partie, nettement plus longue et qui semble ne pas vouloir d’arrêter. L’expression de l’attente, du temps suspendu, d’une léthargie auditive… en éveil. Le corps ne s’exprime par pas sa gestuelle dansée comme dans l’improvisation libre « traditionnelle » mais dans son étirement, son immobilité feinte, sa respiration. Il y a autant de concentration que dans NOR, la même écoute intense, une action constamment retenue…  Ecoutée au casque, la musique a une réelle force. Enregistré en 2015, Cloud Voices est un beau chapitre Creative Sources made in Lisboa. Ne vous fiez pas au fait que Dörner et Frangenheim, des personnalités réputées jouent dans NOR pour imaginer que Cloud Voices soit moins réussi parce que les compagnons d’Ernesto sont des inconnus.  Certains des enregistrements d’Ernesto Rodrigues avec ses compagnons d’un jour sont des expériences, fruit de moments éphémères et tentative – découverte. D’autres, comme NOR et Cloud Voices  sont des développements vraiment remarquables et achevés d’une esthétique mûrement réfléchie et l’expression de sa démarche arrivée à maturité. Jean-Michel van Schouwburg (Orynx)

Cloud Voices, recorded in Lisbon in March of this year, was perhaps the most distinctive of the past six months of releases for me. The title references (perhaps) the theme — or half of it — from Clocks and Clouds, an album out of Portugal that made a bit of a splash last year. Cloud Voices, a rather long quartet album at more than an hour, eschews the mechanical (or discrete) while focusing on the cloudy. It might even be said to open with thunder, although the viola-bass-trombone combination, combined with Abdul Moimême on prepared guitar, sticks to mostly acoustic material. (The boundary for a "pickup" isn't clear to me, since a recording inherently involves a microphone.) Whereas Rodrigues's Nor album, recorded in Berlin & featuring half Berlin-based improvisers, might be said to feature some similar sonorities, those sometimes halting & episodic tracks convey more of a human response, if only in protest (of bogus choices). Cloud Voices constructs a different sense of time, which is part of its charm, even if it can seem overly long at times. Indeed, this album leads me to posit time-scale as a basic difference between the generalized "clock" & "cloud" phenomena, with the clock occupying a temporality that makes ready sense at the human perceptual scale. In its exploration of nonlinear process, Cloud Voices also reminds me of Triple Point's Phase/transitions, although there the sound — the immersion, one might say — is more consistent. Although not superficially similar, listening to the two albums together seems to reveal some similar motivations. In the case of Cloud Voices, such exploration leads to more fragile activity, however, as processes struggle to gain momentum. (Perhaps the cloud becomes a social metaphor at that point.) Todd McComb (Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts)


A three part improvised work for viola, trombone, electric guitar and double bass from, respectively, Ernesto Rodrigues, Eduardo Chagas, Abdul Moimeme, and Joao Madeira, an ascending conversation that uses innuendo, mystery, subtle movement, silence and swells to create atmospheric environments, each "voice" shifting enigmatically in sublimely hazy ways. (Squidco)

Exaíphnes

CD – Creative Sources Recordings – CS310, Lisbon 2015

1. Exaíphnes I - 07'52''

2. Exaíphnes II - 03'14''

3. Exaíphnes III - 15'52'

Thanos Chrysakis - Piano, Harp
Ernesto Rodrigues - Viola

Abdul Moimême - Electric Guitar

Guilherme Rodrigues - Cello

Miguel Mira - Double Bass

Recorded in January 2015, Lisbon

Cover design Carlos Santos

https://ernestorodrigues.bandcamp.com/album/exa-phnes

Reviews

[...] Foi de certa maneira o inverso que aconteceu com “Exaiphnes”, outro registo recente de Miguel Mira. Este violoncelista e demais intervenientes de Portugal, Ernesto Rodrigues, Guilherme Rodrigues e Abdul Moimême (Rui Horta Santos de seu verdadeiro nome), permitiram ao grego Thanos Chrysakis que imprimisse a marca da sua cultura numa abordagem musical que habitualmente procura a universalidade, ou pelo menos uma certa distância relativamente a regionalismos: a da corrente reducionista e “near silence”.
É esse, de resto, um dos factores que tornam este título da lisboeta Creative Sources tão especial. O outro é a dramatização / encenação que emerge da organização sonora, algo de pouco usual nesta área da música e que ganha ainda maior significado por ter sido de elaboração espontânea e intuitiva. Ainda que esta circunstância a relacione com alguma música erudita contemporânea, aquela que se deixou contaminar pela tradição popular. Rui Eduardo Paes (Jazz.pt)

I haven’t had much time to review of late. I also find it difficult to understand and appreciate some of the albums that come my way. There’s just so much music out there and a lot of it sounds the same. Not so with Exaíphnes, sent to me by the wonderful and verstatile Thanos Chrysakis, whose music both solo and collective I’ve enjoyed over many years. This is such a wonderful offering – any problems around how to approach contemporary idioms are left behind as we listen to what is, simply, good music, a reality on its own, inhabiting its own space and obeying its own inner formal logic.
Exaíphnes means ‘suddenly’ or ‘unexpectedly’ which is odd because there were no shocks or sudden events as far as I could make out. No need, as Paul Virilio fears with so much of today’s fast and furious art, for the armchair to become the fighter pilot’s cockpit. Restraint (excuse my ignorance of Greek) would have been a far more appropriate title because Exaíphnes flows without too many sudden twists and turns. The only unexpected  thing is the title. I know now that it  refers to something social – to how the musicians were taken by surprise at what they had created, at the unfolding of their own processes.
There are three tracks, all played by a very tight band, each recognisable as the distinctive music of that ensemble. Most listeners will notice this as the first of the album’s many strengths. In track I, for example, with its nuances of ritual, you become familiar with the sounds very quickly, with their shapes and articulations, to the point that individual parts and overall coalescence become of equal weight, one of the hallmarks of a sound ensemble. There is compactness and consistency, fine interplay and responsiveness and few if any little flights of fancy towards morphological impoverishment. This relaxes the listener but keeps the ear keen. Instrumentation comes over as clever orchestration. The recognisability of the electric guitar is, wisely, well masked. To be honest I don’t really need to unpick too many strands from the work because I can guarantee that any listener to new music will immediately appreciate the high standards of this ensemble’s work. If this is free improvisation, and I think it is, there’s a deep understanding of emergent form, however abstract and indeterminate the organisation, an underlying implicate order, a holomovement, foregrounded by a distinctive ensemble sound which sets this work apart from a lot of what I’ve heard in the idiom. In addition to the variety and pace of the music, track I has a ‘proper’ ending to the piece – a gentle quiet diminuendo.
Track II opens with a beautifully sustained textural exploration which could, like the track itself, have spun out its formal properties over a much longer duration, such was the musical interest. This track in particular had something of the orient going on, eastern-flavoured drums, gongs and a windy blown thing of unknown origin. Very inventive. Yet there’s no percussionist as such listed nor any strictly categorised percussion instruments so the duties must have been shared using extended techniques and sustained timbres. Track III offers again an excellent blend of percussive sounds in which everything is wholesome and consistent, the kind of consistency one expects from conventional  instruments. There is also, as you listen over time, a very gentle collective touch where nothing abrasive is allowed to intrude.
My only criticism is directed at a possible weakness towards the end, where the music strays, becomes a bit directionless, a common problem in freely improvised music – if that’s what we have here – as if everyone is waiting and anticipating that the others will come to an end. But the many strengths of the music easily outweigh this small blip.
I can’t recommend the album highly enough. Even though tracks I and II are in my opinion too short, which unbalances the album a little, this instrumental ensemble is quite masterful in its simplicity and utterly convincing throughout. It all sounds like an album played by a seasoned band made up of the same personnel and who have been playing together for ages. That tells you something about the music. James Wyness (Fouter & Swick)

Řecký rodák Thanos Chrysakis letos sice změnil bydliště z Londýna na Bělorusko, ale cesty za hudebními setkáními provozuje stále stejně. EXAÍPHNES je materiál natočený v portugalském Lisabonu se čtveřicí tamnějších špičkových improvizujících instrumentalistů (Ernesto Rodrigues – viola; Abdul Moimême – elektrická kytara; Guilherme Rodrigues – violoncello; Miguel Mira – kontrabas). Máme zde tradiční model alba vzešlého z volné improvizace, tedy další důkaz jevu, jak se ta dříve zvaná „neidiomatická“ improvizace dnes bere již jako zavedený idiom či dokonce jako folklór jisté skupiny pozemšťanů. Hudba na tomto albu je příjemně táhlá a vždy hezky pomalu graduje či se postupně rozpadává. Trojice smyčců s elektrickou kytarou tu vytvářejí plnokrevné struktury tónů, šumů a různě pravidelnému pulzování. Thanos Chrasakis od klavíru zpočátku vystupuje z celkové hudební hmoty výrazněji se sólem pro ruční šlehač na kávu, postupně ale na intenzitě ubírá, nenápadně občas přejímá také roli perkusí. S harfou pak ještě lépe splývá s celkem. Celé se to příjemně poslouchá a vlastně je sympatická i opravdu neupovídaná celková stopáž nedosahující půl hodiny. Ovšem snadno lze poznamenat, že pod sluncem se nic nového neobjevilo.
Na své nové sólové desce Above the Hidden Track an Endless Blaze vydané na vlastní značce je Thanos Chrysakis podstatně sdělnější, co se hudebního výrazu týče (obal je na texty skoupý naprosto standardně, avšak ve prospěch grafického designu). Je to série třinácti elektronických skladeb pracujících s opravdu širokou škálou efektování a syntezátorového processingu. Výchozí zdroje pocházejí velmi často spíše z akustických sfér, jsou to zřejmě různé terénní nahrávky, lze ale zaznamenat také i jakési sborové zpěvy zmutované tak, že o jejich původním smyslu lze jen fantazírovat. Se zvuky klasičtějších instrumentů se tu ovšem pracuje také, především se všemi možnými perkusemi. Samply různých kovových bicích nástrojů, xylofonů, vibrafonů, marimb a kdovíčeho dalšího využívá například skladba Interstellar Sacrament, salvy nepravidelných rytmů v mnoha partech s dominující epilepticky kabaretní marimbou tak snadno připomenou i něco z pozdních synclavierových kompozic Franka Zappy. Častěji se nám tu ale může vybavit jiný stejně významný velikán progresivní hudby, Sun Ra. Přestože na tomto CD máme kosmickou psychedelii již další generace, je stejně opojná a podmanivá.

Krásně strukturované polyrytmy realizované sytými elektroakustickými či elektronickými zvuky, které dělají ve stereoobrazu výživné ale ne nepříjemné psí kusy. Poměr digitální čistoty a lo-fi zvukové špíny je na tomto albu výjimečně promyšlený a lze ho v tomto ohledu doporučit jako velmi obsažný studijní materiál pro všechny hudebníky experimentující s elektronikou, pohybuje se od tribálně ambientních struktur až k noisovým vrstvám, syntezátorovým víceoscilátorovým houpavým a bublavým procesům a klidně až glitchovým rytmizacím. A u sekvenceru našel Chrysakis také nějaké ty nové „vrtáky do hlavy“. Tohle je opravdu skvělá práce, v rámci pomyslné žánrové škatulky opravdu zábavná už na první poslech i na mnoho dalších. Jean Faix (HisVoice)

Der griechische Komponist Thanos Chrysakis verlangt seinen HörerInnen in der Regel ziemlich viel ab, schroffe Soundwelten treffen auf anspruchsvolle Konzeptionen – mitunter schmeißt da auch eine aufgeschlossene Hörerin die experimentelle Flinte ins Neutönerkorn. Dennoch mehren sich die Stimmen, die neben Chrysakis’ Kompromisslosigkeit und Fokussiertheit auch den enormen qualitativen Anspruch seiner Arbeit hervorheben und folgerichtig seine Außergewöhnlichkeit würdigen. Bei »Exaiphnes« steht der Komponist aber nicht an erster Stelle, es ist eine dreiteilige Suite für ein Quintett, das neben Chrysakis am Klavier und der Harfe noch Ernesto Rodrigues an der Viola, Abdul Moimême an der elektrischen Gitarre, Guilherme Rodrigues am Cello und Miguel Mira am Kontrabass umfasst. Bemerkenswerterweise geizt das Booklet mit der Kompositionsangabe, auch auf seiner Website schweigt sich Chrysakis aus, wir müssen also von einer Gruppenimprovisation ausgehen, worüber sich allerdings auch internationale Rezensenten nicht ganz sicher sind. Zurecht, denn »Exaiphnes« – was allem Anschein nach Plötzlichkeit oder Unerwartetheit bedeutet – klingt kaum nach den üblichen Impro-Klischees, viel zu homogen passen die drei Stücke zueinander, viel zu konzentriert ist das Zusammenspiel, das sich überhaupt keine Stimmungsschwankungen erlaubt, viel zu verdichtet ist der Gesamteindruck. Wo andere derartige Ensemblewerk Mühe haben, die geneigte Hörerin nach fünf Minuten noch bei Laune zu halten, da hat man nach den insgesamt 25 Minuten von »Exaiphnes« noch immer nicht genug gehört, so stringent bauen sich hier Stimmung und Sogwirkung auf. Auch wenn es letztendlich ein Gruppenwerk ist, so ist es doch ganz sicher die koordinierende und qualitätssichernde Hand von Chrysakis, die »Exaiphnes« die besondere Güte verleiht. Curt Cuisine (Skug)

Exaíphnes betyder ”plötslig” eller ”oväntad”.Titeln till trots rör sig musiken i ett jämnt flöde och tar inga dramatiska vändningar. Gruppen rör sig inom den fria improvisationens ramar och deras klangspråk är stramt och distinkt. Vi bevittnar ingen storm när instrumenten ljuder utan snarare lätta brisar och stackmoln.

Även om det här inte är ett soloalbum tycker jag mig ana att det är Chrysakis som satt upp ramarna. Exaíphnes är inspelat och producerat av honom och bär hans karakteristiska drag, där det framförallt är de ringlande, lite oroliga tonerna och den skira klangfullheten som jag tänker på. Detaljerna igen.

Även här är musiken återhållen och samspelet stillsamt sökande. Instrumenten låter sig höras i små toner och sjunger långsamt till varandra. Ibland är de knappt hörbara. De tre styckena på skivan glider fram genom dimhöljda landskap där skimrande samspel lyfter himlen. Denna kvintett har en särledes fin förmåga att hitta varandra i dessa konturlösa vatten och deras färdigheter går inte att klaga på. Det enda jag vänder mig emot är att det är ett ganska kort album (27 minuter) och det är lite synd. Men likväl är Exaíphnes en övertygande skiva, trots att underbart är alldeles för kort i just det här fallet. Jens Holmberg (Sound of Music)

By focusing exclusively on the physical characteristics of their joint exhalations deprived of intellectual appendages, in just over 27 minutes this quintet shows a remarkable commitment to the attainment of an intermutual fullness. It is interesting to note how the “all strings” setting gives birth to a cycle of aural frames that, intermittently, make us forget about the actual acoustic origin, notwithstanding the auricular membranes greeting swelling waves, squealing pitches, prismatic upper partials and, generally speaking, vibrational wisdom. Truly prominent, in fact, is the contingency of varyingly shaded layers of canorous emission and an environment that seems to act more as a shelter than an additive for that brain-activating coalescence.

If you’re used to incorrigibly looking to single out instruments during an improvised performance, the point is going to be totally missed in this case (although sharp ears can discern the sources with relative ease). However, the real preciousness conveyed by Exaíphnes is explicated by its impermeability against anal-retentive analysis and aesthetic judgement, all the while retaining a sense of modest beauty. We reiterated the spinning of the CD, always with the same result: being surrounded by ever-fascinating frequencies within an overall atmosphere of implied (or less) gestural awareness. Everything exists in the moment, combining for the time needed to suggest a constructive coexistence; and then disappears mysteriously, without a rational explanation for that impermanent charm. Massimo Ricci (Touching Extremes)

A quintet of string improvisers in discerning dialog using viola, cello, double bass, electric guitar, piano & harp, from regular collaborators Ernesto & Guilherme Rodrigues, Miguel Mira, and Abdul Moimeme, plus Aural Terrains label leader Thanos Chrysakis. (Squidco)

Exaíphnes (apparently meaning "suddenly") was recorded in Lisbon this past January, and features Aural Terrains label leader Thanos Chrysakis on piano & harp, together with Ernesto Rodrigues, his son Guilherme, Moimême again, and Miguel Mira on bass. It's a short album, clocking in at 27 minutes, and features Chrysakis's classical sense of form, in a three movement work: There are ringing tones, trying to mark time, fading into a mythical past: A booming foghorn yields to jingling, a distant caravan comes closer: Squeaks shudder, buzzes whistle, and the event moves into the past before we ever seem to catch up with it. Exaíphnes thus has a rather distinctive sound for a Rodrigues album, but Chrysakis's sonorities are also given something of the "cloud" treatment. It's an enjoyable, sometimes sudden(?) ride. Todd McComb (Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts)

This album matches Chrysakis, playing the piano and the harp, with Portuguese viola player Ernesto Rodrigues, cellist Guilherme Rodrigues, double bass player Miguel Mira (who plays the cello in sax player Rodrigo Amado Motion trio), and electric guitarist Abdul Moimême. This free-improvised session was recorded in Lisbon on January 2015.

These three improvised pieces, totalling a dense 27 minutes, work an impressive and profoundly rich, all-strings sonic spectrum. This patient, methodical investigation of the unique, shared timbral spectrum, the physical characteristics of the stringed instruments and their wooden bodies keeps exploring more and more nuanced layers, detailed colors and shades and vibrating-resonating overtones. All the instruments sound as one, massive unity, organically fit in the ever expanding sonic puzzle that reaches surprising depths in the longest, and most minimalist and quiet third piece. Eval Hareuveni (The Free Jazz Collective)

Surfaces

CD – Creative Sources Recordings – CS307, Lisbon 2015

In his book “Le Plaisir du Texte”, Roland Barthes describes the two kinds of fruition that a literary text can bring us: one is the pleasure effect (“plaisir”), and the other is bliss (“jouissance”, with all the erotic connotations coming from the word, lost somewhere in the translation into English). Our relation with the first one is passive, but to feel “jouissance” you have to make an active effort, almost as if you’re writing (or re-writing) what you read. 

Even if literature and music are very different domains, the same distinction can be made when listening to this recording in particular, and to the music of Ernesto Rodrigues in general: you have to stop all other activities and immerse yourself in those sounds to obtain the maximal results from it. You’ll need to give yourself away and to focus in order to perceive it all. This is not music for entertainment or to give you an atmosphere for rest and for conversation. You have to be there, right in the middle, like you’re one of the musicians, sweating with them. 

Soon you’ll understand that what you hear is different from everybody else’s personal experiences of the same musical creation (or the same text, because a composition is a text and to improvise music – the case in point – is just another way to compose, or to write). What you hear isn’t what the musicians playing hear individually. You’re an independent, complete being, with your own hearing capacities, your own nervous central system, your musical habitudes and your cultural baggage. In truth, you’re re-playing the music in your mind, and it’s that feeling which sends you to a state of bliss, either sensuous, spiritual or both. Do you dare to try it now?

Rui Eduardo Paes (music writer)

1. Surfaces I - 17'05''

2. Surfaces II - 12'39''
3. Surfaces III - 12'23''

Ernesto Rodrigues - Viola

Guilherme Rodrigues - Cello

Nuno Torres - Alto Saxophone

Eduardo Chagas - Trombone

Carlos Santos - Computer

Recorded in March 2015, Lisbon

Cover design Carlos Santos

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

Reviews

Surfaces is a quintet album featuring regular Rodrigues collaborators Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, Nuno Torres on alto (also paired with Rodrigues in the Lisbon half of the quartet on Nor), Eduardo Chagas on trombone (also on Cloud Voices, which includes the previously unknown to me João Madeira on bass), and Carlos Santos on computer & synth (who does Creative Sources's recent graphic design): So it's a quintet of players rather close to the elder Rodrigues, and was recorded a mere six days after Cloud Voices, also in Lisbon in March. Surfaces — whose title I don't really understand, given the sound production from volumes & (one-d) strings — projects something of a similar sound world, but here it really pushes forward, rather than evoking the fragility of a cloud. The momentum can be slow & subtle, perhaps largely from the electronics, but inexorable, and becomes both the strength & weakness of the album (at least within its context). The liner notes explicitly invoke the "writerly" text, and there's a kind of Scelsian continuity, perhaps suggesting political emergence: The focus here is on emergence, then, rather than the disavowal of Nor. For all of its sporadic echoing, it comes off as ultimately irresistible. Todd McComb (Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts)

The parallelism between the music of Ernesto Rodrigues and the idea of fruition of a literary text that Roland Barthes in his essay "Le Plaisir du Texte" that music writer Rui Eduardo Paes made in the introductory words attached to this release is useful to render the way I could recommend to perceive more details in improv music in general. The French essayist refers to "plaisir" ('pleasure') to describe a somehow passive approach to a text and 'jouissance' (translated as 'bliss' by Rui) to describe a more immersive approach, requiring "an active effort, almost if you're writing (or re-writing) what you read". Similarly, according to Rui analysis, this kind of distinction could be applied to the way of approaching Rodrigues' music: "you have to stop all other activities and immerse yourself in those sounds to obtain the maximal results from it. You'll need to give yourself away and to focus in order to perceive it all. this is not music for entertainment or to give you an atmosphere for rest and for conversation. You have to be there, right in the middle, like you're one of the musicians, sweating with them". Hot temperatures of these days over countries around Mediterranean sea could help you in sweating, but your individuality can let you appreciate the three part of this session, recorded on 14th March 2015 at Scratch Built Studio in Lisbon. The almost sinister textures of a whispering cello, a blow over the alto saxophone and the trombone which sound like emulating the blowing of the wind in a desert place, a subtly piercing computer generated thin frequency and a sort of buzzing noise supposedly generated through an analog synth over the 17 minutes of the first part matches the feeling of dizzy detachment and spleening lividity evoked by the artwork (a sort of view on a desolate secluded place through the diaphragm of a mosquito net, that pixelate the sight to emphasize that perception). The sizzling noise over the alternation of sparse and strangled tones and the rising hypnotic anxiety evoked by their muffled chorus in the second part seems to get extinguished by a likewise hypnotical analog whisper in its last minutes, while the way by which tones got combined in the third and last part could be matched to the gradual and somehow confused awakening after a troubled sleep. The ensemble is maybe not totally new, as the involved musicians (Ernesto Rodrigues, viola; Guilherme Rodrigues, cello; Nuno Torres, alto saxophone; Eduardo Chagas, trombone; Carlos Santos, computer, analogue synthesiser) already performed together in other improv sessions and got recorded in past releases of Rodrigues' imprint. In other words, they know each other quite well and such a mutual understanding cannot but enhance their performative chemistry. Vito Camarretta (Chain DLK)

An immersive album of collective sound from the Portugues quintet of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, Nuno Torres on alto saxophone, Eduardo Chagas on trombone, and Carlos Santos on computer, developing rich sonic environments of great detail and intense patience, a tremendous journey that rewards the careful listener. (Squidco)