Mare Tranquillitatis

CD – Creative Sources Recordings – CS612, Lisbon 2019

1. Sream of Consciousness - 29'53''

VARIABLE GEOMETRY ORCHESTRA

Ernesto Rodrigues - Conduction

Guilherme Rodrigues - Cello 
Yu Lin Humm - Cello
Helena Espvall - Cello
Miguel Mira - Cello
Ricardo Jacinto - Cello
Johan Moir - Double Bass
Miguel Almeida - Classical Guitar
Gianna de Toni - Acoustic Guitar
João Silva - Trumpet
Paulo Curado - Flute
Andre Holzer - Clarinet 
Juan Cato Calvi - Bass Clarinet
Noel Taylor - Bass Clarinet
Bruno Parrinha - Clarinet
Mia Dyberg - Alto Saxophone
José Lencastre - Alto Saxophone
Etienne Brunet - Alto Saxophone
Catarina Loura - Piano
Armando Pereira - Toy Piano
Mariana Carvalho - Accordion
Rui Sousa - Electric Bass 
Carlos Santos - Electronics
Carla Santana - Electronics
Biagio Verdolini - Objects
Ramon Lopez - Percussion
João Valinho - Percussion 

Pedro Castello Lopes - Percussion

Recorded in November 2018, Lisbon

Cover design Carlos Santos

https://ernestorodrigues.bandcamp.com/album/mare-tranquillitatis

Reviews

[…] To conclude the linked set of three entries opening this renewed page, then, and to continue a June entry surveying recent work from Rodrigues (e.g. Krypton), there are still more albums I want (at least) to note: Not only is there more from larger ensembles such as Variable Geometry Orchestra (now with Mare Tranquillitatis, consisting of one track of around a half hour, on which Rodrigues himself does not play an instrument, but "only" engages in conduction, forging various "episodes" around instrumental subgroups) & the more modestly sized Octopus (now with Cyanea, a sparse & watery album under a half hour in length, following Mimus & Dofleini as described here in January, but with some ensemble changes) — both from CreativeFest #12 last November […] Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts

Unquestionable opus magneum of Ernesto Rodrigues & Co. Variable Geometry Orchestra gathers cream of the cream of the Lisbon scene, including such personalities as Guilherme Rodrigues, Miguel Mira, Bruno Parrinha, José Lencastre, or Miguel Almeida. The ensemble includes also intetnational stars, like Ramón López.
"Mare Tranquillitis" is a 30 minutes long piece, combining composed parts, free improvised parts and improvised conducted parts. It has to be compared with the best of the recordings of the Discordian Community Ensemble and/or Discordian Community Orchestra, as well as "classical free improvising" bib bands: from Cecil Taylor to Mats Mats-olof Gustafsson and Paal Nilssen-Love. It is a live recording at O'Culto da Ajuda, Lisbon, produced by Ernesto Rodrigues.
It is a monumental piece of music with changing moods (from majestic to chamber) and dimensions (from large ensemble collective parts to small groups). What is for me especially appealing is that all instruments and
all members of the band have perhaps short, but their own moments there are practically always some leading instruments in the collective playing. At the same time it is an ingenious collective e ort, where every element is a part oif the emergent whole.
Mare Tranquillitatis (Latin for Sea of Tranquillity) is a lunar mare that sits within the Tranquillitatis basin on the Moon. Mare Tranquillitatis "was also the landing site for the first manned landing on the Moon on July 20,
1969, at 20:18 UTC. After astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made a soft landing in the Apollo 11 Lunar Module nicknamed Eagle, Armstrong told flight controllers on Earth, "Houston, Tranquility Base here.
The Eagle has landed.". Perhaps, Ernesto wanted to celebrate with this recording the 50 anniversary of the landing? De finitely, the music combines tranquillity with the top levels of expression and feelings. Great record!!! Maciej Lewenstein

A dynamic and exciting concert captured during the 2018 CreativeFest XII of a conduction by Ernesto Rodrigues leading an ensemble of 28 free improvisors performing on a mix of traditional acoustic & modern electronic instruments, plus a toy piano, with powerful wind & string sections, as Rodrigues directs the musicians into both passionate and peaceful sections. Squidco

The "Mare Tranquilitatis" is the "Sea of Tranquility" on the moon. It is the place where the first moon landing took place, 50 years ago. It is unclear whether the album in any way wants to join the celebrations of this event, since the performance itself was recorded live recording on November 10th 2018 at O'Culto da Ajuda, Lisbon, during the CreativeFest XII. 

We've reviewed albums by the orchestra before, and I think this is one of their best. Ernesto Rodrigues, acting as the conductor of this large ensemble, leading his 28 musicians through sonic soundscapes that alternate between light-textured minimalist moments to dense and dramatic eruptions of sound, does it with verve. The music's unpredictability and especially the cohesion of the orchestra within this unpredictability is fascinating to listen to, and a testament to Rodrigues' skills to move the music forward along his wishes. This is no small feat. 

But what does "Variable Geometry" mean? In the European political context, it refers to different levels of cooperation between countries in the European Union (like their willingness to participate in the Schengen zone, or participate in the common euro currency). It means integration and participation at different speeds and levels. In the context of aerodynamics, it means that an airplane may change the configuration of its wings during a flight. Whatever the real and original name that triggered Rodrigues to use the term for his orchestra, the concepts of collaborative difference, of changing dynamics and openness to variation appear essential. 

The orchestra's sound is a collective sound, one that avoids solo voices, and even if they are discernable at times, often in short phrases and shouts, emanating from the voluminous mass of the orchestra's groundswell, they are more like birds straying from a flock to return before you've noticed their separate movement. The sound is not about the voices, it's about the total sonic experience of changes in depth and intensity, the dynamic swirling of sonorities and pitch, the flowing of harmonies and dissonance, of unity and chaos. 

In case you wondered, the "Mare Tranquilitatis" may be tranquil at some moments, and there's even a short span of absolute silence, yet there is more to it than tranquility. It's worth the trip. Join us to the moon. Stef (The Free Jazz Collective)

Cyanea

CD - Creative Sources – CS610, Lisbon 2019

1. I - 27'26''

OCTOPUS

Ernesto Rodrigues - Viola

Yu Lin Humm - Cello

André Holzer - Resonator Guitar

Paulo Curado - Flute

Miguel Almeida - Classical Guitar

André Hencleeday - Piano

Carlos Santos - Electronics

João Valinho - Snare Drum

Recorded November 2018, Lisbon

Cover design Carlos Santos

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

Reviews

[…] To conclude the linked set of three entries opening this renewed page, then, and to continue a June entry surveying recent work from Rodrigues (e.g. Krypton), there are still more albums I want (at least) to note: Not only is there more from larger ensembles such as Variable Geometry Orchestra (now with Mare Tranquillitatis, consisting of one track of around a half hour, on which Rodrigues himself does not play an instrument, but "only" engages in conduction, forging various "episodes" around instrumental subgroups) & the more modestly sized Octopus (now with Cyanea, a sparse & watery album under a half hour in length, following Mimus & Dofleini as described here in January, but with some ensemble changes) — both from CreativeFest #12 last November […] Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts

A concise and essential concert from the Octopus octet, recorded in performances at O'Culto da Ajuda, in Lisbon, Portugal during the Creativefest XII, the ensemble of mostly acoustic instrumentation (cello, viola, flute, clarinet, classical guitar, piano, percussion and synthesizer) carefully evolving a shade of blue in subtle details of tense restraint. Squidco

"Cyanea" by the octet Octopus, recorded at O'Culto da Ajuda, also during the CreativeFest\#12. The strings are combine here with the piano, flute, clarinet and Carlos Santos' synthesizer, making the music much richer and more unpredictable. There is one track only, but unfortunately only a little over 27 minutes long, leaving the listener like me with a certain  deficiency. Otherwise, the music is truly beautiful, delicate  and attractive, with varying structures and textures, involving various groups of instruments. Maciej Lewenstein

Radium

CD – Creative Sources Recordings – CS609, Lisbon 2019

1. I - 26'57''

ISOTOPE ENSEMBLE

Ernesto Rodrigues - Baroque Violin

Maria do Mar - Violin

Guilherme Rodrigues - Cello

Helena Espvall - Cello

Fred Marty - Double Bass

Abdul Moimême - Guitar

Miguel Almeida - Classical Guitar

Biagio Verdolini - Brazilian Zither

Gianna de Toni - Psaltery
Mariana Carvalho - Piano

Wilfrido Terrazas - Flute

Bruno Parrinha - Bass Clarinet

Etienne Brunet - Alto Saxophone

João Silva - Trumpet

Pedro Frazão - Euphonium

Gil Gonçalves - Tuba

Tiago Varela - Fan Organ

Carla Santana - Electronics

Carlos Santos - Electronics
Monsieur Trinité - Percussion

João Valinho - Percussion

Recorded November 2018, Lisbon

Cover design Carlos Santos

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

Reviews

Recorded at CreativeFest#12 in Lisbon at O'Culto de Ajuda, the 21-piece electroacoustic ensemble Isotope takes on the chemical element Radium in a gripping piece of evolving improvisation, intensely restrained and extremely detailed, orchestrated with cello, baroque violin, double bass, acoustic & electric guitars, zither, psaltery, winds, brass, keys, electronics and percussion. The Squid’s Ear

[...] Finally then, let me also note the upcoming new Isotope Ensemble (now with 21 members) album ("only" their fourth), Radium, also from CreativeFest#12 last November: It's a rather ominous, shearing production, slowly building over a single track (as on the two albums featured in this entry) to a raucous end.... Todd McComb (Medieval .org)

There are albums, like the Art Ensemble of Chicago's People in Sorrow, that rise from nearly nothing eventually to overwhelm with pathos. That masterpiece was certainly of its time, and it might be reasonable to view a statement like Radium as a reactive misreading of that late 1960s classic. The two long pieces begin similarly. Ernesto Rodriguez and company open this live recording with clicks, rasps, the occasionally defined pitch and low-register rumbles, clearly defined, that become absolutely mammoth about half-way through the 26-minute work. Radium is one of those really fascinating listening exercises in which it's nearly impossible to tell what is what and who is who, despite the fact that the recording is a wonder of detailed precision. Check out the pulse around the two-minute mark; who's responsible for it? Dig the whistling bits nearly seven minutes in, but from whence do they glide into focus? All of this ambiguity places those few tones that achieve any sustained prominence in a different light, like the vibrato-laden mid-range shimmer at around 10:30. It coopts attention, gradually at first, but fades just as quickly into a background hum of points, electronic whirrs and hums that might be a drone if they could be classified by pitch in any way near convincing.

Enough about structure however, as the form is even more interesting. The music does indeed build, then fade, then build again, fade again and build only to fade, in conclusion, into the myriad clicks that gave it life. This is no paean to the suffering of humanity, or at least not superficially. It ends up inhabiting a space closer to Mahler's final completed symphony as it rises, crests, fades toward silence only to rise again, but even that sense of motion is ultimately illusory. The whole experience can feel like a meditation on waves or a voyage through increasing levels of frustration and ultimate disillusion, but it is wonderfully done and expertly captured, especially those Gargantuan subfrequencies. They need to be experienced to be believed, anchoring nothing but providing a decidedly tactile element to a stimulating musical experience! Marc Medwin (The Squid’s Ear)

Ernesto Rodrigues is apparently tireless, whether recording projects for his Creative Sources label, organizing a multitude of permutating large ensembles or presenting a broad spectrum of the Lisbon improvising community in groups of assorted sizes. His Creativefest takes place in November, and the most recent edition, XIII, ran for six days at the festival’s home base, O’Culto de Ajuda. The CDs here present two of Rodrigues’ on-going large ensembles, one recorded at XIII, the other from XII.

If an ultimate test for any large improvising ensemble is to maintain movement and density at very low volumes, then Rodrigues’ Isotope Ensemble ranks very high. Radium is a single 27-minute piece from 2018 that spends much of its time at the level of a whisper, a hive of tiny sonic gestures in which even foregrounded events scrape silence. It’s a 22-member ensemble made up of diverse instruments, with only Rodrigues (this time on baroque violin), do Mar, Carvalho and Moimême appearing from the later String Theory line-up. The other bowed strings are down to two cellos and a bass, with three guitars present, including Luis Lopes on electric, and such traditional instruments as Brazilian zither and psaltery. That broader palette then includes three woodwinds, three brass, a fan organ (a small electric reed organ that seems to sound like an accordion at some points), and two people on electronics, Carla Santana and Carlos Santos, the last an essential figure in Lisbon music and the Creative Sources world, here responsible for mixing, mastering and graphic design as well.

Though the volume picks up briefly around the 23 minute mark, during which a tuba (I think, the other possibility, a euphonium is operating quietly in the background) sounds briefly obstreperous (it’s only “loud” in context), it ultimately reinforces the strange quietude here, as if the activities of a busy shopping mall were carried on under a vow of monastic silence: a wisp of string, a burble of keyboard, an unidentifiable tapping, a collective rustle. It’s beautiful and original, at once compelling and therapeutic. Stuart Broomer (The Free Jazz Collective)

Loneliness in Saint-Petersburg

CD – Creative Sources Recordings – CS614, Lisbon 2019

1. I - 51'20''

Ernesto Rodrigues - Viola, Harpsichord, Guitar (ebow), Field Recording

Denis Sorokin - Ukulele, Pitch Pipes

Guilherme Rodrigues - Cello

Recorded between January & June 2019, Saint-Petersburg & Berlin

Cover design Carlos Santos

https://ernestorodrigues.bandcamp.com/album/loneliness-in-saint-petersburg

Reviews

Fragile and understated with long spacious sections, the trio of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, harpsichord, e-bow guitar and field recordings, Guilherme Rordrigues on cello, and Denis Sorokin on ukelele and pitch pipes, distill the sense of isolation amid patient motion through the red city, sections defined by cars passing and augmented with birds; peaceful and beautiful. Squidco

We are currently well into a fashionable* panic over a virus whose name we won't recall in 30 years. The world is urged to avoid groups of ten or more humans, to work from home if possible (or just possibly lose your job), do regular therapy sessions over Zoom, focus on buying beans, et cetera. "Social distancing" is the hashtag. I'm doing what I can do to cling to normalcy and avoid dark days, and I hope that anyone not accustomed to physical isolation and being alone with their thoughts can change their lens before madness takes over. With that in mind, let's talk about, per everything I read and saw online in twenty minutes, the loneliest place on Earth: Saint-Petersburg.**
Loneliness in Saint-Petersburg is a curious exercise in imagination while listening to a conversation between, for lack of better words, music and whatever you hear after opening a window or sitting in a park. Members Ernesto Rodrigues (viola, violin, harpsichord, guitar, e-bow, field recordings), Denis Sorokin (ukulele, pitch pipes) and Guilherme Rodrigues (cello, pocket trumpet) lean heavily on fourth member, Nature, for the entirety of the album. Their choice of environmental source is carefully planned, or terrific happenstance. (From the press release: "It is unclear which sections are improvised...") Instead of laying out long stretches of backdrop for the performers, (Ernesto) Rodrigues assembles the soundscape 1) with the larger (loud, wider ADSR) environmental sounds serving as formal landmarks 2) in a way that nothing is filler during the 51-minute piece; even the wind is interesting. Rodrigues and Co. are successfully playing God.
The introduction is a long stretch sans "music" where the group (or maybe recording engineer Joel Conde) does a great job of sonically conveying numbness. However, as prescribed above, this nostalgic moroseness is overhauled if you can close your eyes, limit other senses and let your ears interpret. Are these vehicles driving by, or is it a viola fed into something that makes it go WHOOSH? When divorcing your expectations from each WHOOSH, you can hear them as percussion and patterns. The trail of whatever is splashing on the curb is teeming with tiny particles that sound as bbs pouring onto / ricocheting off cement. Due to either the nature of the noise source or mixing choices, this gesture moves in the shape of an L across your speakers. It is an official character in this film.
After several minutes of adapting and nearing a lucid dream state, the listener is greeted by a single, sustained pitch pipe note that barely registers as anything the flock or revving motors should care about. More minutes pass, and an enormous rumble and splash cause mayhem and even more species to join in the chatter; It's hard to say if it's anger or ecstasy (I always assume birds are gossiping or repeating "look at me!" over and over), but it's an intense release. Another tranquil patch, and gently rolling harpsichord arpeggios manifest. Around the point when the scratch and rasp of bowing strings appear, it dawns on you that this trio - the entity purposely making sound - is the interloper. Music is one not on the guest list. It's stepping on Nature's toes.
Tell your friends, coworkers, professors, and elderly family members: Loneliness can be comforting. And the back and forth of a rumbling cello and osprey is neat.
* Per one popular site's recommendation, some locations one must visit in Saint-Petersburg include "10 Key Places from Dostoevsky's The Idiot" and "10 Key Places from Tolstoy's War and Peace". Suggested Saint-Petersburg-centric Instagram accounts feature a photographer who specializes in weathered and "I've seen some things" faces. Glamor shots of cathedrals are filled with opulence with very little audience to appreciate it.
** My grandmother told me the world would end in the year 2000, so I've been over this scenario so many times. This feels like a flea when compared to the ultra-crocodile-sized fear I had at age ten. I'm in Mexico writing this paragraph by a moonlit pool while a bar's Berlin House tracks compete with a band covering "Play That Funky Music" and "Wild Thing" with a full horn section and a singer screaming and snarling like Frank Black. I might be more problem than solution. Sorry for the war journal. Dave Madden (The Squid's Ear)