Whispers and Reveries

CD – Creative Sources Recordings – CS 817, Lisbon 2024

1. I - 05'01''

2. II - 04'00''

3. III - 05'27''

4. IV - 07'45''

5. V - 04'08''

6. VI - 07'53'

7. VII - 07'24''

8. VIII - 07'04''

9. IX - 04'01''

10. X - 00'51''

Ernesto Rodrigues - Viola & Crackle Box

Bruno Parrinha - Bass Clarinet & Alto Saxophone

Johannes von Buttlar - Percussion

Recorded February 2024, Paço de Arcos

Cover design Carlos Santos

https://ernestorodrigues.bandcamp.com/album/whispers-and-reveries

Reviews

10 short improvisations from what I take to be another ad hoc grouping of like minds. The emphasis is on quiet, and much attention is paid to those little sounds around the edges of communal gesture — the fine touches that add nuance to the proceedings.

During the first piece a viola melody unwinds with comment from bass clarinet and percussivion, a discourse with encouragement from the gallery. The second section has more flinty, pointillistic playing, with all three men contributing equally. The percussion here is especially inventive.

By the third section, things become more insectile, as Rodrigues adds his crackle box. The electric textures add a sort of alien quality to the overall sound, though they do a fair job of imitating horn timbres at times. It can be difficult to wring anything subtle or controlled out of the little devices, but attempts are made and often pay off. Sometimes I am reminded of early electronic music, all squiggles and bloops. The fourth piece brings back the viola for a nice drone expedition abetted by quiet thumps and percussive swats. You can really hear the room here, and when the crunchy bits get up it's like the walls expand. A nice trick that.

Though broken up into small pieces, the music can be listened to as one long exposition with short pauses for breath. There are sections of relative intensity and plenty of tension and release, and Buttlar is especially good at placing his sounds in surprising yet perfect comment. Later on, when the crackle box returns, it's during a decided rave-up, all crumpled together and whisked vigorously. A bird trapped in your bedroom while you try to budge that stubborn window. Jeph Jerman (The Squid's Ear)

The title an apt description of the furtive intercourse between these three Portuguese improvisors -- Ernesto Rodrigues on viola & crackle box (an electronic sound generator), Bruno Parrinha on bass clarinet & alto saxophone, Johannes von Buttlar on percussion -- recording in the studio for 10 improvisations of understated but highly detailed free improvisation. (Squidco)

Impulses and Signals

CD – Creative Sources Recordings – CS798, Lisbon 2024

1. Studio 1.1 - 09'44''

2. Studio 1.2 - 05'13''

3. Studio 1.3 - 05'24''

4. Studio 1.4 - 09'42''

5. Studio 1.5 - 08'36''

6. Studio 1.6 - 10'23''

7. Studio 1.7 - 09'38''

Rotor

Ernesto Rodrigues - Viola & Crackle Box

Nuno Torres - Alto Saxophone

Carlos Santos - Live Processing

Recorded February 2023, Lisbon

Cover design Carlos Santos

https://ernestorodrigues.bandcamp.com/album/impulses-and-signals

Reviews

Seven studio improvisations from frequent collaborators Ernesto Rodrigues on viola & crackle box, Nuno Torres on alto saxophone and Carlos Santos on digital electronics, quiet conversations of subtle and extended technique that adhere to the session title, emulating electronic impulses and signals through understated and impeccably controlled acoustic and electronic expression. (Squidco)

Mars Reveri

CD – Creative Sources Recordings – CS 818, Lisbon 2024

1. daudin eoquissiv - 13'36''

2. formons - 05'45''

3. ressilien - 10'54''

4. coepilice - 08'23''

5. tulse dunn - 07'48''

Ernesto Rodrigues - Piano Harp & Viola

Miguel A. García - Electronics

Abdul Moimême - Guitar & Metals

Àlex Reviriego -  Double Bass

Carlos Santos - Electronics

Ibonrg - Voice (track 5)

Recorded March 2020, Bilbao

Cover design Carlos Santos

https://ernestorodrigues.bandcamp.com/album/mars-reveri

Reviews

Turning back to Creative Sources, another album extensively featuring electronics, also something of a reprise of an earlier favorite, Mars Reveri involves Miguel A. García (electronics), Abdul Moimême (guitar & metals), Ernesto Rodrigues (piano harp & viola) & Carlos Santos (electronics) returning from Sitsa (recorded in 2018 & first reviewed here in June 2019), now joined by Alex Reviriego (double bass, substituting for more obscure previous performers on organ & amplified paper). And I've continued to enjoy the rather atmospheric Sitsa, a sort of post-industrial church music, its "roar & tinkle" yielding a kind of post-Cage austerity & distance, (ergodic) layerings of organesque tone.... I've mentioned García since then as well with Les Capelles (reviewed September 2022), a quartet album (with an explicitly churchy title...) with Vasco Trilla & accordionist Garazi Navas, actually as it happens my only mention here of (the relatively prolific) Reviriego to this point as well.... And Les Capelles was likewise vague about when it was recorded: Mars Reveri says 2018 in one place & 2020 in another (& I didn't inquire...), but what it states more concretely is that it was mixed via grant in Bilbao in 2023-24. I suspect both are pre-pandemic recordings. In any case, Mars Reveri does make an impression, particularly with its strong opening, grains & static soon suggesting (quasi-Braxtonian) locale, "tinkling" feelings of ascent beginning... & soon plunging into a sort of sonic maw below. Evocations turn to doom, post-industrial again (even glitchy...), perhaps suggesting the more recent Behenii (& Trilla again...) in some ways, albeit there with aggressive horn at least to open.... Versus Sitsa then, lines unwind (less layered or étude-like...), becoming longer arcs, opening sweeping & colorfully twisting vistas.... (Per the cover art, we are supposed to imagine reveling on Mars? The music actually seems more equivocal, the martial reference looming... i.e. as return to war.) And then the unknown "Ibonrg" joins on voice for track #4 (of 5), emphasizing bass (e.g. growling, perhaps pace Phil Minton...), lending some novel textural aspects. Both there & in parts of the longer opening track, there're some unique & compelling textures, finally ending loudly (as if we're finally inside the machine...). So is García still performing? And how much of the sonic result on Mars Reveri involves editing or post-production? It seems that he could be a part of this ongoing conversation on electroacoustic landscapes & textures.... Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts

El producto final de una reunión de surrealistas tras decretar el fin del mundo.

“Mars Reveri” es uno de los discos más delirantes y lisérgicos que vas a poder echarte sobre la espalda este verano. Cinco genios de los sonidos desestructurados y la experimentación más genuina se dan cita para crear un disco definitivo que nada tiene que envidiar a los mejores momentos de Nurse With Wound. Hablamos de una genialidad absoluta que consigue atraparte a la primera escucha. 

Mars Reveri es como un mal sueño dentro de otro. Escucharlo produce la misma sensación que masticar papel de aluminio. Es algo delirante y retorcido, perfectamente ejecutado y poseedor de una producción envidiable. Un viaje por el subconsciente de un asesino en serie, o del cerebro de un perro enjaulado sin comida durante todo el fin de semana. Es un disco realmente embarazoso, enfermizo, lisérgico e hipnótico, que sabe transfigurarse constantemente dentro de un vórtice de inestabilidad y caos taxativo. Es delicioso y elegante: sabe agobiarte, pero con clase; sopesando el punto en el que puedes llegar a estallar para que ese momento no se produzca, y la vida de su discurso pueda consumarse por completo. 

La infinidad de recursos acústicos que se han utilizado para su confección es verdaderamente admirable. Aquí encontramos de todo: desde cuerda frotada hasta percutidla, pasando por un sinfín de materia analógica surgida de sintetizadores y mil y un lavados de pedales. La yuxtaposición sobre capas y la matemática aplicada que hace fluctuar las intensidades son muestras de garantía acerca de la consumada experiencia de este quinteto de ruidistas. 

El colectivo que ha llevado a cabo la ejecución de esta colosal demostración de maestría está conformado por cinco músicos de diferentes procedencias: catalanes, bilbaínos y portugueses. Nombres tan reseñables como el colosal Miguel A. García, que es uno de los principales orgullos de este país dentro de la música experimental, o el también ecléctico y conocido Ernesto Rodrigues, fundador del sello que publica este disco, son nombres que todo amante de la improvisación musical debe conocer. 

Cinco es el número de cortes que estructuran el trabajo. Cada uno de ellos se comporta de forma autónoma, pero complementando en cierta forma la esencia del anterior. Todos tienen en común el gusto por la oscuridad y los contextos embarazosos, la cacofonía y la detumescencia acústica lavada a base de conceptualizaciones de genética dadaísta. Un álbum que nada tiene que envidiar a productos realizados por grandes referentes de este estilo como Nurse With Wound.

Mars Reveri ha salido a la venta hace poco, y puede ser adquirido en la página del propio sello. Te animamos a que bucees en estas fabulosas composiciones y te dejes dominar por el poder del inconsciente. Nomelody Magazine

An intense album of pyschedelic and subliminally detailed electroacoustic improvisation from the Portuguese quintet of Miguel A. Garcia on electronics, Abdul Moimeme on guitar & metals, Alex Reviriego on double bass, Ernesto Rodrigues on piano harp & viola and Carlos Santos on electronics, a powerful live set recorded in 2018 at Le Larraskito Kluba in Rekalde, Bilbao. (Squidco)