Alba

CD – Creative Sources Recordings – CS248, Lisbon 2013

1. Alba I - 15'53''

2. Alba II - 10'22''

3. Alba III - 09'57''

4. Alba IV - 12'36''

Ernesto Rodrigues - Viola

Louis Laurain - Trumpet

Guilherme Rodrigues - Cello

Ricardo Guerreiro - Computer

Recorded in June 2012, Lisbon

Cover design Carlos Santos

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

Reviews

Neste trabalho com as presenças, também, de Louis Laurain e Guilherme Rodrigues ouvimos o que poucas vezes sucede nos domínios da informática musical: um “laptop” gestualista. Lá está esse precioso elemento de ambiguidade – o gesto sonoro “imagina” um gesto corporal, mas este é teatralizado. Na realidade, o “laptoper” fica imóvel diante do ecrã. Rui Eduardo Paes (Jazz.pt)

[...] Begin with Alba, which contains four improvisations by Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Louis Laurain on trumpet, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello and Ricardo Guerreiro on computer. All four pieces exist within a sonic space of subtle movement. The basic sound shape running throughout most of the recording is a slowly mutating, ambiguously dissonant chord wrapped in an outer shell of electronic white noise. Although the identity of individual instruments is largely submerged, here and there their signature traces emerge, such as slow, pressure-heavy bowstrokes; a rush of breath; the scrape of hair or the tap of wood against strings. Somehow, it’s hard not to hear Alba through the impressions suggested by its title. “Alba” is Portuguese for “white”, and the four improvisations individually and collectively bring to mind Kandinsky’s or Ryman’s white-on-white paintings. As with the paintings these four tracks seem at first to be monochromatic, but on closer attention they reveal a spectrum of shadings in their details. With this recording, one can almost visualize the plasticity of sounds as they respond to each other across the surfaces of audio space. A rewarding listen individually and taken together. Daniel Barbiero (Avant Music News)

I’m starting to think that no free improvisation group that includes Ernesto and Guilherme Rodrigues could displease me. Alba is a session from June 2012. The instrumentation (in the order above) is: viola, trumpet, cello, and computer. Perfect chemistry, sonic molecules meet, briefly fuse, then go their own ways. Fine, subtle, sustained playing, and there’s no real dichotomy between acoustics and electronics (Guerreiro’s work is remarkable). Four 10-to-16-minute pieces, four highlights. François Couture (Monsieur Delire)  

O trompetista francês Louis Laurain é o principal ponto de destaque de um quarteto que reúne colaboradores regulares, que se conhecem muito bem, de muitas gravações e muitas actuações. Ao lado de Laurain estão Ernesto (na viola), Guilherme (no violoncelo) e Ricardo Guerreiro (no computador). Mais uma vez apontando a um registo de extrema sobriedade, com o trompetista a integrar-se facilmente no alinhamento sonoro do grupo, as contribuições de cada elemento são precisas. O laptop de Guerreiro volta a destacar-se entre o quarteto, com uma prestação sólida. Nuno Catarino (Bodyspace.net)     

I have lost count of the number of collaborative releases on Creative Sources where Ernesto and Guilherme Rodrigues got involved, but I'm often surprised about the fact I have not get bored by them yet as they maybe managed to involve many different collaborators. The two other musicians who took part to the four long-lasting improvisations they recorded on 9th June 2012 at Tch3 by Joel Conde are Louis Laurain on trumpet and Ricardo Guerreiro whose computer darned the sounds so masterfully that it's really difficult to understand when each instrument got filtered or not. The introduction of each track sounds like the awakening of an instrument after some centuries of hibernation and each musician could act like a cronics technician so that you are not going to listen to a series of abstract detained impulses, but the four parts of "Alba" sounds like the troublesome rescue of the decreased metabolism of improvisation after excessive sedation which often results in trembling tonal muttering that each instrument manages to find as if it renders an almost completely trophied muscle which begins to move again after endless seasons of idleness. Vito Camarretta (Chain DLK)

"Alba" (Portugese for "white") presents 4 improvisations by Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Louis Laurain on trumpet, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello and Ricardo Guerreiro on computer, slowly building subliminal works of subtle dialog using extended techniques and white noise. (Squidco)        

Asteres Planetai

CD – Creative Sources Recordings – CS246, Lisbon 2013

1. Asteres Planetai I - 14'18''

2. Asteres Planetai II - 09'32''

3. Asteres Planetai III - 08'39''

Ernesto Rodrigues - Viola

Nuno Torres - Alto Saxophone

Mike Bullock - Analogue Synthesizer

Recorded in June 2013, Lisbon

Cover design Carlos Santos

https://ernestorodrigues.bandcamp.com/album/asteres-planetai

Reviews

Curiosamente, ou nem tanto assim, é menos gestual o sintetizador de Mike Bullock em “Asteres Planetai”, registo em que Nuno Torres completa o trio. A qualidade bruitista da música repete-se, desmistificando a ideia de que a electrónica analógica cria mais grão, e mais uma vez aplicam-se perspectivas não literais de movimento. O que, de resto, favorece a envolvência onírica desta incursão. Rui Eduardo Paes (Jazz.pt)

The title of this release is Greek for “wandering stars,” the name the ancient Greeks gave the planets, whose orbits appeared irregular compared to the observed circular motion of the so-called fixed stars. It serves as a nice metaphor for the sounds created by these three instrumentalists which, like the observed paths of the planets, converge and diverge in patterns that resist reduction to simple figures.

Recorded in June 2013 in Lisbon, the three improvisations presented here feature Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Nuno Torres on alto saxophone, and Mike Bullock on modular synthesizer. All three tracks consist of sound construction built up of quiet textures and drones interspersed with moments verging on silence. The subtle dynamics are occasionally broken by upsurges in volume, which are all the more dramatic given the general understatement of the playing. The twittering, humming and burbling sounds of Bullock’s modular synth act as a sort of frame within which Rodrigues and Torres set out their own sounds. Both approach their instruments as material to be broken down into constituent parts: Rodrigues anatomizes the viola through exploratory string tapping, plucking, and a skittering bow, while Torres somehow makes reed, breath and metal tube audible as separate sound sources. In sum, this is improvisation of a gratifyingly nuanced

kind. Daniel Barbiero (AMN Reviews)

Nice title... :-) From June, 2013, a trio with Rodrigues again on viola, Torres on alto saxophone and Bullock eschewing bass in favor of his modular synth. As one might expect, quite different from the above, more visceral including the in and out usage of drones or drone-like passages effected, I think, both by the alto and the synth. It's not frenetic by any means just a few notches higher on the urgency scale than "Late Summer" as well as sporting an expanded sonic palette. Torres does a welcome job of allowing the listener to forget that there's a saxophone present while, on the other hand, Rodrigues engages in a tad more "traditional" technique extensions on the viola. Bullock seems to supply much of the material here, unless I'm confusing sources (quite possible), issuing metallic bubbles here, static there and various shades of sine-age throughout and interpolating a surprisingly loud and "inappropriate" noise on occasion which is much appreciated. It closes with watery gurgles...Not as captivating as the Malfatti trio but solid enough and well worth hearing. Brian Olewnick (Just Outside)

Os astrónomos gregos utilizavam a expressão “asteres planetai” - “estrelas errantes” - para classificar os objetos que aparentemente se movem no céu. Ao longo das três faixas deste disco o trio constituído por Ernesto Rodrigues (viola), Nuno Torres (sax alto) e Mike Bullock (sintetizador modular) desenvolve uma música que parece viajar na atmosfera sideral. Não é um voo tumultuoso, é um trajecto planante em piloto automático, sem surpresas, sem grandes desvios de rota ou obstáculos de maior. De uma forma geral o trio revela estar muito focado e coeso. Os pontuais momentos de maior intensidade partem do sintetizador de Bullock. Rodrigues, Torres e Bullock podem não ser estrelas, mas vão-se movendo, ainda que de forma tranquila. Nuno Catarino (Bodyspace.net)

The rich but understated improvising trio of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Nuno Torres on alto saxophone, and Mike Bullock on modular synthesizer, named after the Greek term for wandering stars, an apt description of their balance of space, acoustic, and electronic sound. (Squidco)

Berlin

CD – Creative Sources Recordings – CS238, Lisbon 2013

1. I - 02'50''

2. II - 06'53''

3. III - 13'53''

4. IV - 10'18''

5. V - 09'56''

6. VI - 05'02''

Ernesto Rodrigues - Viola

Chris Heenan - Alto Saxophone, Contrabass Clarinet

Alexander Frangenheim - Double Bass

Ofer Bymel - Percussion

Recorded in April 2010, Berlin

Cover design Carlos Santos

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

Reviews

Mais seco é “Berlin”, edição em que Ernesto Rodrigues surge num quarteto acústico com Chris Heenan, Alexander Frangenheim e Ofer Bymel. A ausência de instrumentos eléctricos e electrónicos não reduz a dimensão noise – ela está lá, mas é humanizada, por assim dizer. O gestualismo é mais rude, mais naturalista. Há uma menor dramatização musical e por isso talvez uma menor preocupação relativamente à própria musicalidade. Rui Eduardo Paes (Jazz.pt)

Recorded in April 2010 in Berlin, this set of six pieces for a mixed ensemble of strings, wind and percussion situates free improvisation firmly in a 21^st century chamber setting. The ensemble, consisting of Chris Heenan (alto saxophone and contrabass clarinet), Ernesto Rodrigues (viola), Alexander Frangenheim (double bass) and Ofer Bymel (percussion) is a finely calibrated unit improvising in the vocabulary of fragmentary modernism. Variably grouped pitches organized as discrete points of sound abound, along with leaps in register and dynamics, punctuated by silences. The quartet tends to the cerebral, yet at the same time it is deeply physical in its engagement of the beauty of raw sound in a distinctly musical context. Rodrigues’ viola playing stands out by virtue of his creative use of a varied set of techniques and phrasings: Rapid bursts of notes offset by spiccato bowing, drones and stabs. Likewise Frangenheim draws on an interaction with the bass that exploits the rich span of the instrument’s range. Bymel’s percussion work is never less than astute and judiciously placed, while Heenan’s versatility on both high and low register winds complements the group’s sound with an essential array of timbres. Daniel Barbiero (AvantMusicNews)

This record sounds more coarse than Lisboa reviewed yesterday. The instrumentation (in the order above) is: alto sax/contrabass clarinet, viola, doublebass, percussion. Lots of multiphonics from the reeds, heavy grating from the strings, skin rubbing. These improvisations can be highly abstract and etheral at times, but elsewhere, and especially in Part 6, the music gains a strong animal quality, like a weird, menacing jungle. François Couture (Monsieur Delire)

The four blurred vertical lines on the cover artwork, which look like scuff marks on an asphalt-like homogeneous surface or possibly waveforms which crosses a silent space, could be a good graphical condensation of the umpteenth finding in the basket of recorded improvisations that Creative Sources decided to release and entitle by means of the names of the locations where they got recorded. Each line could be matched to the involved musicians: Ernesto Rodrigues, whose fanciful oestrus on viola should be known by my followers, talented double-bass player Alexander Frangenheim, that I already introduced here ad there, Israelian drummer Ofer Bymel on percussions and Berlin-based American saxophonist and clarinetist Chris Heenan on alto saxophone and contrabass clarinet. Besides the usual striking parade of odd techniques and dynamics, the first two parts of this suite let prefigure that no particular variations on a musical "organization", where all elements sound like strangled into a web of feeble interactions where no one can really stand out, could occur over the release and both the third and the fourth parts are in keeping with the previous expectations, but waters begin to get rippled in the final part of Part 4 and Fragenheim and Rodrigues begin to hit and scratch auditory nerves and strings on Part 5, before that sleeping wildness, which sounds like anesthetized in the previous parts of the record, explodes on the sixth final part of this session, which got recorded on 25th April 2010 at Studioboerne45, Berlin-Weissensee. Vito Camarretta (Chain DLK)

Gravado em Berlim, no ano de 2010, este disco reúne um quarteto über-internacional: o americano Chris Heenan (saxofone alto, clarinete contrabaixo), o alemão Alexander Frangenheim (contrabaixo), o israelita Ofer Bymel (percussão) e o português Ernesto Rodrigues (viola). O álbum tem por subtítulo “A Suite In Six Parts”, com os músicos a apresentarem uma peça repartida em seis momentos/blocos. Ao segundo tema ouvem-se picos de intensidade, com os instrumentos em choque; ao terceiro ouve-se o grupo unido num quase-drone; o quarto tema fecha em turbulência; ao quinto tema as cordas entram num animado diálogo/confronto. Este quarteto não repete ideias, trabalha diferentes ambientes, sempre de forma original. Nuno Catarino (Bodyspace.net)


Sur la couverture de Berlin apparaissent quatre marques de griffures. Symbolisent-elles les musiciens qui ont enregistré cette « Suite en six parties » ou sont-elles les traces de leur rencontre ? J’opterais pour la première hypothèse et j'ajouterais que la première griffure représente le violoniste Ernesto Rodrigues.
Avec Chris Heenan (saxophone et clarinette contrebasse de Trigger), Alexander Frangenheim (contrebasse) et Ofer Bymel (percussions), il improvise une petite musique de nuit et, malgré ses griffures, tendre est la nuit. L’archet tâtonne, glisse et après barre, tient le cap de l’improvisation. Devant l’inconnu que représente la minute ou la seconde qui arrive inexorablement, le quatuor peut vibrer (la clarinette en donne la meilleure preuve) et alors la nuit remue. Dans un cas comme dans l’autre c’est un beau souvenir de Berlin que nous dévoile là Ernesto Rodrigues ; un beau souvenir de nuit tendre qui remue. Héctor Cabrero (Le Son du Grisli)

Six pieces for strings, wind and percussion, free improvisation using unusual and extended techniques from the quartet of Ernesto Rodrigues (viola), Chris Heenan (alto saxophone, contrabass clarinet), Alexander Frangenheim (double bass)and Ofer Bymel (percussion). (Squidco)