CD – Creative Sources Recordings – CS 809, Lisbon 2024
Intenso como o Mar
Guardei fundo as noites onde a inocência espreita
A marca dos teus pés
O lado das árvores
Os portões ocultos
O ritmo nocturno
Os murmúrios vinham de longe
Das esquinas que sustentavam o mundo
Quando as estrelas aceitavam o dia
E o impossível das nuvens era a forma desejada
Ernesto Rodrigues, 2021
1. I - 07'06''
2. II - 31'28''
Ernesto Rodrigues - Viola
Guilherme Rodrigues - Cello
Recorded December 2023, Lisbon
Cover design Carlos Santos
Reviews
Après une énorme quantité d’enregistrements avec des dizaines de collègues et une évolution qui va du minimalisme réductionniste hiératique grinçant à la complexité collective en mouvements constants et insaisissables, le tandem familial Rodrigues, Ernesto l’altiste et Guilherme le violoncelliste, nous offrent un superbe et révélateur « duo » intense et maritime qui s’écoute comme le monologue concerté « à deux têtes » et quatre mains sur la touche avec archet et huit cordes. J’ai rarement entendu (voire jamais) deux improvisateurs s’intégrer aux actions l’un de l’autre avec autant d’unité au niveau des formes mouvantes, de la dynamique, des sonorités, des timbres, des colorations, des accents, les phrases et zig-zags s’interpénétrant, les efforts de l’un relayant les écarts de l’autre dans de magnifiques unissons émotionnels …. Paul Lytton et Paul Lovens avaient intitulé leur premier LP « Was It Me ? » tant il était impossible de distinguer qui jouait quoi. Dans un autre univers et une autre époque, Intenso Come O Mar nous livre une sensation similaire. On pourra dire que les deux Rodrigues « surproduisent », mais aussi qu’ils peuvent adapter leur démarche instantanée avec des personnalités comme Alex von Schlippenbach, Carlos Zingaro, Daniel Levin Fred Lonberg – Holm, Florian Stoffner, Frank Gratkoswki et dans ce miraculeux témoignage en compagnie du clarinettiste grec Floros Floridis «Xafnikes Synantiseis » qui m’a fait une telle impression que je parviens à dire et écrire spontanément le titre en grec, malgré le déclin de ma mémoire.
Intenso Como O Mar est un album exceptionnel dans le sens que la très grande majorité des improvisateurs évoluent soniquement au sein d’une performance en tâchant que leurs sons et leurs improvisations se distinguent clairement de celles de leurs collègues. Ici c’est tout le contraire, leurs sons respectifs s’agrègent et se mélangent à ceux de l’autre, comme un peintre le ferait en mélangeant et agençant les couleurs sur un tableau. On retrouve ici la quintessence des nuanciers vivaces et insaisissables des albums avec Floridis, Gratkowski (Unstable Molecules), Daniel Levin et Maria Da Rocha (Hoya), Joāo Madeira (Chaos et Cosmos), Ben Bennett (This Full Mouth), Nuno Torres (Whispers in the Moonlight). En fait « collectif » jusqu’au bout des ongles et à la racine des cheveux. Inopiné! Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg (Orynx)
The chronicles of art, politics, and the wider (and by now rather ludicrous) concept of social evolution have consistently revealed clashes between fathers and sons yielding destructive consequences. As a matter of fact, countless lives have been permanently affected by the strain of growing conflict, fostering a profound resentment frequently leading to serious attrition.
In our context, therefore, it is wonderful to observe the opposite development of the improvisational duo comprising Ernesto Rodrigues on viola and Guilherme Rodrigues on cello who, over the years, have achieved an extraordinary degree of acoustic cohesion and intuitive synchrony. Guilherme's early demonstration of a creative aptitude was definitely a contributing factor in Ernesto's decision to pursue this sonic partnership. The common artistic intent is exemplified by Intenso Como O Mar, a live recording from 2023 that symbolizes the transformation of the adult/adolescent pair into a unified full-grown entity, while maintaining the same objective: to articulate the ephemeral through the interaction of instruments crafted from wood and strings, typically (though not exclusively) played with a bow.
Aside from the stereotypical notion of "genre", the essential indicators of a musician seeking expressive authenticity consist of distinctive, constantly evolving forms. Surprise and consciousness, worry and thought, immediate consideration and total calmness of the mental picture can all exist simultaneously in the narrative span of a spontaneous action. Amidst the remnants of what used to be called "reductionism", the two Rodrigues navigate every fissure that permits a beneficial glimmer of light to illuminate, even if slightly, the tiniest pathways.
Inside this soundscape, hundreds of contrapuntal refractions allude to hypothetical harmonies and tuning systems that could never belong to a realm of predictability. It's the result of a virtually telepathic interplay, in which the ability of one to understand in advance what the other will do, and respond accordingly, can be clearly distinguished. Stunning, nonetheless, is the affinity of some of these exchanges with modern classical dialogues, as if Ernesto and Guilherme were focused on an imaginary score. Probably they are; it is the one in which their parallel existence is notated, entirely devoted to unpolluted sound and its most intimate ripples, the latter often explicated via refined extended techniques. Two symbiotic souls, a music deeply touching for its absolute lack of ambiguity within a severe, honest inner quest. Massimo Ricci (The Squid's Ear)
With the nearly telepathic communication that only a father & son duo could have, Lisbon violist and Creative Sources label leader Ernesto Rodridgues and cellist Guilherme Rodrigues recorded these two string improvisations live at Cossoul in Lisbon during the "Esta Noite Improvisa-se", a melding of remarkable technique, concentration and profound expression. (Squidco)
