Creative Sources Recordings: a arte de domar o indomável

 

Se falarmos da arte de domar o indomável, no campo da música, a história da Creative Sources Recordings pode ser o melhor exemplo, se não o único, que temos em Portugal, em especial nos campos da improvisação, experimentação e eletroacústica.

Se falarmos da arte de domar o indomável, no campo da música, a história da Creative Sources Recordings pode ser o melhor exemplo, se não o único, que temos em Portugal. Editora discográfica fundada em 2001 por José Ernesto Rodrigues, sob a sua alçada foram até hoje editados mais de sete centenas de discos dedicados à improvisação, à experimentação e à eletroacústica, para resumir o mais possível. Mas com tantas edições e um número ainda mais impressionante de músicos que fariam parte de eventual ficha técnica exaustiva, há muita mais música — ou géneros de música — para além desta redutora descrição.

Ernesto Rodrigues nasceu em Lisboa, a 29 de agosto de 1959. Orientado pelo oboísta, compositor e maestro Wenceslau Pinto, frequentou a Academia de Amadores de Música e, depois, o Conservatório Nacional, onde viria a estudar violino e composição. Estudou com Emmanuel Nunes, Paulo Brandão e Eurico Carrapatoso e integrou workshops e outras formações com Jorge Peixinho, Constança Capdeville e outros compositores. Como músico, Ernesto Rodrigues participou em discos de Fausto, Jorge Palma, Carlos Bechegas, Flak, Sitiados, Bernardo Devlin e Sei Miguel estreando-se em nome próprio, num duo com Jorge Valente, ex-Plexus, no CD Self Eater And Drinker, editado pela audEo, em 1999.

O principal interesse do violinista, como se percebia nesse disco, estava na música contemporânea, eletroacústica, e na ligação entre a obra composta e a improvisação livre. Nota-se que há na sua obra uma relação dinâmica entre a organização dos sons e a sua modulação mais, ou menos, espontânea. Alargando a sua dedicação a outro cordofone de arco, a viola, a sua criação musical seguiu cada vez mais um trajeto de distanciamento dos conceitos clássicos, preparando recorrentemente o violino ou a viola e intervindo ao nível da microtonalidade. Da sua criação sonora saem obras para música de dança, bandas-sonoras, artes plásticas e intervenção poética. Colaborou com muitos nomes destacados no panorama nacional e internacional da música improvisada e fundou ou integrou os grupos Metropolis, Fromage Digital, Lautari Consort, IKB (da expressão International Klein Blue), String Theory, Iridium String Quartet, Suspensão, Lisbon String Trio, Diceros, L'Ensemble Instable, Octopus, Isotope Ensemble, Luso-Scandinavian Avant Music Orchestra, New Thing Unit, Free Music Septet e a Variable Geometry Orchestra. Aliás, o duo formado por Ernesto Rodrigues e Jorge Valente, a que acima nos referimos, também já se chamou Orquestra Vermelha.

A Creative Sources estreia-se em 2001 com o CD Multiples, assinado em trio por Ernesto Rodrigues (violino, viola e também saxofone soprano), pelo seu filho Guilherme Rodrigues (violoncelo) e por José Oliveira (percussão e guitarra acústica). Nesse ano a editora lançaria mais quatro discos, depois outros quatro em 2003 e a partir daí regista-se uma intensa atividade editorial que, a três meses do final de 2021, conta já com mais de 700 referências lançadas. Registe-se também a realização do Creative Sources Festival, que tem lugar em Lisboa e apresenta ao vivo, ultimamente no espaço do O’culto da Ajuda, novos valores e nomes consagrados da música improvisada, experimental e eletroacústica, de Portugal e do resto do mundo. Acrescente-se ainda que a generalidade das edições discográficas e do material de comunicação da editora tem um traço gráfico comum e característico, uniformizador, assinado pelo músico e designer Carlos Santos.

A Creative Sources Recordings tem vindo a fazer, de forma cada vez mais notável, essa tarefa exigente e difícil de domar o indomável. Ou seja, a de dar um espaço de vida à música livre, seja improvisada, experimental ou eletroacústica, apresentando-nos um imenso conjunto de pequenas memórias discográficas, como as pedrinhas que se amontoam na areia das praias que visitamos e perante as quais sentimos o natural desejo de criar ligações, de acolher memórias, de as explorar sensorialmente e de as manter connosco para a vida. Luis Freixo

Creative Sources Recordings

 

photo: Ernesto Rodrigues, Hui Chu Lin, Guilherme Rodrigues & Marie Takahashi 

Tra le più produttive etichette discografiche dell’improvvisazione libera c’è sicuramente la Creative Sources di Ernesto Rodrigues. Oggi è un pò più semplice ascoltare la musica di Rodrigues e degli artisti che vi partecipano, grazie allo spirito di liberalità del portoghese e dei molti musicisti coinvolti: sia Rodrigues che i musicisti che incidono i cds su Creative Sources hanno raccolto (quasi tutti) la loro musica su una personale pagina bandcamp. Ho sondato una percentuale molto alta della produzione complessiva del 2020 della label portoghese e qui vi riporto un resoconto di alcuni lavori che mi sembra doveroso segnalare e che mi permettono di introdurre su queste pagine nuovi bravi artisti. Devo dire che l’etichetta di Ernesto mi sembra sempre più centrata sugli argomenti della libera improvvisazione, con una crescita delle produzioni di qualità. Ettore Garzia (Percorsi Musicali)

La scena jazz portoghese

 

La musica jazz ed improvvisata portoghese continua a stupire per il fervore musicale dei suoi principali centri e per la maturità raggiunta dai suoi musicisti. I nuovi factotum portoghesi sono le etichette discografiche: nel 2001 si fondano la Creative Sources Records di Ernesto Rodrigues (importante riferimento per l’improvvisazione libera) e la Clean Feed Records di Pedro Costa, etichetta di Lisbona attiva su più generi jazzistici: entrambe hanno fatto conoscere al pubblico una vera e propria pletora di artisti, ognuno con le sue specificità, dando vita ad un compendio completo del jazz di un secolo: partendo dalle ben note origini latine, i musicisti hanno percorso territori vicino al loro sentiment, abbracciando i generi storici del jazz (dal be-bop alla fusion, dal free alle avanguardie) e producendo nel contempo un loro status musicale. Certo, non sempre si tratta di prodotti particolarmente innovativi, va da sé che bisogna scavare nelle proposte, tuttavia nel complesso il risultato è molto positivo e spinge ad una costante attenzione sull’attività di questa scena. Ettore Garzia (Percorsi Musicali)

LE LISBON STRING TRIO LANCE LES INVITATIONS

 

Que le Portugal soit terre de musiques improvisées, c’est devenu une habitude. Que la scène lisboète ne soit pas avare de cordes de talents, de la guitare de Luis Lopes au violon de Carlos Zingaro, c’est un constat qui ne prend guère de temps pour être validé. Singulièrement grâce à l’insatiable travail d’Ernesto Rodrigues, acteur lusitanien incontournable de l’archet qui anime à l’alto depuis quelques années le Lisbon String Trio (LST).

Ses compagnons sont immuables : Miguel Mira au violoncelle et Alvaro Rosso à la contrebasse. Les compositions instantanées et collectives de l’orchestre s’inscrivent souvent dans une lecture très contemporaine - une expression que Rodrigues côtoie voire tutoie depuis des décennies.

Ernesto Rodrigues n’est pas le plus connu des musiciens de la péninsule ibérique, du moins dans l’Hexagone. Enregistreur infatigable, fondateur du label Creative Sources qui nous offre des pépites, il s’est saisi du format dématérialisé pour illustrer ses rencontres, tisser des liens et témoigner de manière régulière de ce qu’il faut considérer comme un constant work in progress. [...] Franpi Barriaux (citizen jazz)

FORÇAS GRAVITACIONAIS

 

photo by Nuno Martins

Em tempos particulares, especial foi a 14ª edição do Creative Fest, com três ensembles a actuarem no O’Culto da Ajuda em horários incomuns dos três últimos dias da semana que passou. A jazz.pt assistiu ao primeiro concerto, o de um String Theory que deve o seu nome tanto ao facto de incluir apenas instrumentos de cordas como ao entendimento que tem das forças gravitacionais descritas pela Teoria das Cordas.

Numa edição do Creative Fest marcada pela conjuntura pandémica que atravessamos, tanto em termos de conteúdo (três concertos apenas em três dias) como de horários (as duas primeiras actuações, a 19 e 20 de Novembro, foram marcadas para as 19h00, e a última, no sábado passado, aconteceu às 11h00), o curador do festival (e responsável da editora Creative Sources), Ernesto Rodrigues, escolheu três grandes formações do catálogo daquela discográfica, String Theory, Isotope Ensemble e IKB, de modo a reunir no O’culto da Ajuda o maior número possível de improvisadores da cena de Lisboa. A jazz.pt esteve presente na abertura, realizada com o agrupamento que tem por característica incluir apenas instrumentos de, ou com (caso do piano), cordas.

Daí o nome, String Theory, com referência à Teoria das Cordas, mas com algo mais a justificar tal escolha: se os objectos unidimensionais desta corrente da física são designados como “cordas” devido ao carácter vibracional que as leva a propagarem-se no espaço e a interagirem umas com as outras, ficou muito claro na prestação do ensemble – formado na ocasião por Ernesto Rodrigues, Maria do Mar, Yu Lin Humm, Miguel Ivo Cruz, Abdul Moimême, Miguel Mira, Carlos Santos, Flak, Luís Lopes, Pedro Bicho, Bernardo Álvares e Luísa Gonçalves –, que o mais importante factor deste campo de estudo científico, o da acção das forças gravitacionais, era o procedimento utilizado para todos os desenvolvimentos a que assistimos.

Com uma extrema contenção de volumes, o String Theory só não se aproximou do âmbito do chamado reducionismo porque eram profusos os pequenos elementos que se aglomeravam no ar, com muitas coisas a acontecerem em simultâneo, formando camadas sobre camadas. O principal centro gravitacional era, como habitualmente nas prestações do projecto, o próprio Ernesto Rodrigues, que introduzia as sequências definindo o rumo a seguir ou olhava para os lados a fim de os restantes instrumentistas se prepararem para uma mudança de direcção. À viola do discreto condutor iam-se associando timbres e contribuições, seguindo um percurso tão bem organizado que parecia, por vezes, composto ou de alguma maneira predeterminado.

Outros elementos de gravidade se proporcionaram durante a viagem: por exemplo, Maria do Mar ora desenvolvia no violino as linhas da viola, ora se relacionava com o violoncelo de Yu Lin Humm. Ao piano, Luísa Gonçalves optou, regra geral, por introduzir factores de contraste, o mesmo fazendo Miguel Ivo Cruz com a sua viola da gamba, no seu caso puxando a música para contextos mais convencionalmente camerísticos. Na circunstância substituindo os seus habituais “laptop” e sintetizador por uma cítara, Carlos Santos decidiu ter uma intervenção ainda mais liliputiana do que as dos demais, de tal modo que o que fazia com um “e-bow” e com preparações acabava por se distinguir. Inclusive, das “camas” abstractas criadas por Abdul Moimême, que submeteu a sua guitarra acústica às suaves agressões de címbalos e diversas aplicações metálicas.

Tudo isto exigia do público uma grande concentração auditiva, única forma de captar todos os detalhes, ainda que a mesma surgisse muito naturalmente. As atmosferas, que a estes ouvidos sugeriam calmas ondulações do mar ou de um campo de trigo, convidavam a um “deixar-se ir” prazenteiro e algo encantatório. No final, Rodrigues colocou o seu instrumento sobre o joelho, assinalando que o concerto (que durou um pouco mais de uma hora, sem interrupções) ia terminar, aguardando que as emissões sonoras do ensemble fossem gradualmente perdendo massa até se instalar o silêncio – para todos os efeitos a maior força gravitacional do mundo auditivo. Não foi uma viagem estratosférica, esta: foi, isso sim, uma viagem pelo interior de nós mesmos, comprovando que até uma orquestra pode ser introspectiva. A actuação foi gravada e irá ser editada em disco da Creative Sources num futuro próximo, para outros além dos presentes (a lotação máxima era de 25 pessoas) poderem ouvir o que se passou ali para os lados de Belém. Como afirmou o físico Brian Greene, «as coisas são como são no universo porque, se não fossem, não estaríamos cá para darmos conta delas». Rui Eduardo Paes (Jazz.pt)

FALLING BEHIND ERNESTO RODRIGUES

photo: Ernesto Rodrigues & Carlos Bechegas

Catching up with Ernesto Rodrigues is a futile pursuit. I had been planning this post for a few weeks at the end of 2019. I aggregated a slew of albums, a non-methodically chosen most of his Creative Sources releases over the last few months of the year. And now, just a few weeks later, he has already outpaced me. Hence, despite my best efforts, I am still falling behind. Nick Ostrum (The Free Jazz Collective)

A CRIAÇÃO DO MUNDO

photo: Rodrigo Amado Motion Trio Large Ensemble by Bruno Ferrari


A CRIAÇÃO DO MUNDO

Foi com 24 concertos, nos mesmos sete dias da cristã criação do mundo, que se cumpriu a 13ª edição do festival promovido pela Creative Sources. Muito aconteceu pelos lados de Belém com a participação de várias dezenas de improvisadores portugueses e uma mão-cheia de convidados de outros países – a jazz.pt faz “zoom”, neste relato, sobre duas das sessões...

Foram sete dias seguidos de festival, de 18 a 24 de Novembro, com três ou quatro concertos por sessão no O’culto da Ajuda, em Lisboa, num total de 24. Com 13 anos de vida cumpridos em 2019, o Creative Sources Fest já há muito nos tinha habituado a tamanha oferta. Uma boa parte dos participantes – os habituais no catálogo da editora conduzida por Ernesto Rodrigues – surgiram várias vezes em palco, integrados em diferentes formações, mas ainda assim houve lugar para a imprevisibilidade e a surpresa.
Os Spiegel abriram as três noites iniciais com a aplicação de um conceito assaz interessante: na segunda actuação tocaram com, e sobre, a gravação da primeira, e na terceira sobre, e com, os registos das duas anteriores, jogando com as dicotomias entre o directo e o diferido, a improvisação “in loco” e a que criativamente se pode estabelecer com a memória auditiva documentada. Carlos “Zíngaro”, um veterano da música improvisada nacional (e internacional, será de acrescentar) que só se associou à marca Creative Sources quando, o ano passado, surgiu como convidado especial do Lisbon String Trio no álbum “Theia”, esteve presente em três importantes momentos – um em que tocou com Ernesto Rodrigues, Guilherme Rodrigues, Hernâni Faustino e o recentemente regressado às lides musicais José Oliveira, outro inserido no colectivo IKB (para o qual contribuiu também essoutro nome maior da música nacional que é Pedro Carneiro) e um terceiro com o Rodrigo Amado Motion Trio Large Ensemble. Encontrá-lo na mesma formação em que esteve Maria Reis, a vocalista e guitarrista das roqueiras Pega Monstro, não era propriamente expectável.
Façamos, para este relato do que aconteceu em Belém, um “zoom” sobre dois dos dias do cartaz, os de 22 e 23. A maratona arrancou com um quarteto de ocasião em que três músicos portugueses que antes já tínhamos encontrado juntos, Luís Vicente, Rodrigo Pinheiro e Hernâni Faustino, contracenaram com o baterista belga Tom Malmendier. Mais próximo do jazz do que a maior parte dos grupos alinhados para esta edição do festival, o quarteto pegou nos motivos da linguagem free e adequou-os a uma situação que prescindiu de qualquer tipo de amplificação (contrabaixo “unplugged” e ausência de microfones), com a bateria a trocar a habitual sustentação motórica por construções texturais de especial elegância. A música resultante tornou-se acentuadamente meditativa, se bem que decorrendo ao largo de quaisquer paisagismos. Instantes houve em que parecia estarmos a ouvir o Kenny Wheeler dos anos 1970, trompetista por quem, de resto, Vicente tem particular devoção.
Os minutos introdutórios da prestação que se seguiu, de Étienne Brunet com Carlos Santos e Carla Santana, pareciam dirigir-se para terrenos bem distintos, com o saxofonista francês a associar-se com um “laptop” aos sintetizadores e demais parafernália electrónica dos seus parceiros de circunstância. Quando Brunet pegou no sax soprano voltámos a ouvir os típicos fraseados do jazz, numa abordagem tonal que contrastava assumidamente com os crepitares ruidosos (Santos) e os “drones” de base (Santana) que o envolviam. Por detrás do trio passou um vídeo com imagens invertidas do mar e do céu, emaranhados de cabos eléctricos e um Étienne Brunet a tocar para elefantes, com o músico e os animais convertidos em manchas de cor. Foi curioso e interessante quanto baste.

O melhor veio depois com o projecto String Theory, uma piscadela de olho deste agrupamento exclusivamente de cordas (que incluiu um piano, mas sem uma única vez se terem utilizado as teclas) à chamada teoria das cordas, ramo da física que procura explicar o universo substituindo a noção de que a essência deste não está nas partículas em forma de ponto da vulgata desta ciência, mas nos objectos unidimensionais a que se dá o nome de cordas, devido à condição vibracional dos ditos. Pois o concerto lidou precisamente com o factor vibração, com os intervenientes (Ernesto Rodrigues, Maria do Mar, Ulrich Mitzlaff, Miguel Mira, Ricardo Jacinto, Abdul Moimême, Pedro Bicho, Hernâni Faustino, Sofia Queiroz e Mariana Carvalho) a subverterem as lógicas seculares dos ensembles camerísticos formados por cordofones sem nunca verdadeiramente saírem desse âmbito. O eixo do decateto esteve na combinação da viola de Rodrigues e do violino de do Mar, que conduzia todos os procedimentos, com a tríade de violoncelos e a dupla de contrabaixos a ampliarem os efeitos vibracionais causados por esse núcleo como se fossem as rugas causadas por uma pedra na superfície da água de um lago. Às duas guitarras e ao interior do piano coube o acrescento dos demais contributos sonoros, sempre com o propósito de dar a perceber que pontuar é, afinal, traçar uma linha.
A noite que se seguiu arrancou com um solo da italiana de origem coreana Yu Lin Humm, todo ele feito de delicadas filigranas, numa sonoridade mista de música clássica e folk. Ainda que de agradável audição, a curta peça era muito obviamente escrita e foi interpretada sem introdução de passagens improvisadas, ou assim pareceu, pelo que surgiu algo desenquadrada no âmbito em causa. Totalmente improvisada – e a cada passo beneficiando da experiência como improvisadores dos três músicos – foi a prestação de Ernesto Rodrigues e Rodrigo Pinheiro com o norte-americano Fred Lonberg-Holm que se sucedeu a esse simpático equívoco. Inebriante, misteriosa, alternando entre uma grande intensidade e mais serenos caudais, dir-se-ia que a música deste trio em estreia absoluta vinha de percursos comuns entre todos e até de repetidos ensaios, mas assim não se verificava. Nada tinha sido previamente estabelecido, e apesar disso aconteceu aquela imediata empatia musical que só a prática da improvisação permite, mas que raras vezes se proporciona.
Tocou depois o Trio PAN(a)Sónico de Maria do Mar com os espanhóis Juan Cato Calvi e Luis Erades, este sim, um grupo que tem tido um trabalho continuado no tempo. A violinista, o clarinetista e o saxofonista levaram para o O’culto uma partitura, com a performance a variar entre a sua estrita leitura e improvisações nela inspiradas ou dela derivadas, alturas havendo em que se tornou difícil distinguir o que estava notado e o que foi espontâneo. Harmónicos, dissonâncias, choques de frequências, multifónicos, microtons: deste tipo de materiais se fez a proposta, criando uma zona de reconciliação entre a sensualidade das formas e o cerebralismo dos processos. Mais uma vez do Mar revelou estar numa excelente fase do seu percurso e especialmente cativante foi o modo como Calvi usou a voz em uníssono com o clarinete baixo, como se fosse o Ian Anderson (flautista dos Jethro Tull) das madeiras.
“Zoom” desfeito e grande plano: pelo que se ouviu no Fest deste ano, a música improvisada está de óptima saúde no nosso país, e ainda capaz de nos oferecer coisas novas e diferentes. Valerá a pena acompanhar os próximos episódios desta cena sedimentada à volta da Creative Sources. O mundo está criado, resta-lhe que viva… Rui Eduardo Paes (Jazz.pt)

Father, Son & Holy Ghost

photo: Davide Piersanti, Matthias Bauer, Matthias Müller & Ernesto Rodrigues


If Carlos Zingaro is the Father of the avantgarde, free jazz and free improvised string music in Portugal, Ernesto is the Holy Ghost, and his biological son, Guilhermo, is the Son, completing the Trinity. The true father and son play often together, but not always. They belong to world leaders of free improvisation with strings, no doubt about it. They are strongly connected to Creative Sources Recordings label, grounded by Ernesto. [...] Maciej Lewenstein

Ezz-thetics

There may be no more utopian ideal of music (save for a Cagean walk in the woods) than the free-improvising orchestra, a group coming together with only a minimal plan if any, a spontaneous dream of community as sound, sound as community. It can be as beautiful and terrible as a traffic jam with horns laid on, a storm in the mountains, a summer explosion of crickets and cicadas or a troupe of Geiger-counter-wielding metal hunters arriving at an unmarked mine field (a massed language of clicks followed by much mixed sound). Conversely, it can be as dreary as a faculty meeting with multiple agendas, recurring components and suddenly-sprung team-building exercises that you didn’t anticipate (or did).

Lisbon is increasingly a producer of large-ensemble free improvisation (like the notable Lisbon Freedom Unit reviewed in this issue’s Moment’s Notice), most often under the direction of violinist/violist Ernesto Rodrigues. Rodrigues is the founder/director of the Creative Sources label, one of the most active free improvisation labels in the world; recently he has turned increasingly to larger ensembles. Among the early works on Creative Sources, such events are rare, like Rodrigues and his cellist son Guilherme playing with the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, GIO Poetics (CS114). There’s also a three-CD set released in 2007 of early works by the Rodrigues-led Variable Geometry Orchestra (VGO), a very large grouping drawing on the breadth of the Lisbon improvising community. In the past few years, though, Rodrigues has been leading and recording a host of different shifting groups, like Isotope Ensemble, String Theory, Suspensão, Diceros, Octopus and IKB, as well as the now venerable VGO.

Part of what makes the recent activity possible is the scale of the Lisbon improvising community, a remarkably active group that has grown immensely in the 21st century. The city is home to two of the most active labels for free jazz and improvised music, Pedro Costa’s Clean Feed and Rodrigues’ Creative Sources, and the community of musicians, used to relatively scant rewards, feels more collective and collegial than cutthroat competitive. Among them, too, are musicians who readily move between free jazz and various modes of free improvisation, like cellist Miguel Mira, guitarist Luis Lopes, pianist Rodrigo Pinheiro and bassist Hernâni Faustino.

As a frequent summer visitor, I can’t help but include Lisbon’s ambitious, forward-thinking festival, Jazz em Agosto, among the inspirations. It has provided a multitude of opportunities to hear the greatest of large improvising ensembles, including many that rarely get to travel far from their home bases. Over the past 35 years, Sun Ra, Trevor Watts, George Russell, Willem Breuker, Kenny Wheeler, Anthony Braxton, Bill Dixon, Otomo Yoshihide, Evan Parker, John Zorn, Frode Gjerstad, Peter Brötzmann, Wadada Leo Smith, Butch Morris and Barry Guy have presented improvising orchestras in Lisbon, along with the Instant Composers Pool Orchestra, Globe Unity Orchestra, Rova’s Orkestrova – Ascension and even Vancouver’s NOW Orchestra, a Canadian band that has likely played Lisbon as often as it’s played Toronto.

While Rodrigues’ several ensembles function on different principles of musical space and time, they have certain key characteristics in common, from their form to their presentation. There are always Rodrigues’ wide-ranging sources of inspiration, analogies drawn from geography or cosmology or the table of elements, and the music the orchestras develop is alive with multiple systems, internal dialogues and memoranda, parallels to other processes and aspects of thought just below the surface, a kind of collective mind, an auditory encyclopedia, a special group consciousness born of long familiarity.

There’s something about the activity that’s reminiscent of Bernie Kraus’s Great Animal Orchestra and its account of the origins of music in the natural environment. It’s sound-friendly, with a kind of pure musicality, relaxed in a way that’s in sharp contrast to the inbuilt theatricality of much conduction, that can sometimes feel like Canetti’s notorious description (in Crowds and Power) of the 19th century conductor, but further drained of all musical rigor.

I’m restricting my comments here to just a few of these groups and releases. It’s one of the difficult aspects of coming to terms with this music that there’s just so much of it and that it’s so rich, given the frequency with which Rodrigues convenes these orchestras and the quality of their music.

VARIABLE GEOMETRY ORCHESTRA

The VGO is the mother of all Rodrigues’ larger projects. In 2007, he released Stills, the three-CD set of the group that occupies a special place, CS100, in the Creative Sources catalogue. It was already a sprawling ensemble, rich in winds, percussion and electronics, taking in a broad swath of the Lisbon musical community. At the time it included musicians like electronic improviser Raphael Toral, local free jazz pioneer Sei Miguel, Brazilian saxophonist Alipio C Neto and the young pianist Rodrigo Pinheiro who would soon distinguish himself in Red Trio.

Through the years, numerous musicians have passed through the large ensembles, but there’s a core of musicians who frequently appear. Central to the project is the electronic musician Carlos Santos, who in addition to playing acts as recording and mixing engineer, and who is further responsible for Creative Sources cover designs. Others who appear frequently include alto saxophonist Nuno Torres, trombonist Eduardo Chagas and guitarist Abdul Moimême.

Rodrigues is highly articulate about the dynamics and contraries that inform the various ensembles, and the recent proliferation of mid-size ensembles (anywhere from roughly eight to 18 musicians) has given the VGO an increasingly distinct identity in terms of its large forces. It’s also distinguished by the significant role of conduction, but even here Rodrigues’ bandleading is of the gentlest, most productive, least theatrical sort. Here’s his description of the group and how he conceptualizes conduction:

“The music produced by the VGO results from layers of acoustic and electronic sound matter that constantly search for detail and meaning. Its sounds contain subliminal as well as psycho-acoustic characteristics and include the possibility of complete silence. The music emerges as if from nothingness only to disappear once again back into it. Thus chaos is formally organized with the use of new concepts of indeterminism and instantaneous composition, as well as through the asymmetrical eruption of alternated moments of sound and silence (the absence of identifiable sound). Nevertheless, sound prevails.

“The conduction is operated by balancing the sound masses that travel in the acoustic space, dictating the construction of the real-time composition, and thus revealing the organized juxtaposition of specific instruments as mobile sound groups. This leaves space for the musicians to regain their natural rhythm and breathing, as well as their sense of random pulsation. It also allows them to listen to all the sound events that are happening at any given moment and thus to act accordingly. On the contrary, they can simply listen to what another musician has just begun. The musical space is thus filled only with the intrinsically essential elements.

“Another of the outstanding aspects of the orchestra is how open it is to new participants. That is one reason why it is called “variable.” The influx of new creative power is tempered only with a truly democratic spirit where hierarchy is reduced to a bare minimum, also permitting a very large number of combinations and permutations of smaller ensembles to be arranged on the spur-of-the-moment. Last, but not least, the orchestra encompasses three generations of musicians who have set age aside to pursue a common contemporary language. Each performance is a Conduction.”

That silence to which Rodrigues refers is a virtual constant in his large ensembles. Regardless of the size or instrumentation, the performance begins there, in near silence, voices entering reluctantly, the music arising as a seeming necessity. The most recent VGO release is a two-CD set, Ma'adim Vallis(CS494), named for the enormous valley on Mars “about 700 km long ... over 20 km wide and 2 km deep in some places ... thought to have been carved by flowing water early in Mars’ history” (Wikipedia). The first CD, Construction #47, stretches the ensemble to 36 musicians (including a choir of four melodicas supplementing eight reeds, one of them an accordion), while the second, #48, scales it back to 19. In part based on its scale, its receptivity to saxophonists and its long history, VGO retains the strongest links to free jazz, with elements that reach back 50 years to the Jazz Composers Orchestra. Amid the vast moving blocks of sound, the sudden squalling roar of tenor saxophonist Paulo Galão harkens back to the original liberating force of musicians like Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders.

SUSPENSÃO

Suspensão is among the most intimate of these ensembles, an octet on Suspensão X, Porto Covo(CS418), from 2015, a tentet on Suspensão XI, Physis (CS496). It is one of those points where the level of group consciousness seems to be at the highest level.

According to Rodrigues, “It is mostly a tentet. Sound masses and frequency shocks are not here. The aesthetic line adopted is therefore that of orthodox reductionism, with a focus on timbral games and the maintenance of textures. It touches a lot (by the association of all contributions) with little (what each provides for the whole). The focus is on the sharp or suspensive treatments of the notes. Tension and stillness are combined in unusual ways, one undermining the other.”

Porto Covo, named for a coastal village south of Lisbon, starts with its evocative cover. The cover design by Carlos Santos is a minimalist one, light sand against contrasting blues of sky and water, with Mercator projection lines drawn over them, physical and abstract representations converging in the plane just as the two are alive in every sound. That movement that Rodrigues describes, between the tense and the still, is a kind of perfect balance, resulting in an encroaching sense of the microsecond, the infinitely detailed instant a sample of consciousness. It’s an art of great restraint, where the pop of a saxophone key can register as a significant event.

DICEROS

Rodrigues describes the group Diceros’ music as “Extended improvisation of mostly quiet, occasionally cantankerous, but always intriguing free music, primarily acoustic playing with a strong cast of string players, plus reeds, keys, and computer, creating suspenseful music of great tension and impressive restraint as the sound evolves in gradations and facets of sound.”

The CD Urze (CS426) testifies to Rodrigues’ ability to construct absolutely distinct ensembles within the broad range of his activities, even turning his personal sound palette inside out as he exchanges his violin and viola for a collection of other string instruments from distinctive folk traditions: a small harp, zither, dulcimer and rebec. The collective emphasis is on quiet instruments, and the group largely eschews both orchestral strings and the louder brass and reeds (Guilherme Rodrigues’ cello and pocket trumpet are the sole representatives). Some of the musicians in the nine-member ensemble have appeared only recently in the Creative Sources orbit, like André Hencleeday (he’s credited with megaphone on Ma’adim Vallis) who plays piano and psaltery here, or else appear infrequently, like “Flak” (João Pires de Campos), a guitarist who turns up playing acoustic in some of these large ensemble projects and who first appeared in the VGO’s Stills. Psaltery, acoustic guitar and Rodrigues’ zither are keys here, the entry point to the “little sounds,” myriad discrete events with relatively short decays, creating an unlikely pointillist blur. The winds, restricted largely to Bruno Parrinha’s clarinets and Paulo Curado’s flute, are also played with a special delicacy.

STRING THEORY (and strings in general)

Rodrigues is a dedicated string player. The Creative Sources catalogue abound in recordings with him and Guilherme in various free improvisation settings. There’s also a special place for strings among the large ensembles. The group String Theory pulls together interests in strings and physics, with Rodrigues proceeding from string theory, the notion of one-dimensional objects called strings propagating through space and interacting with each other. For Rodrigues, “This is the core idea and underlying the musical practice of this ensemble. Of variable formation, this ensemble is composed exclusively of strings (of all species and families). Everything can happen but in a controlled way. The strings family already transmits stability.”

That stability assumes the form of a drone in Tellurium (CS500), frequently a hive of sound created by a sixteen-member orchestra that tends strongly to low strings, including in its number five cellos and four basses, creating a droning, moving hive of great mass.

Sul (CS534) presents a similar string ensemble with American percussionist Andrew Drury matching discrete sounds with the string continuum. The music often has the serenity of chance composition, of an orchestral piece by Cage, with patterns that move at once toward symmetry and asymmetry. As monolithic as these performances can be, there are always instants where individual interactions can suddenly stand out. Here it’s the slashing power of the two basses, played by Hernâni Faustino and Alvaro Rosso.

This is just a brief sampling of what is already a great experiment in highly disciplined, large-scale improvisation, embodied in other groupings as well, including Isotope Ensemble, IKB and Octopus, each exploring different textures, different approaches, with sometimes subtle sonic metaphors for the elements, for particles, for the structure of time. More information about these releases is available at the Creative Sources web-site, and some of them can be readily heard at Rodrigues’ bandcamp site, a convenient point of entry to a vast and expanding world. Stuart Broomer (Point of Departure)

Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts

• It seems as though I'm always starting a discussion of new albums — and it's usually plural — from Ernesto Rodrigues with some sort of disclaimer. I guess that's both because he makes so many albums, and because I continue to especially enjoy many of them. Obviously there's nothing wrong with that, and so I guess the disclaimers come into play simply because I'm devoting so much time to his music, and also because on a "per album" basis, I'm being relatively neglectful. It's the latter that eats at me sometimes (& not only regarding Rodrigues), but there are only so many hours in the day, and the alternative is to say nothing, and so to feel as though good work is being ignored (which is also why I feel less of an urge to discuss albums that other people are discussing, although I do do that sometimes anyway). And then regarding the former, I haven't actually heard it, but I often imagine people thinking "Why is he always discussing the same musician?" Well, not always.... but Ernesto is creating a lot of music that I value, and in fact that often fits right into my priorities here in general. (And beyond that, he also releases a lot of great albums by other people too, often musicians who are unknown at the time, yet go on to more.... I can't even count the number of times I've "discovered" someone only to see that they already have a Creative Sources album. I don't know if Ernesto does all of his own talent scouting, but however that works, it's been very successful, and across a range of styles.) Moreover, although Ernesto plays with several of the same musicians over & over, he also engages much more widely, and that gives many of his albums very different characters. Even his personal discography has come to encompass hundreds of musicians, and involves a variety of styles & priorities. (One might even observe that simply assembling so many musicians into so many different groups, including of various sizes, is itself impressively musical within the basic mode of relation....) Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts

LISBON

photo: Guilherme Rodrigues, Udo schindler & Ernesto Rodrigues (München 2018)

Lisbon’s Hot Clube de Portugal, now more than 70 years old, is one of the world’s mythic jazz rooms. It’s an important stopping point for celebrated touring musicians, a vital space for Portuguese jazz artists and an anchoring center for jazz appreciation and education.
A school, Escola de Jazz Luís Villas-Boas, long has been part of the Hot Clube operation. “The Portuguese jazz scene is in fact surprisingly exciting,” said Inês Cunha, the club’s president since 2009. “There are now a few jazz schools, and a new generation of extraordinary musicians. But Portugal is a country in the ‘tail’ of Europe. It is harder for Portuguese musicians to play abroad. That is maybe why there are not that many Portuguese musicians known either in Europe or in the States.”
But the city’s a well-established hot spot for experimental jazz and free-improv, especially in August, thanks to Jazz em Agosto, a 35-yearold festival that has been run by Rui Neves— also a jazz broadcaster, critic and producer—for much of its history.
Regarding Lisbon’s jazz resources, Neves pointed to the improvisation-oriented Creative Sources label, run by violist Ernesto Rodriguez.
In Portugal, Neves said, “Jazz is learned at the university, and private schools are everywhere— but this is not making more creative musicians, only formatted musicians playing by the rules. However, there is in Lisbon a bunch of improvisers we can discover at the Creative Sources label who are getting some recognition.”
Additionally, the label Clean Feed, founded in Lisbon in 2001, is a prodigious supplier of recordings of improvisational and other
non-mainstream jazz albums. Josef Woodard (Down Beat)

Ernesto Rodrigues Quinteto

Aglutinador de gentes talentosas em inúmeras e variadas formações num valoroso trajecto de anos e anos, o mentor da imparável Creative Sources apresenta nas Damas um novo quinteto assente nas cordas e na percussão. Ao chamamento do violino e da viola d'arco de Ernesto Rodrigues respondem o violoncelo de Miguel Mira, o contrabaixo de Hernâni Faustino, a guitarra de Luis Lopes e a percussão de Gabriel Ferrandini. Proposta pouco usual vinda de um músico com aptidão larga para o desafio representada por músicos bem reconhecidos nesta casa e nas lides das músicas mais indefiníveis - da improvisação livre à contemporânea, do jazz ao lower case. (Damas Bar)

Azkuna Zentroa. Bilbao.

photo: Ernesto Rodrigues, Nicolaus Neuser, Guilherme Rodrigues & Kriton Beyer


Ernesto Rodrigues, Carlos Santos y Abdul Moimeme son tres de las figuras más interesantes de la escena de la música experimental en Portugal, un país con mucha tradición de música de vanguardia. El trio combina música acústica (Ernesto Rodrigues), electrónica (Carlos Santos) y electroacústica (Abdul Moimeme), este último acompañado de una guitarra con presencia visual. Azkuna Zentroa. Bilbao.

« Zon » bizarre de zombie blanc

Photo (by Nuno Martins): Variable Geometry Orchestra

A la recherche du tempo perdu. Quelques lignes pour définir une sensation simple : le battement du groove de la vie qui avance. « Zon » bizarre de zombie blanc. La « musique créative » du dynamique label « Creative Source » de Lisbonne est-elle à tempo comme la plupart des musiques anciennes, nouvelles, populaires ou savantes ? La « musique créative » est à tempo comme son

géniteur le « free jazz ». La « musique créative » est sans aucun tempo comme sa génitrice, la musique indéterminée de John Cage, Fluxus et bien avant le futuriste Luigi Russolo. La « musique créative » change en permanence de mesures puis n’a plus aucune mesure et plonge dans un agrégat sonore de couches de bruits urbains ou ruraux. Longs passages de drone semblable au

continuum de roues des voitures contre le bitume, au martèlement des trains contre les rails, aux rumeurs pesantes d’avion à réaction, limite de l’infra basse, des choeurs de climatiseurs, toutes sortes de machines domestiques. Longue agrégation de chants d’oiseaux proches d’un jeu déstructuré de saxophone ou de giclées d’harmoniques de cordes violées dans leur intégrité mélodique.

La « musique créative » est cousine de la musique classique en ce sens qu’elle est fortement « rubato » : accélération et décélération structurelle. Les improvisateurs doivent écouter pour interagir ensemble. Ils cherchent une écoute profonde pour réagir dans le sens des autres intervenants. Ils approuvent. Ils imitent en variations diverses. Ils cherchent à s’approcher des rythmes et tonalités surgis dans l’instant. Certains font un truc parallèle sans chercher à compléter le discours des autres. Mais est-ce que la musique est un discours ? Si par hasard, elle l’est, voir, savoir, tendre vers l’autre, entendre et répondre leur importe peu. Situation de gens qui parlent tous en même temps sans aucune envie de se répondre. Chacun son truc. Tout le monde tape dans le ballon, considéré métaphoriquement comme une grosse note rebondissante. Cacophonie de l’équipe. Folie finie. Oiseaux tournoyants sur les places du sud au soleil couchant piaillant par milliers. Chaos sonore des tramways « Electricos » brimbalant sur leurs deux rails, comme une portée au hasard Baltazard. Un rail par note. Une quinte « Fado » plus du bruit blanc et une quarte augmentée Fa dièse Do. Nostalgie d’un monde sonore qui n’était bien qu’en rêve.

Aux sources de la « musique créative » les anciens disques de la fin des années 70 du label FMP de Berlin. La fureur, la colère, la rage chaotique du « Kaput Play » donnait une sorte de groove insurrectionnel de révolte absolue. Renverser la réalité des vibrations sonores. Investir le temps relativiste. Être à la fois au début et à la fin du segment musical. Foncer à toute allure à travers

l’agrégat sonore. Aux sources de la « musique créative » Derek Bailey du label Incus de Londres, avait imaginé un langage atonal à base de quartes augmentées, septièmes majeur et secondes, intervalles dissonants pour supprimer les relations harmoniques entre les sons. Le saxophone hurlant est souvent une variante de la sirène de Varèse : « Ionisation pour 13 percussionnistes » est clairement à tempo. Les figures sont complexes, mais on entend bien une pulsation à travers des figures rythmiques sophistiquées. La sirène omniprésente, annonciatrice de catastrophes plane au-dessus du rythme. La partition est écrite avec des mesures à trois, quatre ou cinq temps sur un tempo constant. Cette musique d’avant-garde est rythmique au même titre que les peintures cubistes de Picasso font penser aux masques africains.

Bon, finissons-en ! Vite la coda. Pas d’ennui, mais le temps ne passe pas trop vite. Le temps a tendance à ralentir à l’écoute de la « musique créative ». Défilé ininterrompu de doubles croches plus des accents indéterminés en forme de boum ou de tchak comme s’il en pleuvait. Tempête de bruit blanc, rose, vert, gris. Aucune organisation précise. Est-ce que l’improvisation est comparable

à la peinture abstraite ? Des grosses taches de projection de son. Des formes larges et variables. Catapulte de boucan. Géométrie de notes. Ensemble de sonorités individuelles. Mathématiques modernes. Roulement de cymbale. Perceuse à l’attaque du métal. Certaines sortes de « musique créative » sont voisines de la musique dite « industrielle », mais à plus bas niveau en décibel.

D’autres précurseurs sont les musiques « lettristes » d’Isidore Isou et le « Cri-rythme » de François Dufrêne, relevant de la poésie sonore. La « musique créative » est un bruit-rythme, un anti-rythme, un para-rythme, un bégaiement-rythme, un barouf-rythme, un moteur-rythme, un scratch-rythme, un silence-rythme. D’autres sources d’inventions toujours exploitées dans la «musique créative» sont le théâtre musical de Mauricio Kagel, les compositions électroniques de Karlheinz Stockhausen et toutes sortes d’expérimentations de la musique contemporaine.

Ernesto Rodrigues est le fondateur du label Creative Source, il joue du violon alto et pratique la conduction de grands orchestres d’improvisateurs. La musique minimaliste de ses divers groupes au Festival « Creative Source Fest XII » de Lisbonne s’exprime à niveau d’intensité sonore hyper bas. J’ai joué dans deux de ces groupes : « IKB » (en référence au bleu Klein), « Isotope » (en

référence aux atomes et protons). Une immense structure sonore perceptible seulement au microscope/phone. Le niveau sonore est par moment plus bas que celui de mon acouphène. Le bruit parasite généré par mon cerveau s’écoule dans l’imperceptible triple pianissimo de l’orchestre. Mon psychisme dégringole dans l’infinitésimale inaudible musique. En plus de mes instruments

habituels, j’avais utilisé le larsen de ma prothèse auditive (on le génère en le retirant de l’oreille et en mettant sa main en conque pour faire une sorte de wah wah très aigu et de faible intensité).

Cette musique est une sorte de camaïeu de bleu. Un monochrome de continuum invisible. La « musique créative » des nuages, de la pluie, du soleil et de l’air du temps est jouée par des musiciens au ralenti de la relativité.

Paradoxe et obsession de la musique du silence. J’entends que je suis sourd. J’entends donc je suis. Je suis sourd donc je ne suis pas. Entendre le silence. Se taire pour s’accorder au silence.

Être capable de ne pas toucher son instrument. Dissoudre son ego dans le quasi-silence des instrumentistes occupés à jouer quadruple pianissimo. Prendre conscience du bruit des avions survolant la ville dans la nuit où toutes les voitures sont grises. Percevoir le son paradoxal des harmoniques qui montent et descendent simultanément. « Je mens. Si c’est vrai, c’est faux. Si c’est

faux, c’est vrai. » Paradoxe du menteur datant de l’antiquité, souvent cité par le précurseur de l’ordinateur, Alan Turing. J’entends une note tempérée. Si c’est juste, c’est faux. Si c’est faux, c’est juste. Une note tempérée est fausse par rapport à la justesse naturelle, tout le monde le sait. Je suis sourd. Si c’est vrai, c’est faux. Si c’est faux, c’est vrai.

Pourquoi visualiser la musique par une écriture, une partition graphique, ou des symboles quelconques? Les virtuoses tziganes de la « Mittel Europa », les joueurs de kora de l’ancien royaume du Mali ou les musiciens d’Inde du Nord jouaient d’oreille et de mémoire une musique complexe. Même s’il existe en Inde du Nord un système d’écriture qui sert uniquement de guide à la mémorisation. On ne lit pas en jouant. On lit pour apprendre par coeur (comme l’on-dit bizarre) et ensuite la musique semble venir d’un territoire céleste, mais elle surgit de la tradition.

L’improvisation, cela va sans dire, n’a aucun besoin d’être écrite, mais à l’heure du monde virtuel une épiphanie visuelle de vidéographie augmente l’impact sonore. La plupart des musiciens populaires post techno utilisent des clips visuels ou des animations de veejing. L’improvisation peut, elle aussi, être décorée avec de l’image. La tension entre audio et visuel créée un nouveau

sens. L’image est partout. Je suis obligé de plonger dans l’iconographie pour atteindre l’abstraction de la musique. La musique se déroule dans un temps constant. Le visuel et l’écriture peut se lire du futur au passé ou du présent au futur.

« Novo Video Scratch Orchestra » est une continuation du « Treatise » de Cornelius Cardew et de son groupe « Scratch Orchestra ». Ma version « novo » serait plus proche de « treatise » traduite comme « traitrise » que son sens premier de « traité ». Les règles restent identiques à la version originale : aucune règle. C’est de l’improvisation totale avec quelques indications minimums. L’idée de base est de remplacer une jolie partition graphique de style musique contemporaine par du veejing, de la vidéo graphique pleine de couleurs et de joie. (Ce n’est pas tant une trahison parce que Cardew cherchait à faire une musique d’avant-garde s’adressant au peuple et non à une élite).

Il est temps de mélanger tous les arts pour créer du nouveau. Les deux portées muettes en pied d’écran renvoient à l’idée de départ de « treatise ». La demi-heure de vidéo fabriquée en amont sera diffusée dans la salle, dans le dos des musiciens qui ne sont même pas obligés de la regarder. Des miroirs posés sur les pupitres comme des rétroviseurs permettent aux musiciens de visualiser la vidéo projetée derrière eux. Manipulation technique minimum.

Finalement je jour du concert à O'Culto da Ajuda, une belle salle destinée à la musique contemporaine de Lisbonne, j’étais le premier arrivé et le dernier servi. Un maigre sound check de cinq minutes. Pas de répétition. Il y avait cinq groupes au programme comme chaque soir de cette semaine du « Creative Source Fest XII ». Trois batteries sur scène et des instruments partout pour les groupes jouant avant et après nous. Plateau compliqué. Après avoir surmonté quelques solides difficultés les jours passés, le concert fut assez grandiose. Le projet a bien fonctionné. L’idée de contrôler la vidéo par des miroirs posés sur les pupitres sur scène était vraiment « fun ». Dans la pénombre, l’image vidéo reflétée par ces psyché à deux balles donnait l’impression de regarder

dans le fond d’un puits miraculeux de conte de fées. L’image était ternie bizarrement par son reflet.

L’image devenait magique comme si elle surgissait d’avant le siècle de la révolution technologique.

Une création diabolique d’images animées venues du mystère. La vidéo créative diffusée sur un écran géant prenait en otage les yeux des auditeurs comme n’importe quel programme de télévision. Étienne Brunet

Ljubljana on Creative Sources – Confine Aperto’s May event made onto a recording

photo: Ernesto Rodrigues; Guilherme Rodrigues & Dietrich Petzold


Lisbon-based prolific record label Creative Sources has just released a new album with violin, viola and clavichord player Dietrich Petzold, viola player Ernesto Rodrigues and cellist Guilherme Rodrigues. The album, simply entitled “Ljubljana”, was recorded on 17 May 2018 at Zavod Sploh’s Confine Aperto event, held at ŠKUC Gallery in Ljubljana.
The German-Portuguese trio released their debut album “Sacred Noise” last year, and since then they have presented two further works: “Crane Cries” with Estonian violin player guest Elo Masing, and “Dis/Con/Sent” with German double bassist Matthias Bauer. “Ljubljana” marks the fourth collaboration between Petzold and the Rodrigueses, and it is another chapter in the development of their intervowen collective language of sound of strings.
The album’s packaging design features typical motifs of Ljubljana’s urban landscape: silhouette of dragon sculptures, characteristic buildings, and the Ljubljana Castle itself. (Centralala)

Poche note sull'improvvisazione italiana: fonti creative e italiani alla Creative Sources

photo: Ernesto Rodrigues & Marie Takahashi

L'etichetta discografica dell'improvvisatore portoghese Ernesto Rodriguez da tempo lascia spazio all'ampia offerta di estrosità ed inventiva che proviene da tutto il mondo. E per quanto riguarda le registrazioni italiane c'è sempre qualità da scoprire. Ettore Garzia (Percorsi Musicali)

Creative Sources Fest: Novembro com 30 concertos em cinco dias

Está anunciada uma nova edição do Creative Sources Fest, o festival organizado pela editora portuguesa Creative Sources que, nos últimos anos – e neste mais uma vez –, se tem realizado no O’culto da Ajuda, em Lisboa. São cinco os dias de música ao vivo, de 5 a 10 de Novembro, com um total de 30 concertos. Algumas importantes participações estrangeiras se registam, como a da Shelley Hirsh Band (foto acima) e as parcerias com músicos nacionais por parte de Mia Dyberg, Ramón López, Wade Matthews, Étienne Brunet, Johan Moir e Fred Marty, entre outros. Alguns nomes de topo da improvisação experimental e do jazz criativo que por cá se praticam estão incluídos, como Rodrigo Amado com a sua Motion Orchestra (o trio base mais participações extra), o Sei Miguel Trio, Ernesto Rodrigues em diferentes contextos ou Miguel Azguime a solo. Cada um dos dias do CS Fest termina com uma grande formação da nebulosa Creative Sources, designadamente (e por ordem de aparição) String Theory, Isotope Ensemble, IKB, Suspensão, Octopus e Variable Geometry Orchestra.
O arranque é feito pelo Free Pantone Trio no dia 5, projecto de que acaba de ser publicado disco. Seguem-se o duo de contrabaixos de João Madeira e Hernâni Faustino, Ernesto Rodrigues em quarteto com Guilherme Rodrigues, Fred Marty e Carlos Santos e o duo de teclados e percussão Welcome to Silkeborg. A 6 apresentam-se a primeira de duas versões dos Spiegel, um solo do contrabaixista Fred Marty, o Lisbon String Trio de Ernesto Rodrigues, Miguel Mira e Alvaro Rosso com o tubista Gil Gonçalves como convidado e Wilfrido Terrazas com Hernâni Faustino e o já referido Ramón López. No dia 7 de Novembro sucedem-se Miguel Azguime, André Hencleeday, uma dupla formada por Gianna de Toni e Biagio Verdolini e o trompetista Sei Miguel com Fala Mariam e Bruno Silva.
A maratona de 8 inicia-se com o Spiegel II e continua com Maria Radich e Maria do Mar em trio com o clarinetista Noel Taylor, o duo electroacústico de Carlos Santos e Carla Santana e um colectivo fundado pelo violoncelista Guilherme Rodrigues com Quentin Stokart, Johan Moir e Tom Malmendier. A 9, as honras de abertura cabem a Nuno Torres, Hernâni Faustino e Nuno Morão, com a Novo Scratch Video Orchestra de Étienne Brunet, a tripla Wade Matthews / Abdul Moimême / Carlos Santos e a Motion Orchestra a prosseguirem os trabalhos. O fecho faz-se a 10 com os Garden de Luís Lopes, José Bruno Parrinha e Ricardo Jacinto, o quinteto de Ernesto Rodrigues, Mia Dyberg, Guilherme Rodrigues, Johan Moir e José Oliveira (este previsivelmente a recitar poesia, dado estar retirado como músico), o trio de Rodrigo Pinheiro, Pedro Sousa e Gabriel Ferrandini e o grupo da cantora Shelley Hirsh. Jazz.pt

Festival PiedNu 13eme édition (2018)

photo: Elo Masing, Tomo Jacobson, Mia Dyberg, Guilherme Rodrigues & Ernesto Rodrigues



Inscrit dans la mouvance improvisée depuis plus de trente ans, le violoniste et altiste Ernesto Rodrigues est également à l'origine du label Creative Sources, une structure lisboète accueillant en son catalogue les matières sonores les plus inédites. Loin du bruit et de la fureur, aux confins parfois d'un "réductionnisme tolérant", il pratique, notamment avec son fils Guilherme au violoncelle et Carlos Santos à l'ordinateur et au synthétiseur, une forme de composition instantanée, ou tissage immédiat des lignes émergeant au cœur de l'acte musical. (Pied Nu)

Suoni per il Popolo Festival: 18th Edition

photo: Ernesto Rodrigues, Nicklaus Neuser, Guilherme Rodrigues & Kriton Beyer (Berlin)


Montreal, Quebec. June 1 to 19, 2018. […] Shortly after closing time, l’Oblique Records became the venue for two sets of free improvisation: Portugal’s Luis Lopes led listeners down feedback alley, where his dexterous combination of scraped and banged metal on strings created a merciless flow of multilayered wails and percussive crashes. This was followed by a quieter set from Portuguese violist and Creative Sources label head Ernesto Rodrigues, who formed a trio with Montrealers Vergil Sharkya (analog synths) and percussionist Paulo J. Ferreira Lopes, playing only cymbals. Rodrigues used a soft bow, the hairs of which straddled the bridge to elicit sounds both above and below, drawing a rainbow of soft murmurs. Sharkya’s quick timbral changes showed close listening, while Lopes added various colours, using mallets, sticks and even a cloth rag to coax sounds from the cymbals. The next evening Rodrigues and the two Lopes proved their versatility in a high-energy free-jazz quartet with pianist Karoline Leblanc. Lawrence Joseph writes about music in Montreal (MusicWorks)

Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts

Photo: Ernesto Rodrigues, Karoline Leblanc, Luis Lopes & Paulo J Ferreira Lopes (Montreal, Canada)

Between Ernesto Rodrigues having recently created (or at least I recently noticed) a Bandcamp page for his many albums, and my own schedule being tied up waiting on materials (in this case, not so much music as some final texts in preparation for another long discussion that I'll be writing separately), this seems like a good time to make some other observations on Rodrigues's output in general, as well as to discuss some material I've neglected. Of course, with Rodrigues's massive output — & there are currently 172 albums on his Bandcamp page (and one might find more at any moment), the vast majority from Creative Sources, but only the albums on which he personally appears — some neglect seems almost inevitable, and indeed Rodrigues releases albums at such a pace that I never find myself saying that I last mentioned him around this or that, or originally there, etc.... So that's one difference from other musicians in this space, and I've also neglected his larger ensemble albums almost entirely: That's (still) not my focus, but I've mentioned such projects from some other prominent musicians at times, so allow me to interject a few remarks into that arena now as well. I first mentioned Rodrigues in this space in April 2012, with some reasonably descriptive comments regarding Le Beau Déviant & Brume — albums already evoking the sort of technologically mediated, yet naturally inspired, landscapes that run through so many Creative Sources releases. I didn't use the term "lowercase" then, but found myself using it soon after, as I picked up vocabulary from other music writers, particularly around jazz retail. Since then, I've come to question the label, and especially how broadly it's being applied: Per Wikipedia & elsewhere, the term apparently derives from US sound installation practice around the turn of the millennium, which makes it a relatively late entry into the "genre" domain. I don't know the specific history of how it was taken up as a retail category, particularly for music from Europe, but it's certainly not the only genre term that has come to expand into related outputs & impulses. In particular, "lowercase" is specifically suggestive of bringing something unnoticed, particularly an object, to attention. In other words, it's about illuminating one's sound source in some way, the illumination being the reason for selecting the source. In this it differs markedly from the older, related concept of Musique concrète, particularly in its original meaning from Pierre Schaeffer: There, it's abstract "musical" concerns that dominate, with the sound source being unimportant, or even effaced in the production process. (Sounds might be heavily edited, for instance, such that their origin becomes obscure.) In this sense, it would be difficult to suggest — at least in my opinion — that Rodrigues is attempting to illuminate unnoticed objects, at least not physically: Rather, although he often employs electronics (& a recording or even amplification already involves "electronics"), he's generally using traditional instruments in extended ways, the sonic relations produced being prioritized ahead of their "objectness." (And one could suggest that much music literally involves illuminating "objects" in the most general sense, usually musical objects, but then, why generalize the lowercase term to an ordinary musical outcome?) Musique concrète also suggests the creation — using electronics, originally tape decks, in a studio — of a finished musical product, rather than a score to be performed: At least in its early guise, it involved substantial editing, whereas Rodrigues uses minimal editing (or so I think, although selecting material does become editing), but does produce a finished musical result (a performance & then recording), rather than a score. Moreover, subsequent to (& really contemporaneous with) Schaeffer, ideas of Musique concrète were already extended in a variety of directions, including by composers such as R. Murray Schafer (who coined "soundscape" & further interrogated the separation of sound from its sources) & Luc Ferrari (who presented everyday environmental sounds, albeit heavily edited, as composition), et al. In the latter example, one does begin to perceive "canonical" lowercase emerging around both everyday-ness & intent, but that was 1970...! Further regarding the history of lowercase as a (retail) category or genre, it apparently emerged from ambient music — rather than referencing these European developments already well underway in the 1950s — and indeed I already had occasion to discuss the "ambient" concept earlier this year, around Rodrigues's quartet album Sîn: In that case, the basic ambient concept, that music should be suitable for greater or lesser attention, is coherent to me, even as "lowercase" starts to intersect so many ideas as to become meaningless... actually, I first used the latter term around Nor (recorded in 2014, discussed here in April 2015), the first release from the quartet that would later make Sîn, and my first "favorite" from Rodrigues. (The oldest current favorite is New Dynamics from 2016, an album that doesn't really suggest or confront these categories.) Now I have to question the coherence of the "lowercase" category further, especially when I see it applied to a recent album like Coluro, involving a great deal of abstraction around timbral parameters: One might say that aspects of musical instrument-objects are being illuminated, but I think that's a stretch. Rather, it's sounds combined for expression & effect (or affect). And moreover, music involving heavy doses of quiet or silence, as sometimes cited for lowercase, likewise dates back at least to the 1950s, to Cage et al.... Indeed, Cage is a cited influence for Rodrigues, as is, to a lesser degree (of acknowledgement, anyway), Xenakis: Xenakis emerged from a post-Varèse world to create musique concrète around Schaeffer at GRM, beginning with electronics & tapes, and — like Rodrigues — moves more into traditional acoustic instruments (in his case, via written music). If one intends "lowercase" to simply refer to music that uses amplification in order to focus on ordinarily quiet timbres, then I suppose that's coherent, although I'm not sure it reflects actual usage... (& doesn't that already describe e.g. hard body electric guitar?). In any case, I intend to be much more circumspect regarding my usage of the term in future, although I should add that, although it's received more & longer musical (& conceptual) interrogation, and appears to be a more direct historical inspiration for the efforts mentioned in this entry, "musique concrète" is not entirely suited either: Perhaps call it improvisational post-concrète, instead. (Rodrigues himself had adopted the label post-serial.)

That said, after the previous entry oriented on new releases from Rodrigues (& his son, Guilherme) in Berlin, let me return to Lisbon to highlight a couple of octet recordings from 2017: Urze (recorded January 2017) & Vulgaris (recorded June 2017) managed to slip through the cracks of Rodrigues's output for me, being neither small nor large ensembles. (And whereas neither recording date seems especially far in the past relative to other items discussed here, for Rodrigues, there have already been more than thirty subsequent albums released....) Both are interesting items within Rodrigues's broader output, a fact that obligation-free Bandcamp audition helped make apparent, such that Urze, by a mixed octet called Diceros, seems to bring some of the same concerns that Rodrigues articulates (in part) via his IKB ensemble down to a "half"-sized group (& more on IKB & other larger groups in a moment): In this case, Rodrigues himself is on harp & other plucked strings, not for the first time, in a remarkably coherent album that often involves a squeaky atmosphere with a variety of overtones, burbling, sheering waves... almost an underwater scene, and also relatively smooth (perhaps in an ambient sense): Sometimes vigorous internal rhythms are simply washed over by waves of shimmering overtones. (Its general sense of interaction & restraint might even be reprised in Rodrigues's most recent album on Bandcamp at the moment, Backlighting by a quartet of viola & three horns, all alto or higher. It almost seems like the top half of Urze, although the latter uses only two horns amid its watery computer, piano, guitar, etc. These are also all single track albums....) The ambivalent environment of the album seems to be reflected in its names & iconography as well, with a shadow rhinoceros ("Diceros", similar to IKB's Rhinocerus from 2014) set against (I guess, the term might also mean e.g. heather) a field of rosemary... but I sure don't hear a field or savanna. An "underwater" sense is that much more tangible on Vulgaris, by another octet called Octopus: There, Rodrigues is back on viola, and while the octets are very similar, the only other musicians actually in common are Paolo Curado (flute, also on Backlighting), Andre Hencleeday (piano, psaltery) & Carlos Godinho (percussion). (All are frequent Rodrigues collaborators, although I was not specifically aware of Godinho previously.) Vulgaris has a particularly strong ambient vibe, and generally has a calming effect, more so than e.g. Nashaz, with which it otherwise shares some characteristics — and of course the "doubled" ensemble of the former again facilitates a smoother sound overall. Particularly given the lack of environmental confusion (and I don't intend to portray such reterritorialization as a negative, regarding Urze, but rather as an intriguing crossing), Vulgaris might make for an excellent entry into Rodrigues's oeuvre for the uninitiated, but as noted around Jardin Carré, much has also developed in the past few years. (Regarding the underwater theme, one should likewise note Underwater Music — one of at least a dozen trio albums from Ernesto & Guilherme Rodrigues, all with a different third member — as discussed last October, i.e. while the albums of the previous entry were being recorded: That album was recorded all the way back in Spring 2016, and as noted in my prior discussion, doesn't appear to evoke water sonically at all! Nonetheless, it seems like another pivotal album....)

Regarding larger ensembles, I already made a departure by discussing Tellurium in May, and there I noted that recordings by IKB, Variable Geometry Orchestra (VGO) & Suspensão were also recorded at CreativeFest #11 last November. A few further remarks: Tellurium was the fourth "String Theory" album, and my decision (to discuss it) derived in part from the fact that the previous two albums in the series were for seven & four musicians respectively, although the first (Gravity, released in 2016) was for seventeen. (And one does see primes run through these ensemble numbers, although Tellurium & the last three IKB albums are for sixteen musicians....) Since then, it appears that Sul by "Strings & Andrew Drury" (involving eleven musicians on various string instruments, plus the drummer) might be something of a continuation: Drury had appeared on quartet album Eterno Retorno from early in the Creative Sources catalog, but not with Rodrigues since, and the "constellations" of the cover moreover suggest variants on (& crossings of) space themes (as I had discussed last month around Coluro) & geometry: It's another eerie, single track album for relatively large forces. Another "variant geometry" concept seems to be involved in the more recent Isotope Ensemble (because, after all, isotopes involve a kind of atomic geometry, albeit much smaller than solar systems), with its first album Yttrium (for thirteen musicians) having been recorded in May 2017, i.e. between Urze & Vulgaris. And in 2018, there are two more Isotope Ensemble albums, both involving seventeen musicians: Barium (as noted around Tellurium, recorded in February) & Lanthanum (recorded in April) both involve quiet rumbling, overtones, sometimes animated horns, and a mysterious sense of progress. Whereas Barium involves a traffic jam (& Rodrigues "playing" metronome, including conspicuously at the end), Lanthanum is the smoother of the two: Its various waves & timbres take on more of a finished character, making for another reasonable place for an uninitiated listener (who enjoys larger ensembles, anyway) to enter Rodrigues's sound world. That series seems to be becoming more assertive, or at least more frequent. Already massive & assertive at various points is the VGO series, though, with the first half of its sixth album (Ma'adim Vallis) emerging from CreativeFest #11 as well: The number six is somewhat deceptive, as it's a double album, and not the first such in the series. Moreover, the two parts (the second from January 2018) are labeled as Conductions #47 & #48: I didn't attempt to trace the numbering, but it appears that not all have been released, unless the output of the other large ensembles is counted as well.... Still, it gives a sense of how active Rodrigues has been with his largest groups, and the November recording from VGO is massive indeed, involving thirty-seven musicians (with a "mere" nineteen on the more mysterious January session) in a huge & varied orchestral eruption: It recalls Xenakis, and not for the first time in the series. (One might further recall that Xenakis combines geometric interest with architectural principles, and that might fit some of these Rodrigues projects as well....) Moving on, there have now been five releases in the Suspensão series, with the November recording (i.e. the most recent) being Physis, numbered as the eleventh piece in the series (counting double albums, multiple tracks, etc.): Here the eerie desire to interrogate the basic contours of reality, especially the equivocation of foreground & background, of environment/context & subject, maintains.... Although I've made only a few brief comments about the series, now including here, its basic equivocating concerns reflect & enhance important contemporary questions regarding subject-object duality (& in turn, traditional ontology) more generally (as soon to be articulated more extensively in the text that I promised at the beginning of this entry...): There is again an overall "ambient" sense & even conceptual interrogation, to retract to genre concerns. Finally, the IKB series, which generally involves crisper tones & more explicit counterpoint, is harder to summarize: I'm not sure why it started using unusual biological species for its titles & minimal covers, the most recent being Apteryx mantelli, but perhaps its ecological or territorial articulations are more specific than I imagine.... (There is a sense of geometric inspiration that I can't really localize.) In any case, IKB albums — of which there have now been seven, with three of them originating in 2014 alone — have used ensembles ranging from thirteen to eighteen musicians (and like the octets above, less often involve prime numbers). I suppose the relative crispness of the music (especially relative to e.g. Suspensão) is reflected in the crisp covers, and like all the recent albums mentioned in this entry, but perhaps most canonically, the music is articulated in a single sweep. (Many of the IKB albums do also seem rather similar to me.) Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts (http://www.medieval.org)