Rhodri Davies/Stéphane Rives/Ernesto Rodrigues/Guilherme Rodrigues/Carlos Santos

Twerf Neus Ciglau
Creative Sources CS 156 CD

Rhodri Davies/Michel Doneda/Louisa Martin/Phil Minton/Lee Patterson

Midhopestones

Another Timbre at19

John Butcher/Rhodri Davies

Carliol

Ftarri 220

When blazing new sonic trails it seems that Welsh harpist Rhodri Davies has a particular affinity for doing so alongside saxophonists, as these CDs recorded between 2007 and 2009 attest. Furthermore, listening to these sessions chronologically, it appears that Davies is becoming progressively more selfless with his timbral palate whether he’s joined by Japanese Onkyo practitioners or European formalists. Only on Twerf Neus Ciglau for instance, are the harp’s expected ringing tones heard. On the other CDs, unexpected textures produced by manual string preparations, electronics, an embedded speaker and other techniques associated with a pedal harp, a lever harp or an electric harp predominate.

Each setting is unique as well. Carliol is an exercise in individuality between the harpist and his long-time confrere and London-based saxophonist John Butcher. With France’s Michel Doneda in the reed chair, Midhopestones features the most unusual textures, probably because the other participants are Louisa Martin on laptop, Lee Patterson on amplified objects and processes plus distinctive English vocalist Phil Minton. Most traditional – in this context – of the discs is Twerf Neus Ciglau. Davies’ reed partner on this Lisbon-recorded session is French soprano saxophonist Stéphane Rives; electronics come from Carlos Santos, Ernesto Rodrigues plays viola, and his son Guilherme Rodrigues cello.

Rives’ tongue slaps and whistles work themselves into broken-octave concordance with the rustling and rubbed node variations from the strings. With Santos’ vibrating oscillations and flanging developing into undifferentiated drones, this locust storm of blurred buzzes is at points breached by the harp’s rasping strokes, sul tasto runs from the cello, wood-clacking chroamaticism from the string players or sonic wisps forced without key pressure from the saxophone’s body tube. As the cumulative, broken-chord exposition becomes louder it also becomes less cohesive, with rough timbres extruding every which way, until the piece concludes with a thinned, bubbling saxophone tone.

On the other hand, the sounds on Twerf… could be Heavy Metal compared to the British Folkie aesthetic that seems to characterize Midhopestones. Although identifying harp timbres are missing, so too, most of the time, are other individual traits – even Minton’s soundsinging. The vocalist’s unique tessitura only begins to assert itself during the lengthy “Crow Edge” and “Wharncliffe Side”, as it pushes aside electronic whizzes, harsh reed exhalation plus marimba-like wooden plops. Minton’s strained and nasally challenged falsetto gasps soon translate into nonsense syllables and mouth cackles, cries and burps. Similarly Doneda’s flat-line breaths are sturdily pushed through the horn’s body tube until unconnected grinds and thunderous sequences from the electronics supersede both men’s efforts.

By the final variant of “Wharncliffe Side” however, the concentrated and almost overbearing computer pulses clear away to reveal sweeping glissandi, rough strums and rebounds from the pedal harp; growling split tones and peeping tongue stops from the saxophone; and ghostly ululations from the top of Minton’s vocal range. With the resulting sounds resembling those created by slowing playback speed from 78 rpm to 33⅓ rpms, is the inspiring crescendo created live or pieced together through processing?

More affiliated with real time, the majority of Carliol’s improvisations are concerned with the application and extension of different saxophone and harp techniques. While the CD starts off with an engaged exercise in fortissimo feedback, the full extent of the partnership is expressed on subsequent tracks. “Ouse Poppy” for instance, which utilizes embedded harp speakers, contrasts the delays which resonate through the harp’s body with shrill peeps and beeps from the saxophone. As the tones subsequently thicken to near-chiaroscuro timbres, hand-tapped string extensions and reed split tones define each instrument’s individuality. “Lash”, on the other hand, molds portamento harmonies, staccato string strokes and rolled arpeggios from Davies into a sonic whole outlined against Butcher’s circular, signal processed-like chirps. Following broken-chord harmonies involving pressurized reed vibrations and percussive string thumps, the narrative diminishes, with extended squeaks as the coda.

Throughout this CD, differing harp processes move from flat-line pulses to energetic organ-like muliphonics to create symbiosis between strings and the saxophonist’s circular-breathed chirps, quacks and shrills. Although frequently mirroring the saxophonist’s multiphonic screams, Davies maintains individual harmonic intonation.

The Welsh harpist is constantly evolving new strategies to deal with unique and challenging situations. These CDs preserve literal records of how well he succeeds with each.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Carliol: 1. Pandon Bank 2. Lash 3.Gallow Gate 4. Scrogg 5.Ouse Poppy 6. Garth Heads 7. Distant Leazes

Personnel: Carliol: John Butcher (tenor and soprano saxophones, plus feedback, motors and embedded harp speaker) and Rhodri Davies (pedal harp, lever harp with embedded speaker, electric harp and Aeolian electric harp)

Track Listing: Midhopestones: 1. Strines 2. Crow Edge 3. Wharncliffe Side 4. Deepcar

Personnel: Midhopestones: Michel Doneda (soprano saxophone); Rhodri Davies (harp and electric harp); Louisa Martin (laptop); Lee Patterson (amplified objects and processes) and Phil Minton (voice)

Track Listing: Twerf: I

Personnel: Twerf: Stéphane Rives (soprano saxophone); Ernesto Rodrigues (viola); Guilherme Rodrigues (cello); Rhodri Davies (harp and electronics) and Carlos Santos (electronics)

December 29, 2010

TonArt Ensemble & Ernesto Rodrigues

Murmúrios
Creative Sources CS 170 CD

As much a part of the necessary future of notated contemporary as well as improvised music, Hamburg’s TonArt Ensemble brings the discipline of New music, graphic notations and spatial structures to experimental performances. This impressive two-movement suite links the disciplined nine-member ensemble with input from Lisbon-based violist Ernesto Rodrigues, who regularly collaborates with many of Europe’s most accomplished Free musicians.

Collaboration is the key here, since rather than being a soloist standing apart from this democratically constituted group, Rodrigues merely adds his sounds to those created by the rest of the string section of violin, cello and double bass. Other musicians who have worked with the group, which was founded in 1989, include British saxophonist Evan Parker and Austrian turntablist dieb13. Able to evolve a novel strategy for every situation, besides clarinet, saxophone and trumpet, TonArt Ensemble members also use such non-conservatory-approved sound-sources here as zither, prepared mandolin, ventil-horn, trompsax, sheng, tube, synthesizer, soundtable and electronics.

Aiming for the release that characterizes “Part 2”, the much lengthier “Part 1” works through variants as the exposition and development of the suite take shape. As atonal as it is legato in spots, the nearly 38-minute first section includes episodes that swell to full fortissimo and others which deflate to mere whispers as the punctured polytones are spread using staccato licks. With no designated soloist, each of the 10 players adds pointillist dabs to complete the sonic picture. Pressured undercurrents from the strings become sharpened spiccato pops and mandolin plinks, while horn polyphony divides among crackles and rolled tongue slaps, chirps and altissimo screams. These timbres not only cozy up to reverberating electrical wave-forms, but simultaneously also reflect other percussive textures. There are ricocheting door-stopper-like rebounds, bovine-like bellows from pedal point cello motions and col legno bass string slaps.

Still, when string section polyharmonies threaten to turn overly melodic, an off-centre harmonica-like whimper, blurry synthesizer growls, hollow tube blows and bass clarinet yowls keep the contrapuntal interface on course. Oddly enough, even when a sudden burst of turntable friction abuts bird-like reed yaps, the impulses are continuously connective rather than disruptive.

Slightly past the half-way mark mercurial connections solidify among the different sections. Zither and mandolin plucks move to slackened harmonies until superseded by col legno and wood pounding asides from the string players, whose bow pressure exposes additional partials and vibrations. While this string-advanced ostinato undulates beneath the section work, so to do brass brays and reed tongue slaps, shortly afterwards rubato brass triplets and reed yelps join swaying, intermingled string tones to provide the introduction to Murmúrios’ second movement.

As one fiddler – perhaps Rodrigues – stridently squeals, the others move in circular concordance, until the tonal centre gradually shifts, thickening percussive sequences that include animal-like lows, lawnmower-like buzzing and UFO-like oscillations from the electronics. Eventually after it seems as if every TonArter has pushed his or her instrument to its timbral limit, a pause foreshadows a reductionist harmonization as the soundtable adds further layers of vocal gurgles and dissected instrumental sounds. Despite this atonality, the piece moves chromatically to the end.

Filled with enough dissonance to give nightmares to conventional chamber ensembles, compositions such as Murmúrios, and its interpretation by the TonArt Ensemble must be part of this sort of music’s future so that it doesn’t ossify.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Murmúrios Part 1 2. Murmúrios Part 2

Personnel: Helmuth Neumann (trumpet and ventil-horn); Hannes Wiennert (soprano saxophone, trompsax, shen and tube); Georgia Ch Hoppe (clarinet, mandolin and objects); Thomas Österheld (bass clarinet); Nicola Kruse (violin); Ernesto Rodrigues (viola); Krischa Weber (cello); Thomas Niese (bass); Robert Klammer (zither, electronics and analog synthesizer) and Heiner Metzger (soundtable)

November 11, 2010

Anthony Braxton + Italian Instabile Orchestra

Creative Orchestra (Bolzano) 2007
RAI Trade RTP J0013

Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra

GIOPoetics

Creative Sources CS 114 CD

Creating large form improvisations involving groups of musicians in polyphonic agreement without losing the spontaneity implicit in smaller groups has long been a challenge for composers. Many methods have been tried in order to introduce and maintain sonic freedom when the ensemble is larger than the standard 16-piece Jazz band. These mostly European sessions outline two successful ways of doing so.

Consisting of many of that country’s most advanced players, the 17-piece Italian Instabile Orchestra (IIO) has been coping with this conundrum during its existence, playing compositions germinated by band members as well as creations for guest soloists such as pianist Cecil Taylor. For his part, American reedist/composer Anthony Braxton has also been dealing with the large-group challenge at least since the late 1970s. Creative Orchestra (Bolzano) shows how members of the IIO express themselves individually through the medium of four Braxton compositions – with the composer’s participation.

Much younger in conception, the 20-piece Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra (GIO), which successfully utilized a variant of the IIO-Braxton partnership when bassist Barry Guy worked with the band in 2005, resolves the large ensemble challenge in a different fashion. Rather than numbered compositions, here the GIO plays three short improvisations plus a so-called discretely structured piece by saxophonist and GIO member Raymond MacDonald

Each approach is equally valid as is the music on both CDs.

Although Braxton’s distance from Jazz – whatever the term means – is well known, his composing and playing is informed by Jazz> Considering that the IIO is made up of some of the peninsula’s most accomplished Jazz players, Bolzano may be the American’s most overtly Jazzy date in years. Unfortunately no soloists are identified. Although it’s pretty obvious that the distinctively rough and funky tenor saxophone of Daniele Cavallanti and jocular and pumping baritone saxophone of Carlo Actis Dato are featured, along with the sharp and serrated spiccato of Emanuele Parrini’s violin.

Layered and polyphonic, the Braxton scores list either towards notated formalism or looser Jazz-styled rhythms. It’s a credit to Braxton and the IIO that neither sonic strand is supreme – nor does either submerge solo or group free-form improvisation. More praxis than pastiche, the initial composition is hung on a series of stretched and swelling sound blocks, often with rococo-like clarinet warbling and string-section pulses sustaining the lyricism. The piece eventually opens up to reveal and then swiftly swallow distinctive solos. These include sharp, stop-and-start cello arpeggios; tenor saxophone tongue slaps and snorts; wood block thwacks and snare ruffs from the percussionists; plunger trombone and trumpet interpolation; Parrini’s overriding fiddle line; and expanded warbling grace notes from an alto saxophonist who may be Braxton, Eugenio Colombo or Gianluigi Trovesi.

Easing into “Composition No. 92 Part 1”, the beat is strong enough to suggest the Peter Gun theme. Horn glissandi and muscular rhythm section comping move the piece chromatically forward, as Giovanni Maier’s bass walks and Vincenzo Mazzone’s and Tiziano Tononi’s dual kits rumble, clatter and smack. Meanwhile one of the trombonists – perhaps Giancarlo Schiaffini – smears and brays raucously to match the triple-tonguing and vamping from Cavallanti. Eventually percussive rim shots and slaps plus metal-resonating reed bites from the tenor man lead to the becalmed patterning of “Composition No. 164 Part 1”.

Don’t imagine that the orchestral shifts are so obvious that the band dons alternate Count Basie-like or Arturo Toscanini-like coloration. But the textured mixtures are maintained throughout the performance as staccato and alternately smooth, thick and thin, as tough and tender passages complement and mirror one another. Feathery light trumpet spits meet thick reed vibratos; tick-tock, high frequency piano chords mix it up with lightly paced contralto clarinet and airy flute runs; and rattling percussion extensions face subterranean baritone saxophone and tuba growls. Often forte, mercurial string stops find their variations intercut with hocketing blasts and puffs from the horns.

If the IIO and Braxton deal with large-scale improv by alternately legato and staccato measures, plus solo and group passages, then the GIO – recorded less than two weeks earlier –follows a different game plan. Essentially the poetics here are group poetics, with no differentiation between soloist and accompanist. Simultaneously independent and interrelated, every sound appears at the same time. What that means is that ragged, jagged and abrasive cross currents mix sul ponticello below-the-bridge scrapes from the strings, split-tone chirps and ratchets from the reeds and bell-muted brass grace notes.

Solid, yet minimalist, the narrative is advanced in broken octaves with distant choked voicing, shuffle bowing and understated valve squeezes from the brass. Most characteristic is “I’m Sorry But I’ve Fallen.” As a legato, sequenced flourish is introduced by trumpeter Matthew Cairns, the six strings scrub and rub bow patterns while the two drummers slap, stroke and drag pulses from their kits. Diminutive interludes encompassing George Burt’s acoustic guitar strums and MacDonald’s crying alto saxophone vibrations easily fade back into the sonic miasma of wood-splitting strokes from the bassists, discordant electric guitar lines and high-pitched flute peeps. No summation, the tune reflects the preceding piece and adumbrates the dissonant and dense movement that follows it.

Formally tracking the linear progress of large group improvisation is probably as fruitless as trying to construct a historical time lines for any music. However listening to either or both of these notable sessions will show how performances by these particular formations are evolving on their own.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Bolzano: 1. Composition No.. 63 2. Composition No. 92 Part 1 3. Composition No. 164 Part 1 4. Composition No. 92 Part 2 5. Composition No. 164 Part 2 6. Composition No. 59

Personnel: Bolzano: Pino Minafra, Alberto Mandarini, Guido Mazzon (trumpets); Lauro Rossi, Sebi Tramontana and Gincarlo Schiaffini (trombones); Martin Mayes (French horn); Anthony Braxton (sopranino and alto saxophones); Gianluigi Trovesi (alto saxophone and Eb clarinet); Eugenio Colombo (alto saxophone, flute and bass flute); Daniele Cavallanti (tenor saxophone); Carlo Actis Dato (baritone saxophone); Emanuele Parrini (violin); Paolo Damiani (cello); Umberto Petrin (piano); Giovanni Maier (bass)and Vincenzo and Tiziano Tononi (drums and percussion)

Track Listing: Poetics: 1. Apricot Path 2. Dog’s Got My Money 3. I’m Sorry But I’ve Fallen 4. Distributed Talk

Personnel: Poetics: Matthew Cairns (trumpet); George Murray (trombone); Raymond MacDonald (soprano and alto saxophones); Graeme Wilson (tenor and baritone saxophones); John Burgess (bass clarinet); Matthew Studdert-Kennedy (flute); Emma Roche (flute and baroque flute); Nick Fells (shakuhachi); George Burt (acoustic guitar); Neil Davidson (electric guitar); Krzysztof Hladowski (bouzouki); Ernesto Rodrigues (viola); Guilherme Rodrigues, Jessica Sullivan and Peter Nicholson (cello); George Lyle and Armin Sturm (bass); Richard Bamford and Stuart Brown (drums and percussion) and Aileen Campbell (voice)

January 6, 2010

Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra

Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra GIOPoetics
Creative Sources CS 114 CD

Anthony Braxton + Italian Instabile Orchestra

Creative Orchestra (Bolzano) 2007

RAI Trade RTP J0013

Creating large form improvisations involving groups of musicians in polyphonic agreement without losing the spontaneity implicit in smaller groups has long been a challenge for composers. Many methods have been tried in order to introduce and maintain sonic freedom when the ensemble is larger than the standard 16-piece Jazz band. These mostly European sessions outline two successful ways of doing so.

Consisting of many of that country’s most advanced players, the 17-piece Italian Instabile Orchestra (IIO) has been coping with this conundrum during its existence, playing compositions germinated by band members as well as creations for guest soloists such as pianist Cecil Taylor. For his part, American reedist/composer Anthony Braxton has also been dealing with the large-group challenge at least since the late 1970s. Creative Orchestra (Bolzano) shows how members of the IIO express themselves individually through the medium of four Braxton compositions – with the composer’s participation.

Much younger in conception, the 20-piece Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra (GIO), which successfully utilized a variant of the IIO-Braxton partnership when bassist Barry Guy worked with the band in 2005, resolves the large ensemble challenge in a different fashion. Rather than numbered compositions, here the GIO plays three short improvisations plus a so-called discretely structured piece by saxophonist and GIO member Raymond MacDonald

Each approach is equally valid as is the music on both CDs.

Although Braxton’s distance from Jazz – whatever the term means – is well known, his composing and playing is informed by Jazz> Considering that the IIO is made up of some of the peninsula’s most accomplished Jazz players, Bolzano may be the American’s most overtly Jazzy date in years. Unfortunately no soloists are identified. Although it’s pretty obvious that the distinctively rough and funky tenor saxophone of Daniele Cavallanti and jocular and pumping baritone saxophone of Carlo Actis Dato are featured, along with the sharp and serrated spiccato of Emanuele Parrini’s violin.

Layered and polyphonic, the Braxton scores list either towards notated formalism or looser Jazz-styled rhythms. It’s a credit to Braxton and the IIO that neither sonic strand is supreme – nor does either submerge solo or group free-form improvisation. More praxis than pastiche, the initial composition is hung on a series of stretched and swelling sound blocks, often with rococo-like clarinet warbling and string-section pulses sustaining the lyricism. The piece eventually opens up to reveal and then swiftly swallow distinctive solos. These include sharp, stop-and-start cello arpeggios; tenor saxophone tongue slaps and snorts; wood block thwacks and snare ruffs from the percussionists; plunger trombone and trumpet interpolation; Parrini’s overriding fiddle line; and expanded warbling grace notes from an alto saxophonist who may be Braxton, Eugenio Colombo or Gianluigi Trovesi.

Easing into “Composition No. 92 Part 1”, the beat is strong enough to suggest the Peter Gun theme. Horn glissandi and muscular rhythm section comping move the piece chromatically forward, as Giovanni Maier’s bass walks and Vincenzo Mazzone’s and Tiziano Tononi’s dual kits rumble, clatter and smack. Meanwhile one of the trombonists – perhaps Giancarlo Schiaffini – smears and brays raucously to match the triple-tonguing and vamping from Cavallanti. Eventually percussive rim shots and slaps plus metal-resonating reed bites from the tenor man lead to the becalmed patterning of “Composition No. 164 Part 1”.

Don’t imagine that the orchestral shifts are so obvious that the band dons alternate Count Basie-like or Arturo Toscanini-like coloration. But the textured mixtures are maintained throughout the performance as staccato and alternately smooth, thick and thin, as tough and tender passages complement and mirror one another. Feathery light trumpet spits meet thick reed vibratos; tick-tock, high frequency piano chords mix it up with lightly paced contralto clarinet and airy flute runs; and rattling percussion extensions face subterranean baritone saxophone and tuba growls. Often forte, mercurial string stops find their variations intercut with hocketing blasts and puffs from the horns.

If the IIO and Braxton deal with large-scale improv by alternately legato and staccato measures, plus solo and group passages, then the GIO – recorded less than two weeks earlier –follows a different game plan. Essentially the poetics here are group poetics, with no differentiation between soloist and accompanist. Simultaneously independent and interrelated, every sound appears at the same time. What that means is that ragged, jagged and abrasive cross currents mix sul ponticello below-the-bridge scrapes from the strings, split-tone chirps and ratchets from the reeds and bell-muted brass grace notes.

Solid, yet minimalist, the narrative is advanced in broken octaves with distant choked voicing, shuffle bowing and understated valve squeezes from the brass. Most characteristic is “I’m Sorry But I’ve Fallen.” As a legato, sequenced flourish is introduced by trumpeter Matthew Cairns, the six strings scrub and rub bow patterns while the two drummers slap, stroke and drag pulses from their kits. Diminutive interludes encompassing George Burt’s acoustic guitar strums and MacDonald’s crying alto saxophone vibrations easily fade back into the sonic miasma of wood-splitting strokes from the bassists, discordant electric guitar lines and high-pitched flute peeps. No summation, the tune reflects the preceding piece and adumbrates the dissonant and dense movement that follows it.

Formally tracking the linear progress of large group improvisation is probably as fruitless as trying to construct a historical time lines for any music. However listening to either or both of these notable sessions will show how performances by these particular formations are evolving on their own.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Bolzano: 1. Composition No.. 63 2. Composition No. 92 Part 1 3. Composition No. 164 Part 1 4. Composition No. 92 Part 2 5. Composition No. 164 Part 2 6. Composition No. 59

Personnel: Bolzano: Pino Minafra, Alberto Mandarini, Guido Mazzon (trumpets); Lauro Rossi, Sebi Tramontana and Gincarlo Schiaffini (trombones); Martin Mayes (French horn); Anthony Braxton (sopranino and alto saxophones); Gianluigi Trovesi (alto saxophone and Eb clarinet); Eugenio Colombo (alto saxophone, flute and bass flute); Daniele Cavallanti (tenor saxophone); Carlo Actis Dato (baritone saxophone); Emanuele Parrini (violin); Paolo Damiani (cello); Umberto Petrin (piano); Giovanni Maier (bass)and Vincenzo and Tiziano Tononi (drums and percussion)

Track Listing: Poetics: 1. Apricot Path 2. Dog’s Got My Money 3. I’m Sorry But I’ve Fallen 4. Distributed Talk

Personnel: Poetics: Matthew Cairns (trumpet); George Murray (trombone); Raymond MacDonald (soprano and alto saxophones); Graeme Wilson (tenor and baritone saxophones); John Burgess (bass clarinet); Matthew Studdert-Kennedy (flute); Emma Roche (flute and baroque flute); Nick Fells (shakuhachi); George Burt (acoustic guitar); Neil Davidson (electric guitar); Krzysztof Hladowski (bouzouki); Ernesto Rodrigues (viola); Guilherme Rodrigues, Jessica Sullivan and Peter Nicholson (cello); George Lyle and Armin Sturm (bass); Richard Bamford and Stuart Brown (drums and percussion) and Aileen Campbell (voice)

January 6, 2010

Creatively Sourcing New International Music

For MusicWorks Issue #104
By Ken Waxman

What began in 2001 as a recording outlet for a group of Lisbon improvisers has in less than a decade grown to a CD catalogue of more than 170 releases with an emphasis on fresh, innovative sounds. Under the direction of violist Ernesto Rodrigues, every month or so Creative Sources (CS) Recordings releases two or three CDs from committed international musicians. “Creative Sources is musician-run for musicians,” declares Rodrigues. “We’re not here for the money, but for the art.

“We deal with certain kinds of music, like ‘near silence’, lowercase, electro-acoustic, new improv, and some post-Free-Jazz. The musicians involved are mostly young, with new approaches to improv and composition, silent stuff and texturized sound, usually from the manipulation of the instrument, few notes, and extended techniques.”

CS welcomes demos showcasing what Rodrigues describes as “strong stuff, clear and focused – or even if the process is interesting musically and worth hearing.” Deciding to release the session, he asks musicians to supply audio masters then the violist and Carlos Santos, a graphic designer and computer musician, design the package, perform sound adjustments, have 500 copies pressed and distribute them. In exchange for supplying half the funds, the players receive about 300 CDs they sell themselves, while CS markets the rest.

CS’s international focus developed with its ninth release, No Furniture (Creative Sources CS 009 CD) by Berliners, trumpeter Axel Dörner, clarinetist Kai Fagaschinski and Boris Baltschun on sampler. CS already had a Web presence and had received good reviews for its first releases. “They (the Germans) heard and enjoyed our work and approached us about their session. We liked the music, which was in the same range as ours, so we had the chance to augment the catalogue. We established ourselves as a label that cares about this kind of music and promotes it. From then on we started to receive lots of demos from around the world for release…We refuse a lot of them,” admits Rodrigues.

Although some players on our roster put out discs on other labels, others do not. “Musicians with known credits that have some works in this kind of structure approach CS, in spite of having very different work on other labels,” he adds.

Recently for instance Goldstripe (Creative Sources CS 121 CD), showcased Bay area laptop and electronics-manipulator Mark Trayle’s lively and unsettling static-undulating drone compositions and improvisations using data read from the magnetic stripes of credit and bank cards. On the acoustic side, Swiss pianist Jacques Demierre’s One is Land (Creative Sources CS 131 CD) concentrates on high-frequency, subterranean sound waves wrenched from the instrument’s soundboard by pounding its lowest-pitched keys amplified with pedal-power. Sureau (Creative Sources CS 112 CD) is a rare example of the expressive vocal gymnastics of Brussels-based Jean-Michel Van Scouwburg, backed by percussionist Kris Vanderstraeteen and bassist Jean Demey

An earlier notable example of New chamber music is On Creative Sources (Hail Satan) (Creative Sources CS 093), from Spanish bass clarinetist Carlos Galvez Taroncher, German pianist Magda Maydas, Dutch bassist Koen Nutters and Norwegian drummer Morton Olsen. This trans-European admixture, exhibits the spacey tonal rotation and sudden introduction of extended timbres that relate to jazz-improv as well as notation.

CS was also one of the first labels to expose some local experimentalists internationally. Abu Tarek (Creative Sources CS 025 CD) for instance, documents the unique choked and splintered brass excavations of Lebanese trumpeter Mazen Kerbaj, in the company of fellow micro-tonalist, Austrian trumpeter Franz Hautzinger. Absence (Creative Sources CS 034 CD) showcased the tremolo tongue rhythms, percussive vibrations and dramatic pauses of Argentineans, trumpeter Leonel Kaplan and percussionist Diego Chamy in a trio with Dörner. Meanwhile Metz (Creative Sources CS 015 CD) is unstructured Free Music from France that used acoustic strings and reeds to expose what sound like synthesizer wave forms. The experimenters in 2003 were clarinetist Xavier Charles, tenor saxophonist Bertrand Denzler, pianist Frédéric Blondy, violinist Mathieu Werchowski and guitarist Jean-Sébastian Mariage.

Closer to its home, Stills by the Variable Geometry Orchestra (Creative Sources 100 CD) is a three-CD set featuring 46 participants in the Lisbon free music scene in large ensembles. With Rodrigues playing and “conduction-ating” the detailed, multi-shaded polyphony balances orchestral integration with solo permutations. Included are players such as cellist Guilherme Rodrigues, drummer José Oliveira and Santos, who with the label manager/violist were the core of Lisbon improvisers CS recorded initially. Stills’ layered performances draw on currents of alternating and asymmetrical jazz, rock, folkloric and New music.

As Rodrigues states: “From its creation, every work of art is fragile and needs to be nourished and shown to others, or time will erase it and it will be lost among information going on everywhere. The major labels think about profits, not music and the musicians, or they think about ‘crystallized’ forms of music that do not challenge the listener in new ways.”

August 8, 2009

JON ROSE/CHRIS ABRAHAMS/CLAYTON THOMAS

Artery
The NOWnow

RODRIGUES/UEBELE/ RODRIGUES/OLIVEIRA
Contre-Plongeé [six cuts for string quartet]
Creative Sources

By Ken Waxman

August 16, 2004

Turbulence and silence, rapidity and languorousness, are the attributes that separate each of these string-driven sessions from one another. Yet the precise methodology and sophisticated experimentation of the seven musicians involved, makes it obvious that contrapuntal chamber music is a plastic enough form to be successfully adapted to pure improv.

The musicians here hail from two port cities -- Sydney, Australia and Lisbon, Portugal -- and are all trained traditionally enough to know of the regard followers of so-called classical music hold string groups, especially if they’re playing say, Beethoven or Schubert. Yet the unorthodox explorers aren’t content to have this major contribution to musical culture shoved into a sound museum.

Non-standard instrumentation helps the cause on both CDs. The Portuguese quartet is led by Ernesto Rodrigues on violin and viola, who has played with local flautist Carlos Bechegas and Italian saxist Gianni Gebbia among others, and who cites electronic music as an influence on his acoustic violin playing. The other group members, violinist Gerhard Uebele, cellist Guilherme Rodrigues and José Oliveira on acoustic guitar and inside piano, have extensive playing history with local and international improvisers

The Aussie trio is sparked by the extroverted soloing of British-Australian Jon Rose on violin and tenor violin. Another member, who variously plays organ, harpsichord and piano here, is Chris Abrahams, one-third of the country’s microtonal free music ensemble, The Necks. On bass and preparations is Clayton Thomas, who holds down the bottom on these six instant compositions. Making the group a string quartet on one long track is Clare Cooper who similarly prepares her concert harp.

When the penultimate cut of CONTRE-PLONGEE is “Cut 3” and the disc begins with “Cut 2” you figure there has been some rearrangement after the fact. However the four musicians possess such a communality of improvisational thought that no awkward fissures are apparent. What is conspicuous by its absence, though, is the sort of virtuostic clamor that longtime experimenters like Rose specialize in on the other disk. Instead, the Lisbon installation is organic, with even the extended techniques such as col legno and sul ponticello used subordinated to pointillism rather than displayed for histrionic statements. Call this a symphony of scratches.

Like most reductionist music, of course, there are many instances when particular timbres can’t be attributed to specific instruments. On “Cut 2”, for instance, wood banging resonation is heard, and at the end of “Cut 3” there’s a basso voice that could come from a tugboat whistle, though no oral instruments are cited. Similarly “Cut 4” features cymbal-like resonation from something other than percussion, and throughout the CD, a spreading mechanical glissando shimmers in the background.

All during the program, prolonged silences give way to insect-like plinks, squeals and scratches, often as the result of pizzicato as well as arco activities. Oliveira, who works frequently with Ernesto Rodrigues, may feature his guitar here, but the suspicion remains that some of the flailing flat picking and rasping come from one of the other strings or internal piano wires.

Other favorite tones include a pizzicato continuum that backs rotating bottom tones, wood rending scrapes, spiccato raps on the lower strings, intermittent plucks and single fingertip prods on a string instrument’s necks for split-second sound-making.

All of this cumulates in “Cut 6”, where solo flat picking and what sounds like paper being crumbled meets motorized cylindrical tones and the internal ruffling of piano strings. Bell-ringing touches from beneath the guitar’s bridge and high-pitched, tinkling piano notes meld polyphonically with the col legno bowed instruments until the piece concludes with silence.

As brash as the other quartet is understated, the trio of Rose, Abrahams and Thomas charges out of the gate on the nearly 19½-minute first track, “The Superior Mesenteric”. Featured are lacerating bull fiddle movements and steady arpeggios from the forte piano which turn to double, then triple time, trying to keep up with the near-demonic accelerated bowing from the violinist. After a while, Thomas swoops across his lowest-pitched strings as Abrahams attempts some -- purposely? -- campy 18th century harpsichord fills, though neither gesture retards Rose’s accelerated bowing.

At this point it appears as if the fiddler has two bows in use, one for the top of his instrument’s strings, the other for the bottom. Soon he turns right into hoedown mode, building up to a tremolo crescendo of sounded string tones alongside grating, col legno raps. As Thomas follows along, moving from arco to pizzicato and back again in an eye blink, Rose introduces clawhammer banjo-like frailing that soon threatens to become as mechanical as a dobro’s licks. Near boogie-woogie and prepared piano timbres are contributed by the pianist, but as much as he and the bassist try, keeping up with the violinist is like trying to harness a typhoon. Rose’s lines go past presto to prestissimo, past staccato to staccatissimo and past forte to fortissimo. As a climax and crescendo he redirects the layered sounds of all the strings into tasto timbres and the piece ends with Abrahams chiming, right-handed dynamic clusters.

Cooper’s harp tones added to those of the other three for “The Ascending Aorta”, is a stark contrapuntal example of the difference in string quartet conception between the Australians and the Portuguese. The harpist, who regularly plays with Thomas, creates an ostinato made up of an assembly line of strokes -- that is when she isn’t producing a steady slide from the highest register of that 27 string instrument downwards. Abrahams contributes warbling calliope-like timbres from his keyboard as Thomas inserts knitting needles, clothespins, mallets, sticks, cellophane and cardboard strips between his strings to add subterraneous resonation and percussive shuffle bowing to the mix.

Instructively, Rose’s output on this cut stays defiantly near traditional and moderato, leaving the slaps and passing tones to the others. Jus before the finale, he lets loose with a speedy ponticello line, but the aural memory that’s more prominent is of an eerie continuum of near church organ undertow plus buzzing scrapes and reverberating slaps from the 31 other strings.

As a trio the three can call up any technique and style on a moment’s notice and alter it just as quickly. That means that Abrahams creates a fantasia of semi-classical cadenzas in one place, and with the same intensity play a boppish run or exhibit what sounds like the manipulation of aluminum pie plates colliding with the internal piano strings. Similarly, Rose produces a vibration that could come from a reed instrument on one tune, Paganini-like double stop harmonics and flying staccato elsewhere, or ease out flat picking like a Bluegrass mandolinist in a third instance. Thomas can sound like a buzzing, arco string section if he wishes, and produce poised grace notes, basso tones and frenetic wood slaps with the same speed and finesse.

In other situations, Rose has played with Free Jazzers such as drummer Kevin Norton and trombonist Johannes Bauer, and Thomas with multi-instrumentalist Cooper-Moore and tubaist Joseph Daley, so the most original departure from the norm here is “The Feeding Lumbar”, which could be termed the trio’s “jazz” track.

Including walking bass, piano fills and double and triple stopping from the violin, it finds Abrahams exposing restrained dynamics and just-as-restrained chordal patterns to play a contrasting melody in opposition to Rose’s slurred and chicken-clucking fiddle lines. Thomas keeps the time steady until eventually, the piece ends with dagger-sharp tones emanating from both from both the violin and the piano.

Traditional chamber music followers probably would deny that designation to these CDs. But the committed musicians here are giving that old form new life, or is it lives?

August 16, 2004

ASSEMBLAGE

Assemblage
Creative Sources CS 007

NMPERIGN _ GÜNTER MÜLLER
More gloom, more light
Rossbin RS 010

Auditory essays on the arrangement of microtonal resonance and noiselessness, these short CDs show how a redeployment of common instrumental sound plus a sprinkling of electronics can create unique soundscapes.

Divided into three sections, ASSEMBLAGE is a strings-driven exercise in pure improvisation by four Portuguese musicians: violinist and violist Ernesto Rodrigues, Manuel Mota on flat electric guitar, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello and pocket trumpet, and the versatile José Oliveira on percussion, prepared acoustic guitar and the insides of the piano.

MORE GLOOM, MORE LIGHT, on the other hand is an international summit meeting between Swiss percussionist Günter Müller and the Boston-based members of nmperign, trumpeter Greg Kelley and soprano saxophonist Bhob Rainey.

Müller, who has worked with sonic explorers ranging from French saxophonist Michel Doneda to Japanese guitarist Taku Sugimoto, has one CD track to himself and his electronically modulated percussion. Kelley and Rainey, who occasionally also play Free Jazz or in electroacoustc ensembles, are alone on one cut as well. But the most instructive tunes are the two trio collaborations.

On “more gloom”, for instance, Kelley sounds as if he’s straining his trumpet tone through aluminum foil, while Rainey concentrates on a single, trilled tone that resembles that from a melodica. As the sounds from both hornmen seep out, timbres are amplified by angling the instruments’ bells close to the mic. Meanwhile Müller stays in the background with some scraping percussion asides. Following a exhibition of growls and spit tones, the trumpeter turns to onomatopoeia, loudly disclaiming syllables through his mouthpiece. Exercising his reed, Rainey widens his overblowing to include key pops, tongue slaps, honks and what could be the sound of a balloon inflating. Throughout tranquil whistles from the electronic set-up create sound pockets around which the others improvise.

“More light” is more of the same but expanded to nearly 16 minutes. Although initially the droning electronic output mixed with unascribed scrapes and scratches makes the result appear more machine-like than human, individual tones gradually take shape. Before upsetting the proceedings with an unexpected shout through his body tube, Rainey quacks loudly then seems to be blowing bubbles. In response, Kelley creates chromatic bird cries, mouthpiece French kisses and plunger tones. Soon Müller’s percussive clip-clops give way to a conveyer belt of treatments mixed with the odd percussion shudder. Yet the aural picture darkens after the two hornmen blow out streams of pure air. Threatening thunder sounds are implied by Müller’s electronics, and these get progressively louder and less stable. Soon Kelley’s shaking, distorted tone and Rainey’s reed chirps suggest the sounds of birds and small animals in the forest retreating from an oncoming storm.

Müller’s solo outing includes more thunderstorm and rain intimations until his repetitive, almost drum-machine-like patterns subside into more precise sine waves. As for nmperign’s duo, peeps, screams and horn deconstruction are displayed, not to mention some literal vocalizing by the two. Its coda however, seems to consist of Rainey ejaculating a single, unvarying pitch that’s so piercing that it become an irritating.

There’s no eardrum torture on tap with Assemblage, though the sounds do get louder as the session advances. Perhaps though, since violinist Rodrigues has experience playing Portuguese pop music as well as working in Free Jazz and post-serialist contexts, he makes sure the sounds never get that out of hand. Like the best free music, though, at times it’s nearly impossible to figure out which instrument is producing which tone.

“Assemblage II” is probably the track most indicative in understanding the quartet’s method. Surging cymbal sizzles meet choked half-valve trumpet effects, which are succeeded by staccatissimo arco work from one of three classical stringed instruments. Oliveira, who has been featured on all of the violist’s earlier discs, plucks the strings from inside the piano with such force that it appears as if he’s taking the body apart with his bare hands. Squalling slurs from Guilherme Rodrigues’ pocket trumpet meet string recoils from Motta or Oliveira’s guitar, then Ernesto Rodrigues outlines an entire arco viola chord. As his fingers and bow stroll up the string -- backed by cello strokes -- one of the guitarists scrapes his fret board for maximum resonance, a muffled ringing bell is heard, and drum strokes sound either from percussion, the wooden side of the piano or perhaps a mic itself. As Oliveira leans his entire forearm onto the keyboard for maximum effect, Motta sounds a strident guitar chord with an echoing amp buzz, as someone smites the cymbals, another player finger picks in the background, and the tune decelerates into a flurry of arco sweeps, screeches and whirs.

Elsewhere Motta, who has recorded his own solo session on Rossbin, seems to be able to switch between tones as dissimilar as full frontal guitar percussion and accentuated Lenny Breau-like chording when the occasion demands. The trumpet is used more for scene-setting blasts than accompaniment, and the most common string output is sandpaper-like abrasion rather than impressionistic glissandos. Stepping away from European atonalism, it also appears that any surface can be used as percussion from the back of the guitar, the front of the cello, or the side of the piano.

Even the more than 18-minute first track eventually accelerates from BritImprov-style silences and tone intimations that include cricket-like shimmers and aviary murmurs to the rumble and crash of cymbals, the scrape of metal on metal and strings that sometimes sound as if they’re being wiped with sandpaper. Although unconnected sounds will occasionally resemble ducks’ webbed feet swirling up pond water, the restraining sonic impulses of the strings prevent the four from moving into shrill nmperign territory.

Be that as it may, the seven musicians on these two discs have come up with equally valid solutions to meet the challenge of replicating staccato sounds. Neither CD can be confused with easy listening, but both are likely part of music’s future.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Assemblage: 1. Assemblage I 2. Assemblage II 3. Assemblage III

Personnel: Assemblage: Ernesto Rodrigues (violin, viola); Guilherme Rodrigues (cello, pocket trumpet); José Oliveira (percussion, prepared acoustic guitar and inside piano); Manuel Mota (flat electric guitar)

Track Listing: Gloom: 1. more light 2. and the gloom of that light 3. more gloom 4. and the light of that gloom

Personnel: Gloom: Greg Kelley (trumpet); Bhob Rainey (soprano saxophone); Günter Müller (minidisc, electronics and programming and selected percussion)

September 15, 2003

LISBON IMPROVISATION PLAYERS

Live_Lx Meskla
Clean Feed 007

ERNESTO RODRIGUES/MARCO FRANCO/JOSÉ OLIVERA
23 Exposures
Creative sources CS 003

While no one outside of a few die-hard British musos would claim that jazz and free improv are completely antithetical, over the past two decades, they have in many instances become separate musics. To be simplistic Jazz is concerned with telling a story to the best of your technical ability; improv is about making -- or proving -- a point, utilizing whatever methodology you feel is best. For the true music fan neither of these attributes should be scorned.

Because of this dichotomy though, a group of younger musicians now must carefully slip between the two idioms, the way others in their generation play both jazz and pop, or jazz and Latin music or jazz and so-called New music. This can be a necessity, as well, when the scene for such sounds is even smaller then in large jazz centres such as New York, Chicago Paris or London. Soprano saxophonist Marco Franco, for instance, is featured on both these CDs of experimental music from Portugal. But on LIVE_LXMESKLA he’s working the free jazz side of the fence, whereas 23 EXPOSURES is pure improv. Similarly his two partners on the first disc and four on the other one walk a comparable tightrope.

Product of the Lisbon Improvisation Players (LIP), LIVE features a saxophone-heavy band organized by alto and baritone player Rodrigo Amado and drummer Acácio Salero. Incorporating different strains of experimenting Portuguese musicians, its output lists towards the freebop side of the free spectrum. Leader Amado played with Franco in guitarist Nuno Rebelo’s electro-acoustic Vitriol and in Ploplopot with alto and soprano saxist Paulo Curado. He also has an association with pianist Rodrigo Pinhiero, a colleague of the more experimental free improv types on 23 EXPOSURES, violinist Ernesto Rodrigues and percussionist/ guitarist José Oliveira. Amado and Salero played in a quartet with ROVA’s Steve Adams and New York bassist Ken Filiano, while the baritone player and Curado have recorded with that bassist, and other Americans, trombonist Steve Swell and drummer Lou Grassi.

Best indication of LIP’s lineage is the more than 11½ minutes of “Blue Humans”, which allows each member to expand on his technique. Here the herd of saxophonists do a little dance of aural congruence, then go off playing different lines simultaneously. There are some smooth soprano saxophone trills, an altoist producing neo-R&B honking and a third -- possibly Amado -- getting into some speedy triple tonguing. Moving from subtle rim shots and open palm drum head caressing to muscle-laden straight sticking, Salero produces enough power for two drummers, one of whom seems capable of replicating Native American Indian rhythms.

“This is Our Music”, with its echo of Ornette Coleman’s 1960 album is where bassist Pedro Gonçalves finally steps forward. Perhaps he’s literally doing so, as a buzzing rumble is created as he goes through his dark, solid solo. His chiming plucks than become the leitmotif of the rhythmically powerful main theme directed by the horns. As tones slide up and down, the high-pitched reeds trills and the baritone produces some stomach tightening growls.

Amado is most notably when his facility allows him to motivate his instrument with a tenor saxophone’s range. On “Song for Bluiett”, however, a sonorous salute to the Wold Saxophone Quartet (WSQ) bottom man, Hamiet Bluiett, his tone is properly resonant, buoyed only by echoing bass plucks and light hi-hat sizzles.

The harmonies produced by the reeds -- including Salero who joins in on saxophone on “Conversation Piece” -- is impressive is smaller does. Still with all the technical advances from reed explorers, one would have hoped a distinctive 21st Century Portuguese music could have been exhibited. That’s something to wait for in the next LIP release. In terms of praise and blame, as well, with two men playing soprano saxophone and two on alto, noting solo order somewhere would have been fairer and clearer.

If LIP relates to American saxophone quartets like the WSQ, then the music produced by the trio on the other CD can be said to have a British imprint. Concerned with sounds and silence and prefaced by a quote from John Cage about the fascination of noise, the disc has been compared to a photographic exposures. Showcasing greater or lesser sharpness of aural images, it’s part of a series of discs created by Rodrigues, who has a background in improv, classical and pop music, on violin and viola in collaboration with Oliveira and others such as cellist Guilherme Rodrigues and pianist Gabriel Paiuk.

Over the course of the 23 so-called exposures, which range in length from a little more than one minute to just over five -- with most in the two and three minute range -- reference points are the experimental tone scientist work done by Brit improvisers. Saxophonist John Butcher, violinist Phil Wachsmann, guitarist Derek Bailey and especially percussionist John Stevens come first to mind.

Steven’s non-hierarchical Spontaneous Music Ensemble ethos is echoed here, with each musician doing his best to contribute to the overall sound picture. On the longest track, the violinist exhibits a shrill human-sounding shriek that meet scratching, abrasive sandpaper percussion that soon turn to what appears to be the sounds of mice scampering through the studio. Franco dispenses a series of tongue-slaps that appear to have been born in his mouthpiece alone. Producing a modest, elongated sax tone, the finale winds down with violin strings slashed so quickly that the result resembles a tape machine running backwards.

With the tracks often melting together into many variations on a theme, the catalogue of varied and extended effects often precludes ascription of any one to any instrument. Franco offers bird-like chirps, percussive tongue slaps, spit-defined reed kisses and rhythmic key pops. Olivera highlights nagging cymbal pings, the pealing of tiny bells, the rattle of chains, a bow scratching on the cymbal’s metallic surface and what appears to be toys rolling on drum heads. On guitar, he seems to go Bailey one better, preferring a single note to a chord and a touch to a lick. What picking and plunking that is heard results from Rodrigues’ pizzicato work, which at times seems as if he’s turned the gut string elastic and is gradually using torsion, stretching and wrenching them until they’re on the cusp of breaking. His interest in post-serialism doesn’t preclude the odd, minute arco glissando that produces a so-called classical tone.

Most of the time, though, the reedist and fiddler proceed in such close proximity that the frequent elongated smears and split tones that define many section could come from either of their instruments. This is a challenging but ultimately satisfying listening experience.

Although Franco is the link between these two sessions, it will likely be the vision of the two leaders -- Amado and Rodrigues -- that will define Portuguese free music for years to come. However, with his foot --and reeds -- in both camps, the sax man will continue to be a crewmember on both voyages of discovery.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Lisbon: 1. Lisbon Improvisation Players 2. Blue Humans 3. Song for Bluiett 4. Memory of a Free Festival 5. Conversation Piece * 6. This is Our Music

Personnel: Lisbon: Marco Franco (soprano saxophone); Pedro Curado (soprano and alto saxophones); Rodrigo Amado (alto and baritone saxophones); Pedro Gonçalves (bass); Acácio Salero (drums, saxophone on*)

Track Listing: 23: 1. 01.31 2. 02.01 3. 02.20 4. 02.31 5. 03.16 6. 02.16 7. 01.22 8. 01.56 9. 02.18 10. 01.58 11. 05.02 12. 03.02 13. 02.53 14. 01.55 15. 03.13 16. 03.28 17. 02.57 18. 03.48 19. 02.11 20. 03.11 21. 02.14 22. 03.19 23. 02.31

Personnel: 23: Marco Franco (soprano saxophone); Ernesto Rodrigues (violin, viola); José Oliveira (percussion, acoustic guitar)

November 18, 2002

ERNESTO RODRIGUES/GUILHERME RODRIGUES/JOSÉ OLIVERA

Multiples
Creative Sources CS 001

ERNESTO RODRIGUES/ANTÓNIO CHAPARREIRO/JOSÉ OLIVERA
Sudden Music
Creative sources CS 002

ERNESTO RODRIGUES/GUILHERME RODRIGUES/ JOSÉ OLIVERA/GABRIEL PAIUK
Ficta
Creative Sources CS 005

Conceivably it’s because of his location, off the beaten jazz track in Lisbon, but Portuguese violinist Ernesto Rodrigues and his associates are creating original, non-idiomatic music with few outside references.

Definitely European of course, and closely attuned to those German, Austrian and British experimenters who deal as much with so-called silences as so-called noise, Rodrigues’ discs appear on his own Creative Sources label. The sounds here also take something from his personal passions -- free jazz and post-serialism -- as well as his earlier experiences playing Portuguese pop and rock music. With a slightly different cast of characters, each of these CDs reflects a different approach.

On site, his most valuable aide-de-camp is percussionist -- and sometimes inside- piano and guitar player -- José Oliveira, who has also recorded with sound poet Américo Rodrigues. Non-traditional -- especially if Elvin Jones, Sunny Murray or even Tony Oxley are your standards -- he knows about the proper uses of tumult and discord, and what the French call bruitage or controlled sound effects. But he can also remain nearly soundless for a while and uncouple parts of his kit for individual investigation.

Pointedly dedicated to the late British drummer and organizer John Stevens, but inspired by Viennese atonalist Anton Webern, MULTIPLES is made up of a series of 28 (!) miniatures ranging in length from a brief 49 second to a maximum of 2 minutes and 42 seconds. Hanging together in such a way that each subsequent track is an exercise in pointillism, what’s offered a non-linear elaboration of what has comes before. In the package, printed in the liner is a quote from German sculptor/installation artist Joseph Beuys: “The idea of multiples is the distribution of ideas”.

Ideas are certainly distributed, as are musical parts, with Rodrigues playing an Evan Parker-influenced soprano saxophone as well as violin and viola and Oliveira strumming and picking an acoustic guitar, as well as working his percussive noise magic. Third partner here is cellist Guilherme Rodrigues -- relationship to E. Rodrigues unknown -- whose string conception and techniques comfortably mesh with the smaller stringed instruments.

While at times the result is amorphous enough to equate to the sort of hushed contemporary BritImprov practiced by the likes of violinist Phil Durrant, guitarist John Russell and cellist Mark Wastell, there are still enough abrasive fiddle strokes, bow attacks on the front of the strings and percussion detonations plus bell ringing and mini-foghorn blasts to assert individuality.

More microtonal, SUDDEN MUSIC unrolls in an antithetical fashion, with the musicians working out on only four extended improvisations during the more than 70 minutes of the disc. Your CD player may think there are more tracks however. With frequent drawn out silences interrupting the sounds, not unlike the way Austria’s Polwechsel work, this disc presents anything but “sudden music”. Here electric guitarist António Chaparreiro joins Rodrigues, again on violin and viola, and Oliveira, who appends his inside piano talents to drum pulsations.

Somehow the hum, hiss and static of quasi-electronics is apparent as is the scratch and pull of viola strings, speedy fiddle runs and the occasional protracted guitar pluck. At times the percussionist seems to be whispering into the piano innards in a growling Captain Hook-like voice, before battering on the sides produces audible cracks and buzzes. Very occasionally the sound of a real piano key being manipulated is heard, though Oliveira seems to revel in creating metallic bangs with his percussion or descending thumps that become more distant as they’re sounded. Brush strokes and metal bar strokes sometimes appear as well.

All and all, FICTA appear to be the most impressive session. Also the most recent, though ironically recorded only 10 days after the proceeding CD, it swells (sic) the group to quartet size. Allowing for polytonality as well as dissonance, the new recruit is experimental Argentinean pianist Gabriel Paiuk, though don’t expect any rococo tango variations from him. Rodrigues is back on violin and viola, Oliveira limits himself to percussion, while cellist Guilherme Rodrigues reappears, bringing along a pocket trumpet that is mostly unidentifiable and usually inaudible.

Performed in a trebly higher pitch than on the others discs, the session is divided among six movements, each entitled “Nihil” plus a number. All appear to reflect the booklet quote from Russian/American poet Joseph Brodsky: “If you were a bird I’d cut a record and listen all night to your high-pitched trill”. The title is also supposed to reflect Musica Ficta, a pre-16th century musical practice of allowing performers to embellish the score with their own ornamentation -- a primitive form of improvisation. Perhaps that’s why there are passages here that can be definitely attributed to the violin (or viola) and piano.

Still this introduction of full arpeggios and cadences doesn’t mean that quartet combinations don’t create some entirely new sounds. For instance, at one point, a single piano note is sounded over and over on top of a wave of percussive static that then gives way to the shaking of a bell tree and echoing drum beats. Elsewhere Oliveira has a chance to sound his selected and unselected uncoupled cymbals and produce a rubato, but foreshortened shuffle beat. Meanwhile Paiuk treats his keyboard as another percussive device, smashing hard onto the keys, stretching the strings and clanking and crashing inside and out. Occasionally too, there is an impressive multi-tonal sweep of violin or viola strings, but here, as on the other discs, Rodrigues make it clear that his vision is more than anything a group conception.

Right now, the arguably best known international exponent of Portuguese experimental improved music is violinist Carlos Zingaro. Yet with these discs and others, it would seem that Rodrigues, another cerebral string master deserves attention as well. These CDs are well worth anyone’s time. Just turn your player’s volume knob up to catch all the nuances here.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Multiples: 1. 1/28 2. 2/28 3. 3/28 4. 4/28 5. 5/28 6. 6/28 7. 7/28 8. 8/28 9. 9/28 10. 10/28 11. 11/28 12. 12/28 13. 13/28 14. 14/28 15. 15/28 16. 16/28 17. 17/28 18. 18/28 19. 19/28 20. 20/28 21. 21/28 22. 22/28 23. 23/28 24. 24/28 25. 25/28 26. 26/28 27.27/28 28. 28/28

Personnel: Multiples: Ernesto Rodrigues (violin, viola and soprano saxophone); Guilherme Rodrigues (cello); José Oliveira (percussion, acoustic guitar)

Track Listing: Sudden: 1. Round angles and sharp lines 2. Something is going to happen 3. Lateral thinking 4. Landscape with persons and furniture

Personnel: Sudden: Ernesto Rodrigues (violin, viola); António Chaparreiro (electric guitar); José Oliveira (percussion, inside piano)

Track Listing: Ficta: 1. Nihil 00.01 2. Nihil 00.02 3. Nihil 00.03 4. Nihil 00.04 5. Nihil 00.05 6. Nihil 00.06

Personnel: Ficta: Ernesto Rodrigues (violin, viola); Guilherme Rodrigues, (cello, pocket trumpet); Gabriel Paiuk (piano); José Oliveira (percussion)

October 28, 2002