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Live at the Casa da Musica, Porto

by Variable Geometry Orchestra

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Recorded on December 10th 2007 at Casa da Música, Porto, Portugal.

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released March 29, 2004

Ernesto Rodrigues – violin, conduction
Guilherme Rodrigues – cello
Albrecht Loops - strings, electronics
Eduardo Chagas – trombone
Ricardo Pinto – trumpet
Johannes Krieger – french horn, trumpet
Gil Gonçalves – tuba, euphonium
Bruno Parrinha – clarinet, alto clarinet
Jorge Lampreia – flute, soprano saxophone
Nuno Torres - alto saxophone
Peter Bastiaan - alto saxophone, melodica, poetry
John Gruntfest – alto saxophone
Megan Bierman - tenor saxophone
Alípio C Neto – soprano & tenor saxophones
Abdul Moimême - tenor saxophone
João Martins - soprano & alto saxophones, gadgets
Chiara Picotto– voice
Rodrigo Pinheiro – piano
Armando Pereira – accordion
António Chaparreiro - electric guitar
Nuno Rebelo – electric guitar
Carlos Santos – electronics
Travassos – electronics
João Castro Pinto – electronics
André Gonçalves – electronics
Adriana Sá – electronics
O.Blaat - electronics
Damian Stewart - electronics
Hernâni Faustino - double bass
Henrique Fernandes - double bass
Pedro Castello-Lopes – percussion
Gustavo Costa - drums
José Oliveira – drums

REVIEWS

Is one hour-long untitled piece that constantly changes dynamics. It starts off with two glassy slide guitars, slowly rises into a boisterous horn-led massive group shout, and continues alternating soft, small instrumental combinations and loud massed rumblings for the duration of the performance.
With this large a group there is invariably a lot of variety throughout. In the larger sections you can hear a trumpet ringing out Spanish cadenzas, saxes bellowing, guitars crashingand a vocalist howling in tongues over it all. The quieter parts feature, among other things, trombone bleats, a chorus of flutes, a snatch of accordion and even just a thick electronic hum. No soloists are identified so it’s impossible to pinpoint most players but there is a striking sound collage about halfway hrough where the two drummers have a bashing duet and are joined by, first, Chiara Picotto’s guttural vocal noises and then Peter Bastian reciting poetry. There is enough detail in this performance to make it constantly intriguing and the pacing is so well done that the volume changes are always effective. This orchestra’s swooping, soaring music is a fine addition to the growing field of large group improvisation. Jerome Wilson (Cadence)

Only now I finally managed to listen to this, a 33-element orchestra conducted by Ernesto Rodrigues who also handled violin chores in it, performing together with several names that we found on past Creative Sources recordings, plus someone else whose activities I’m not familiar with; the taping occurred in 2007. Given the considerable quantity of instrumentalists and the unevenness of the music flux, you could easily envision Rodrigues having a hard time in controlling things. Still, the overall effect is quite agreeable, sort of Centipede meets Portuguese improvisation with a tendency to extreme blast-outs on the one hand and calmer vistas replete with sliding guitars, slow surges and pre-recorded tapes on the other. In virtue of the difficulty of creating truly memorable matters in such a one-off perspective – not to mention a rather inconspicuous recording quality – the CD is surprisingly good and almost entirely deprived of encumbrances, an appreciable vital pulse maintained throughout a full hour. The secret (maybe): VGO don’t remain too long mumbling and pondering around occasional moods and functional ideas. Their instant organization of the acoustic mutability always appears relatively tight, litheness and fun the keywords most everywhere. Massimo Ricci (Touching Extremes)

Large scale electroacoustic conduction by Ernesto Rodrigues (Creative Sources) with a monumental orchestra including some of Europe's finest improvisers performing live at Porto's Casa da Musica. (Squidco)

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Ernesto Rodrigues Lisbon, Portugal

Ernesto Rodrigues (Lisbon, August 29th 1959) has been playing the violin / viola for 50 years and in that time has played all genres of music ranging from contemporary music to free jazz and free improvisation, live and in the studio.
The relationship with his instruments is focused in sonic and
textural elements as well as the use of extended techniques.
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