Recorded on June 21st 2010, at Tcha Tcha Tcha Studio, Lisbon, Portugal.
Recorded by Joel Conde.
Mixed and mastered by Ernesto Rodrigues and Carlos Santos.
Graphic design by Carlos Santos.
Production by Ernesto Rodrigues.
REVIEWS
[...] Esse é também o nome aplicado para identificar este octeto liderado pelo violetista Ernesto Rodrigues. Pelos músicos envolvidos (Guilherme Rodrigues, Nuno Torres, Gil Gonçalves, Armando Pereira, Carlos Santos e José Oliveira, além de Abdul Moimême), poderíamos pensar que se trata de um "redux" da Variable Geometry Orchestra, mas na verdade consiste numa expansão das coordenadas que Rodrigues vem aplicando às suas pequenas formações. Ou seja, não se encontram aqui as massas sonoras e os choques de frequências da VGO, mas, simplesmente, uma Lilliput mais povoada. A linha estética adoptada é, pois, a do reducionismo ortodoxo, com foco nos jogos tímbricos e na manutenção de texturas. A esse nível, o que ouvimos é muitíssimo digno. [...] Rui Eduardo Paes
Finally, from a bit later in the same year, we have "Suspensão",an double disc octet date with Rodrigues (viola,harp, metronomes, objects), Guilherme Rodrigues (cello), Gil Gonçalves (tuba), Nuno Torres (alto sax), Abdul Moimeme (prepared electric guitars, objects), Armando Pereira (toy piano, accordion), Carlos Santos (electronics, piezo elements) and José Oliveira (percussion). In some ways, it recapitulates the journey of the previous decade, a bit over-busy here but well integrated and spaced there (no mean feat with eight players). The second and fourth of the four lengthy pieces here work excellently, really establishing a true-sounding space (the accordion helping out greatly). The other two, perhaps intentionally, harken back to the busier, scratchier approaches of prior years. Brian Olewnick (Just Outside)
A free improvisation octet recorded in June 2010. A large group, a double CD, with four 20-minute improvisations, all different and unique, but all proceeding from a single silence-and-sound-based approach. The fourth piece contains surprising passages, and the first one irradiates a strange beauty. I note that Ernesto Rodrigues is playing harp, metronomes and objects alonside his trusty viola (a first?). Nice interplay of confusions between extended techniques on acoustic instruments (Gonçalves’ tuba, Oliveira’s percussion, G. Rodrigues’ cello) and electric/electronic instruments (Moimême’s prepared guitars, Santos’ electronics). This album does not reinvent the approach of Rodrigues and company, but it does provide a potent illustration of it. François Couture (Monsieur Délire)
Today was a lovely day, with the exception of a trip to the supermarket I spent it alone in relative peace and quiet, catching up on no end of bits and pieces I needed to catch up on, the results of which I should be able to share soon, and cooking and eating far too much nice food. I’ve also listened to an awful lot of music, both on CD and on the radio (Mahler’s second at The BBC Proms) before finally settling on a double CD on the Creative Sources label for extended listening. The disc in question is a studio recording named Suspensão by an octet of (I think mainly Portugese) musicians. The group consists of: Ernesto Rodrigues, (viola, harp, metronomes, objects) Guilherme Rodrigues, (cello) Gil Concalves, (tuba) Nuno Torres, (alto saxophone) Abdul Moimeme, (prepared electric guitars, objects) Armando Pereira, (toy piano, accordion) Carlos Santos, (electronics, piezo elements) and José Oliviera (percussion).
Now, in my experience, when you put eight improvisers together in a studio, one of two things happen. Either the music becomes incredibly dense, loud and soupy as everyone tries to be heard, or, compensating against this, the musicians end up making very quiet music as nobody wants to take the lead. Assuming that the music here is indeed improvised (there is nothing on the sleeve notes to suggest otherwise) it actually manages to avoid both of the aforementioned scenarios and is quite remarkably well balanced. There are four long pieces, two on each disc, and while there are characteristics individual to each of the four, all of them share a slow pace, a feeling of laminal juxtaposition and overlap rather than call and response and aside from the ending of the fourth track, where a series of clicking metronomes coalesce into a hypnotic mass, a soft, earthy set of sounds is used throughout. In fact, letting this music colour the room around me as I have worked on things today has been a real pleasure.
Assuming that Suspensão translates from Portugese to mean Suspension, this is a fitting title for this music. From the off it feels light and airy despite the large number of musicians, as if the eight sets of sounds are hovering over one another, accumulating and snagging in places but generally existing free of each other. Some of the instruments are easy to identify, E. Rodrigues’ harp standing out when it is heard, the depth of the tuba easy to spot and the accordion, an instrument which, when played “properly” I really can’t abide is used to good effect as well, adding little spots of colour here and there when it does indeed sound like an accordion, lost in the masses when it doesn’t. The first of the four tracks is maybe the lightest, sounding almost tide-like as little swells of instruments rise together for a few moments before falling away to near nothing for a brief while before the next little wave. Throughout all of the tracks though the sounds continually shift and evolve, with no one element ever holding a continually dominant position, a softly bowed cello replaced by a growling guitar pick-up then a spry of toy piano, an electronic hum and a fluttering sax line. Its all very well recorded as well, some feat with such a large group.
At the end of the fourth track, everything stops and Ernesto Rodrigues, presumably having discussed this in advance sets a number of metronomes running, initially just one, then several more. At first it seems easy to follow the ticking, find the patterns, but then too many sounds quickly appear and it all becomes a mass of clicks, all pitched the same, quickly moving from something clearly rhythmic to something chaotic. After a few minutes of this everything cuts out slowly until a single metronome remains, ticking alone for a few seconds before it is stopped to end the album. I’m not certain how this little epilogue relates to the rest of the music, though clearly it has been placed there deliberately. It works well though, and acts a little like a cleanser, clearing out the ears and mind after approaching two hours of richly coloured music.
Suspensão is a fine two discs of lovingly considered and created music. If your preference is for the textural over the torrential, purr over power, then this set of electroacoustic improvisations will suit you fine. As nice a recording of a large group as I’ve heard in a good while and one of the best of a considerable bunch of releases from this Iberian group of musicians. Richard Pinnell (The Watchful Ear)
Silence with two is one thing, but silence with eight musicians is a real feat. The band is Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, harp, metronomes, objects, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, Gil Gonçalves on tuba, Nuno Torres on alto saxophone, Abdul Moimeme on prepared electric guitars, Armando Pereira on accordion and toy piano, Carlos Santos on electronics and piezo elements, and José Oliveira on percussio. The "suspense" in the title is well chosen, as the music's minimalism creates the kind of tension that you wish would explode, come to a paroxysm, come to an orgasm, but it doesn't. The sound is the calm before the storm, the fear before the killing, the sensitivity before the climax. That kind of tension. Slowly evolving, close to silence, with instruments adding shades of sound, whispers, scrapings, bows, ... Stef (Free Jazz)
Deux CD, quatre pièces improvisées, huit musiciens. Une équation simple mais qui a quelque chose de monumental pour ce disque paru sur le label d'Ernesto Rodrigues, également présent sur ce disque, à la direction, à l'alto, mais aussi à la harpe, aux métronomes et différents objets acoustiques. A ses côtés, on retrouve de nombreux fidèles de la scène portugaise, la plupart étant des collaborateurs réguliers d'Ernesto, tels son fils Guilherme, au violoncelle, Abdul Moimême à la guitare électrique préparée et Carlos Santos à l'électronique et aux "éléments piézoélectriques"; mais également Gil Gonçalves au tuba, Nuno Torres au saxophone alto, Armando Perreira à l'accordéon et au piano jouet, et enfin, José Oliveira aux percussions.
Une formation instrumentale impressionnante, dense et presque exhaustive (dans la mesure où on retrouve toutes les familles d'instruments). Mais contrairement à ce qu'on pourrait présager, ces quatre longues improvisations sont tout de même très espacées, les musiciens ne sont que très rarement plus de quatre à jouer simultanément. La musique semble dirigée, et Ernesto prend bien soin de laisser de la place à chacun, un peu à la manière d'une Klangfarbenmelodie mais très étirée ici. Pas de pointillisme à la Webern, les musiciens portugais posent plutôt des nappes longues et étirées, où l'espace entre chaque timbre prend autant d'importance que le timbre luimême.
Un timbre rentre, donc, puis un second, puis un troisième, tandis que le premier se retire et ainsi de suite. L'espace sonore n'est jamais saturé, le temps est lisse mais les fractures sont constantes, fractures de timbres à l'intérieur d'une durée lisse et d'une pulsation indéterminée parce que absente. Les changements d'ambiances et de textures sont incessants, aucun son ne reste en place et s'impose, et pourtant, la linéarité de ces pièces est monolithique (à l'intérieur d'une pièce comme des quatre qui s'enchaînent sans que l'on ne s'en aperçoive). La cohérence qui s'établit dans la continuité est impressionnante et majestueuse. Les cellules de timbres qui s'agencent peuvent parfois être très intenses, très plates, certaines très originales (comme ces métronomes dissymétriques, ou les nappes discrètes de Carlos Santos qui parviennent si bien à appuyer et enrichir n'importe quel type de texture, la profondeur et le charisme du tuba) et d'autres plus convenues. L'octet s'amuse à déployer toutes les combinaisons instrumentales possibles et explore différents agencements de familles instrumentales tout en développant des réponses logiques relativement à chaque cellule, et à l'ensemble de la pièce.
Et pourtant, je n'y arrive pas. Peut-être que j'ai un peu trop écouté Ernesto ces derniers temps, je ne sais pas, mais en tout cas, cette continuité constamment brisée par les ruptures texturales tout en étant maintenue dans une temporalité linéaire m'a franchement fatigué.
L'espace et l'agencement des timbres est très bien géré, des textures se font à l'intérieur d'un espace vaste, mais le fait que ces textures soient constamment modifiées par le retrait ou l'ajout d'un instrumentiste fait qu'elles n'ont pas le temps de prendre véritablement sens. Malgré une inventivité exceptionnelle de chaque musicien comme du groupe pris dans sa globalité, les architectures sonores proposées ici me paraissent trop froides du fait de leur absence de déploiement dans le temps et de leur fracture incessante. Comme une sorte de pointillisme étirée, de "lignisme" pourrait-on dire, car le groupe trace des lignes sans forcément de rapport les unes avec les autres, des lignes qui s'agencent et se superposent pour former un certain volume (géométrique) précis et déterminé. Et même si la créativité dans la production des lignes est impressionnante, autant que la sensibilité de l'écoute, et l'attention au collectif, l'inconstance des volumes pris dans une temporalité elle très constante dans sa linéarité monolithique m'a plutôt ennuyé. Une musique qui laisse une étrange sensation d'éphémère et d'éternité. Hjulien (Improv Sphere)
Deux disques et deux plages à chaque fois. Donc : Quatre plages en suspension sur lesquelles évoluent Ernesto Rodrigues (violon, harpe, métronome, objets), Guilherme Rodrigues (violoncelle), Gil Gonçalves (tuba), Nuno Torres (alto), Abdul Moimême (guitare électrique préparée, objets), Armando Pereira (piano-jouet, accordéon), Carlos Santos (électronique) et José Oliveira (percussions).
Un tuba du bout des lèvres, un archet sur une note, un timide piano-jouet, se font entendre l’un après l’autre sous des chapes de nébulosités qu’ils perceront bientôt pour s’être entendus, motivés par les promesses de l’accordéon de Pereira et l’électronique de Santos, sur un brillant assaut. S’ensuit alors une série de revendications, chaque intervenant ou presque réclamant d’être l’autorité derrière laquelle il semble nécessaire de se ranger.
Charmantes, les tergiversations peinent à s’imposer tout à fait et les musiciens décident alors d’incarner leurs expressions : diverses, souvent courtes, presque toujours inquiètes. Les plages du second disque sont minées et les improvisateurs rivalisent maintenant de précautions : l’archet d’Ernesto bourdonne et celui de Guilherme claque, ailleurs des cordes sont frottées. Avec l’exercice, les rivalités s’éteignent. Leurs ambitions perdues sur Suspensão courent toujours. Guillaume Belhomme (Le Son du Grisli)
A large group under the direction of violinist Ernesto Rodrigues (also on harp, metronome & objects) in 4 extended improvisations of great suspense and tension through sound and silence. (Squidco)
credits
released February 17, 2011
Ernesto Rodrigues - viola, harp, metronomes, objects
Guilherme Rodrigues - cello
Gil Gonçalves - tuba
Nuno Torres - alto saxophone
Abdul Moimeme - prepared electric guitars
Armando Pereira - accordion, toy piano
Carlos Santos - electronics, piezo elements
José Oliveira - percussion
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....more
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