Live recording by Miguel Azguime on November 25th 2017 during the CreativeFest XI at O'Culto da Ajuda, Lisbon.
Mix, master and graphic design by Carlos Santos.
Production by Ernesto Rodrigues.
REVIEWS
"Synchronous Rotation" contains only one track of the same title, lasting 27 minutes. For me it is a crowning of the series. It is to some extend a more radical record, with the ensemble reduced to a quartet.
It was recorded live at O'Culto da Ajuda, in Lisbon during the CreativeFest#11. In a sense this is the same concept as the one used on "Blattwerk" and "Zweige", but distilled to a situation in which the sound of each instrument can be identi ed and heard individually. The music again is sileny and tranquila, yet full of emotions, sensitivity, and simply intrinsic beauty. The are more albums on the avantgarde scene combining strings with avantgarde free improvised music (such as several albums of Agustí Fernández), but the series of Vasco with the Rodrigues family clealry belong to the most interesting and artistically most challenging ones. It is very original in fact if it reminds me stylistically of anything, then of the spectral string music of Gérard Grisey and of the musique concrète instrumentale of Helmut Lachenmann. Unbelievably beautiful stuff!!! Maciej Lewenstein
Muzyka wstaje z ciszy, dobiega z głuchej przestrzeni. Słuchać szelest kroków, ktoś oddycha. Struny pełne bojaźni i drżenia, w egzystencjalnym zawieszeniu. Koncertowe królestwo, pełne skupienia i umiaru. Struny wchodzą w delikatne interakcje, ledwie muskane smykami, lekkimi jak ptasie pióra. Robaczki tańczą w ołowianych miseczkach (Trilla!). Kameralistyka owdowiałych przedmieść Lizbony. Odrobina klasycznych pasaży, konfrontowana przez bystre interakcje rzeczywistości ciągłej improwizacji. Być może jesteśmy bliżej bramy do filharmonii, ale kwaśny odczyn dźwięku determinuje nasz sceptycyzm wobec wejścia do środka. Jakby na potwierdzenie przypuszczeń recenzenta - 8 minuta i pierwsze próby sonorystycznych zadziorów na gryfach i krawędziach werbla i tomów. Wsparcie drummingowe, to nie jest zły pomysł. Niepokój rytmu pozorowanego. Smyki podśpiewują molowe pieśni. Niekoniecznie żałobne, może bardziej wielkopostne. Tuż potem zejście w głąb czarnej ziemi. Zdaje się, że to Ernesto ma w dłoniach pochodnię i oświetla drogę wędrowcom. Pięknie snuta opowieść, bez puenty, z pokładami lirycznych metafor na gryfie altówki. Reszta partnerów komentuje i wpada w drobną egzaltację. 14 minuta, dronowy czteroślad! Jakże uroczy pasaż! Jakże te instrumenty oddychają i szeleszczą. Drżą! Akustyczny meta byt! Głaskają się z ciszą! Po uszy w ciszy, tu gdzie każdy dźwięk stanowić może krwawą rewolucję (także ze strony widowni)! 20 minuta, Trilla bierze opowieść na swój warsztat – dzwoni i rezonuje. Obok drobne turbulencje na strunach. Wejście w kameralny barok, może nawet ckliwy romantyzm. Ale wszystko może liczyć na cięty kontrapunkt drummera! Narracja rośnie w siłę, a tempo przemian dyktuje Katalończyk. Rusza armia wibratorów! Strunowce z otwartymi ustami łapią głęboki oddech. Ostrzą sobie ząbki na finał! Szczypta klasycznej retoryki ze strony wiolonczeli, na pozostałych strunach szmer molowej zadumy. Jakże ciekawy dysonans akustyczny. Na ostatniej prostej wytryski pojedynczych dźwięków i dronowych zaśpiewów. Andrzej Nowak (Trybuna Muzyki Spontanicznej)
[...] From later in the year, and so following the Lisbon String Trio series & others, is Synchronous Rotation, recorded at CreativeFest in Lisbon in November 2017, by a quartet of Ernesto & Guilherme Rodrigues, Gianna de Toni (double bass) & (again) Vasco Trilla. I was not familiar with de Toni, but she appears on a prior album on Creative Sources, Trees (recorded in May 2013) by a quintet including both Rodrigueses. So Synchronous Rotation forms an alternate "Lisbon String Trio" around Ernesto, bolstered once again by Trilla's imaginative percussion. It also continues the recent history of geometric cover art on Creative Sources, particularly around the String Theory series (as does, more as a hybrid, the very sparse Spiric Sections, recorded the following day, also at CreativeFest 11), and the music suggests a corresponding technical quality: Synchronous Rotation consists of one modest length (under thirty minute) track, and opens strongly, with rich counterpoint around what I might describe as post-serial thematics. It's much more forceful in its first half, evoking various string associations, but seems to become more subdued following a long, quiet interlude. (One might say that after some equivocation, minimalism decisively asserts itself, although its reign does not remain untroubled. There's even something of a spiritual, Scelsian vibe to the drone & rattle combination that arises toward the end, as distinct from the presumptively geometric evocations.) Trilla does seem more animated at times, so perhaps this is the start of him putting more of his personal vigor into these projects with Rodrigues. And perhaps the more "ethereal" results are generated as a consequence of the "rotation" (to which the title refers) — I'm not sure — but the album does fade to a close. I can't claim that either album truly distinguishes itself in the midst of Rodrigues's massive outpouring of recordings featuring himself with various other string players, but both Zweige & Synchronous Rotation present independent points of interest, documenting the ongoing development of Rodrigues's "string theory" more generally. (And the latter also includes a nice two-panel, full color photograph of the quartet in concert.) There is clearly more to explore here: I'd be keen on hearing some of the early, high energy passages of Synchronous Rotation elaborated in different directions, say. Given the pace of these releases, perhaps that's already in the works. 13 March 2018. Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts
A live recording at O'Culto da Ajuda, Lisbon, during the 2017 CreativeFest #11 from the quartet of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, Gianna de Toni on double bass, and Vasco Trilla on percussion, a sinuous, curving extended improvisation of subtle shades, with certain rotations more forceful, but always gravitating to quietude. (Squidco)
credits
released March 1, 2018
Ernesto Rodrigues - viola
Guilherme Rodrigues - cello
Gianna de Toni - double bass
Vasco Trilla - 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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