Ernesto Rodrigues Interview

Ken Waxman - How, when and why was the Creative Sources label first started?

Ernesto Rodrigues - Creative Sources started in my head in 1999, but in a concrete way, I mean, public in 2001 (with the first release)...

Ken Waxman - Was it initially designed just to feature you and other Lisbon-based improvisers, or other players as well?

Ernesto Rodrigues - In the beginning yes, it was meant to release my work, at the time I had extended collaborations and work with a small core group of Lisbon Improvisers... namely: Guilherme Rodrigues, José Oliveira, Marco Franco, António Chaparreiro and Manuel Mota, they appear in the first releases...
All due to the non-existence of labels interested in release this kind of music in Portugal...

Ken Waxman - Now that CS has put out 140 releases, how many CDs have you been involved with as a player?

Ernesto Rodrigues - Over 20...

Ken Waxman - How many CDs does CS release at a time, and at what intervals?

Ernesto Rodrigues - It depends... Some music is more "urgent" to put out, it needs that time frame, so it happened to have 2 or 3 CD's out, or 5 or 6, some times we wait to get a small bunch out. the intervals can go from 2/3 weeks to a month and half... every work of art from it's creation is fragile and needs to be carried out into the open, to be nourished, shown to others, or time will erase it and it will be lost, in all this amount of information going on everywhere, and above all, because the main labels are all thinking about profits and not music and the musicians, or they are thinking about "crystallized" forms of music that do not challenge the listener in new ways, or just "entertainment"... not paying enough attention...
It fells to me like a mission :-)

Ken Waxman - How many copies do each sell, and do they have to sell a minimum number of copies?

Ernesto Rodrigues - the release is always limited to 500 copies, my agreement with the musicians is to cut production expenses in half, in that way they get 200 to 300 CD's (depends also on the group releasing, if they are 2/3 or 4) that they can sell by themselves, we take care of the rest of the production, selling, promoting, sending stuff to reviews...
It sells really very little... I can guess somewhere between 20 to 40 across time... our problem is the distributors, we have a few, that would change if we get more, really became planetary (joking), almost like our catalog...
Don’t forget, is musician run for musicians... very little money involved, we are not here for the money, but for the art...

Ken Waxman - Are all the CDS recorded by CS still in the catalogue and available?

Ernesto Rodrigues - Still, the ancient ones are getting fewer copies... but still there...


Ken Waxman - When did CS first start to release music by musicians from other countries?

Ernesto Rodrigues - In the production CS 009 “No Furniture”, with Kai Fagaschinski, Boris Baltschun and Axel Dörner.

Ken Waxman - How did the German musicians on CS 009 know to get in touch with you and that you would release their CDs? And how did that concept of releasing CDs by non-Lisbon-based musicians spread?

Ernesto Rodrigues - We had the site already online, and the first CS CD's were already floating around, with very good reviews, so one thing led to another and they heard and enjoyed so approach us about the release, we liked the music, in the same range as ours, and we had the chance to augment the catalogue, from that moment on.... we started to receive lots of demos and work to be released from around the world... and also refused a lot of them...

Ken Waxman - Did this change the label’s initial concept?

Ernesto Rodrigues - No, it gave the label more latitude in terms of creative music on the market, I release music that needs a urgent public exposure, due to its nature, many musicians that release in CS are in same conditions I am here...

Ken Waxman - The focus now seems to be on minimalist, microtonal, electronics and lower-case improv, with most sessions related to New music. Was this deliberate turn towards those sounds and away from jazz-oriented improvised music?

Ernesto Rodrigues - We've broaden our "palette", and there are much more labels out there related to mainstream jazz, and also is taste, that somehow got more specific, but that was always the intent of CS, at least in my mind, now we're getting there...
We still do jazz improvised music, but a more specific one, related with us...

Ken Waxman - It also seems that most of the sessions are now recorded by German, French, Italian musicians in their own countries and put out by CS. How do these connections develop?

Ernesto Rodrigues - People started to know our catalog, and after a few years we established ourselves as a label that cares about these kinds of music, that promotes it, so the connections started to flow naturally, because we care about the music...

Ken Waxman - A percentage of these players have recorded on – or continue to record for – other labels. Do musicians seek out CS to release their CDs because of its policies or do they give the label music they feel can’t be released elsewhere or any other way?

Ernesto Rodrigues - I think it's the second answer, we've come to be known as a label that does a specific kind of music... What I mean is, we deal with certain kinds of music, like "near silence", lowercase, electroacoustic, new improv, and some post-free-jazz.
Somehow I guess you can judge a CS CD by its cover, the musicians involved in each release, most of them young, with new approaches to music improv and composition, silent stuff and texturized sound, usually from the manipulation of the instrument, few notes, extended techniques...
But also older musicians with known credits that have some works in this kind structure, approach the CS catalogue for releasing, in spite of having very different work on other labels...

Ken Waxman - What criteria are used to decide whether to release or not a session on Creative Sources?

Ernesto Rodrigues - First if we like the work, it's a matter of taste, then if it is strong stuff, clear and focused, related to rest of the catalogue, or even if the process is interesting musically and worth showing, that’s what I meant with urgency of releasing some of the music...

Ken Waxman - What sort of financial arrangement does CS have with the musicians, for instance do they pay for part of the session’s cost? Please elucidate.

Ernesto Rodrigues - As mentioned before, we cut in half the production of the CD, but that leaves us with the rest involved, promoting, selling. Usually we get audio masters ready for release, but sometimes we have to do a little bit of fine adjustments to make, sound wise, my own releases in CS are prep by us in terms of recording sessions, mixing and mastering...

Ken Waxman - Does CS, through Trem Azul and others out-of-the-country distributors have better distribution than most small “experimental” music labels?

Ernesto Rodrigues - I guess the same, that's our (and others) main problem, to have distributors... perhaps we work harder at it... :-)

Ken Waxman - Do these distribution deals therefore attract musicians?

Ernesto Rodrigues - I really don’t know, but the majority is attracted by the spirit represent by CS...

Ken Waxman - Is being an improvising violist and running the label a full-time job for you or do you do other things?

Ernesto Rodrigues - Is a full time job for sure, the day doesn't have enough time to do all stuff, besides that there's the family and household, so I keep myself very busy...

Ken Waxman - Is François Carrier the only Canadian on the label?

Ernesto Rodrigues - Yes, unfortunately. Around 3 years ago I had a proposal from Éric Normand’s group (Face à la Dérive)… I hope they’ll be still interested and will contact me again.

Ken Waxman - Is every country in Europe represented on the label?

Ernesto Rodrigues - Not all, but that is not our point to be represent the geography of Europe, or the world, but to show beautiful music, cleaver processes or focus composition wherever they are.

Ken Waxman - Are other South American countries represented besides Argentina and Brazil; other places in Asia or elsewhere besides Japan?

Ernesto Rodrigues - Yes: India (Tisha Mukarji, cs046); Lebanon (Sahrif Sehnaoui, cs072), (Mazen Kerbaj, cs025), (Raed Yasin, cs120), Australia (Tony Buck, cs153)…

Ken Waxman - Is there anything I left out that I should know about the label?

Ernesto Rodrigues - I would like to mention that without Carlos Santos collaboration and work, many of these things wouldn't happened, like they do, he's the graphic designer behind most of the covers and promotional work, also as musician collaborating in releases and taking care of audio related issues...
Also to all the people and musicians involved with the label across the years, it's a collaborative work...

Ken Waxman - Since the article won’t appear until mid-2009, I’m going to say CS has put out around 160 CDs by then.

Ernesto Rodrigues - ... or 170 :-)

Ken Waxman, December 2008