m u l t i p l e s | cs001

The Portuguese string trio of Ernesto Rodrigues, Guilherme Rodrigues and José Oliveira reconfigures itself into a reed/string trio or a string percussion trio or variations thereon during the course of their 28 vignettes, and the result is music that is always stimulating and unpredictable. Their program is totally unstructured and spontaneous, and the wealth of sounds they develop carries it into the outer reaches of sonic development. It has touches of modern classical at its roots (or as suggested in the liner notes "false chamber music"), but it is imaginative and improvised music created in the moment through the close interaction of the three. Ernesto Rodrigues primarily plays the violin or viola, but he also adopts the soprano saxophone to ignite a spark of a different degree of intensity. José Oliveira plays acoustic guitar and also fills in the cracks and crevices with freelance percussion, focusing on chimes, rattles, and bell tones. Guilherme Rodrigues remains with the cello throughout, giving a solidifying base to their output. The instrumental variations color the set with significantly different hues. With violin, cello and percussion as a central alignment, eeriness abounds. José Oliveira often approaches the guitar as a percussion instrument, and his slapping techniques bode well with the steamy vibrations of the surrounding strings. The segments with soprano saxophone add a further, often more robust dimension to the sound possibilities. The music is not spatial. It has connectivity, flow, and consistency even though the tones at times border on the minimal. Screechy filaments from the strings often dot the mini-tunes, as do reverberant clanging and rubbing noises. When the cello, violin and guitar are blazing away, the emotional level is at a peak. This music with its European conceptual platform, expands with the focus of asymmetrical rhythms and the correlation of disparate sound images. It requires total immersion to absorb and accept the interrelated tonal aspects of their playing, but it is an effort well worth making. Frank Rubolino (Cadence) 

«Multiples» is a very satisfying Free Improv session between violin and viola player Ernesto Rodrigues, cellist Guilherme Rodrigues and percussionist José Oliveira. The album is dedicated to John Stevens and obviously the three musicians have paid attention to his music, along with contemporary additions to the Emanem catalog. Both string players use extended techniques and incorporate silence in their playing, sounding closer in spirit to Phil Durrant, Phil Wachsmann, Mark Wastell or Charlotte Hug than their compadre Carlos Zíngaro. They must have been playing together for a while because the telepathic link between the two of them is exemplary; they listen acutely to each other’s input and can decide to explore a very thin sonic texture or instead break into a spontaneous melody, all with great coordination. José Oliveira uses a wide assortment of bells, cymbals and junks, only occasionally hitting skins. Using a feather touch, he deposits impressionistic colors on the musical canvas.  «Multiples» consists of 28 short pieces—from 50 seconds to four minutes.  Some were performed this way, others seem to have been edited out of larger chunks of music. This rapid succession of sharp ideas can be tiresome, but it works well nonetheless. Cutting-edge free improv from a place we hear too little about, this album will surprise many a listener. François Couture (AMG)

Du Portugal nous parvient un CD du violoniste et saxophoniste Ernesto Rodrigues. «Multiples» (CS 001) présente un trio où le violon, l’alto ou le saxophone soprano dialoguent avec le violoncelle de Guilherme Rodrigues et la guitarre acoustique ou les percussions de José Oliveira en 28 courtes pièces. Travail sur la texture du son des cordes frottées, pincées ou frappées, bruitages, jeu sur les différentes combinaisons instrumentales et détournement  de l’héritage classique des cordes: telles sont les préoccupations de cette formation. Thierry Quénum (Jazz Magazine) 

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 4 minutes and 12 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 Ernesto Rodrigues playing an Evan Parker-influenced soprano saxophone as well as violin and viola and José Oliveira strumming and picking an acoustic guitar, as well as working his percussive noise magic. Third partner here is cellist Guilherme Rodrigues -- relationship to Ernesto 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. Ken Waxman (Jazz Weekly)

Hard hitting shorts of trio improvisations played on violin, viola, cello, sax, percussion and acoustic guitar. Don't expect anything too light here, as Ernesto, Guilherme and Jose attack you with ear-splitting harmonics, diverging high notes going from "ppp" to "fff", bouncing balls on strings, strident contrapuntal monsters. No sound is treated without the due attention, and everything appears to spring right out of the players' guts. But mind you, this record is by no means cerebral, though it could be difficult to fathom at a first listen; each of these 28 tracks will reward your concentration and, at the end of the day, you will be happy for having discovered new talented instrumentalists in the "hard hat area" of free music. Massimo Ricci (Touching Extremes)

False chamber music by the trio composed of violinist/violist (also soprano saxophone on three pieces) Ernesto Rodrigues with his twelve year old son Guilherme Rodrigues (a cello player who matters to be listened to) and percussionist José Oliveira (also on acoustic guitar), claims as coordinates serialism and Webern in particular by one side and free jazz - as LeRoy Jenkins' Revolutionary Ensemble features it - on the other. The melting of the fundaments of the now much celebrated "fire music" (as "Wire" magazine calls the line of music which comes from 60's and 70's New Thing and is personified today by neo-free nostalgia and by all post-Ayler, post-Coltrane and post-Coleman’s who lead this music into different domains) with the Webernian Art of miniature is not an obvious and "natural" thing to happen. Yet it has everything to do with the world of references of European Improvised Music where this Portuguese musician with an already important role is to be listed. Short improvisations in continuous eruption, simple fragments of a creative gesture always renewed which keeps succeeding until one has the perception of a present globality sense. Very interesting. Rui Eduardo Paes (JL)

Following excellent «Self Eater and Drinker» with Jorge Valente, Ernesto Rodrigues still endures and amazes. His latest work withstands his intentions before jazz and contemporary music. Featuring Ernesto Rodrigues (violin, viola and soprano sax) Guilherme Rodrigues (cello) and José Oliveira (percussion, acoustic guitar) this trio proposes us a journey to the kingdom of improvised music appealing to the roughness of acoustic instruments to produce an endless multiplicity of images and possible readings. «Multiples» a deliberately fragmented work is composed of twenty eight very short takes where masterly managed silence is the counterpart to an exhaustive use of strings producing somehow the feeling of a wave like pattern which by the way is never present at all. Being a violinist, Ernesto Rodrigues incursions trough soprano sax are a reminder of musicians who’ve played an important role in his own musical growth such as Steve Lacy or Anthony Braxton. This CD ensures and strengthens his position before our frail jazz scene where he’s sailing a stormy sea full of waves of prejudice. This is a work to be taken into account not only for it’s valued content but also for the courage and determination put into it’s release. Carlos Lourenço (All Jazz)

Je découvre ici (merci boss !) Ernesto Rodrigues, violoniste portugais emporté, saxophoniste evanparkerien certifié (après le traumatisme coltranien, le traumatisme evanparkerien ?). Imposant les pires tortures à son instrument (raclures, étirements, grincements lapidaries, gargouillis d’archet sur cordes tendues), toujours refusant les sentiers balisés de l’établi, Ernesto Rodrigues, en vingt-huit miniatures et autant de scénarios possibles, accomplit l’exploit de me captiver d’un bout à l’autre de «Multiples», première référence du label Creative Sources (les phrases longues peuvent être difficiles à lire et à comprendre me signale mon correcteur de texte, tout le contraire donc de la musique ici proposée). Car si ça frotte, ça coulisse, ça dérive, ça n’oublie pas sensualité et sensibilité. Surtout, ça esquive la répétition, les lourds bavardages, ça vise droit et juste. C’est jeté comme ça en pleine face, sans préavis aucun. C’est l’éloge du grinçant et du tranchant. Ça joue avec le miniscule (j’ai cru reconnaître  le bruit du rebond de balles de ping-pong), ça vibre transversalement. Luc Bouquet (Improjazz)

The label is founded by violinplayer Ernesto Rodrigues in 2001. Thinking of improvised music from Portugal it is only the name of that other violinplayer, the well-known Carlos Zíngaro that comes to my mind. But here we have a very impressive outburst of new talent from Portugal. «Multiples» reflects an improvised music that is very rich and of considerable standard. So there is a great unity here in several respects: in time, in musicians involved. «Multiples» engages in a microtonal improvisation. Music with great sense for detail and nuance. With my view on european improvised music I would say that they are most close to the english school. A non-idiomatic kind of improvised music. Abstract but coloured. Silence is also important here. Much pianissimo, often spaced out, but always intense. Investigating the world of sound and texture. It can be said that they try to make a group sound. To establish the individuality of an instrument or player is not what they are in for. The interplay between the musicians is often great. All in all, it is difficult to say anything negative about this CD. It proofs that european improvised music is still very much alive since it originated in the sixties. «Multiples» makes up a very enjoyable and rewarding course in active listening. Dolf Mulder (Vital Weekly) 

Lisbon-based Creative Sources was founded in 1999 by Ernesto Rodrigues, an improviser who primarily plies his trade on the violin or viola. Rodrigues, it seems, is not only the owner, he's a client; as his name appears first in the listing of performers on each of these four CDs. Whether this is a testimony to Rodrigues' leadership abilities and improvising skill or the fact that Creative Sources exists mainly as a self-serving entity, I'm unable to tell. In either case, the four discs find Rodrigues and a revolving cast of collaborators engaging in electro-acoustic improvisation of the most miniscule sort. Their subtly structuralist/conceptualist improvisations rely little on high volume or fever-pitch explosions to make their point, spending a far greater amount of time in the realm of much more deliberate actions. This spawns a sense that there exists little on these discs which is unintentional, and that the over-arching philosophies which dictate the nature of the musicians' improvisations become more important, in a sense, than the exact sounds which are created. Academic liner notes provided by Portuguese music writer Rui Eduardo Paes define the context of each recording and, through metaphor and trans-discipline association, the concept from which the album grew. «Multiples», the first disc released by Creative Sources, explores the idea of the parts as the whole by presenting a series of twenty-eight musical vignettes between approximately one and four minutes in length. In each of the small improvisations, each musician (Rodrigues, cellist Guilherme Rodrigues, and percussionist/acoustic guitarist José Oliveira) concentrates on only one or two musical ideas or techniques, with, at times, overlaps between the sounds that any one musician utilizes from one fragment to another. There's a great deal of pizzicato plucking, rubbing of wound strings, and short bursts of rapid bowing from the stringed instruments, with Oliveira's percussion consisting mainly of quick rolls, truncated cymbal splashes, and the jangling of various other implements. «Multiples» contains the most spirited playing on any of the Creative Sources discs reviewed here, and though more prominent stating of the chosen ideas in each multiple would benefit the conceptuality of the disc, «Multiples» is a fairly successful experiment [...] Adam Strohm (Fake Jazz)

These three releases reveal that the language of free improvisation has found a home in Portugal in the hands of string player Ernesto Rodrigues and multi-instrumentalist José Oliveira. Over the course of the three CD’s at hand, the two round out a trio with different partners to explore differing dialects of non-idiomatic, collective playing. On «Multiples» cellist Guilherme Rodrigues joins Ernesto Rodrigues and Oliveira for a series of microscopic miniatures. With the first notes, the strategy of the session is outlined; sawed harmonics, stuttering percussion clatter, and wafts of overtones bounce off of each other with a frenetic energy. The approach here is a speed trial of cascading miniatures over 28 pieces, most of which come in under the two-minute mark. The short explorations narrow in on a particular facet or texture, from hushed miniscule gestures to excited pointillism. The dominance of strings could create a chamber-like ambiance, but Oliveira’s nervous percussion serves as an agitating force, pushing the interactions with a fidgety tension. Each of the players has the expected extended techniques down: creaking, scraped, double-stopped strings; rattled percussion and bounced objects ricocheting off cymbals and drum heads; fluttering reed lines. The pieces are like tiny eruptions, never stretching long enough to gather force or momentum and never settling in one sonic space for long. [...] It is always good to hear musicians with inquisitive sensibilities, searching for their voices and pushing themselves to explore challenging settings. From the evidence of these three releases, there is no question that Portugal is nurturing a handful of players who are taking on that challenge. Though the results are uneven, the quest should be applauded. Michael Rosenstein (Cadence)

Creative Sources is a new portuguese label run by Ernesto Rodrigues (who plays the viola, sax, violin) and who has so far issued 5 amazing CD's. Usually in nearly all CD's, [...] we find a core of nearly the same people exploring various realms of the what so called “improvised music”. But is improvisation which is not done in the sake of improvisation or in a funny like mood or whatsoever. On the contrary here we have a team of people who improvise upon certain ideas or out of certain needs. In «Multiples» for instance which in a way is based also on Joseph Beuys’s moto “the idea of multiples is the distribution of ideas” we find Ernesto Rodrigues on violin/viola/soprano sax, Guiherme Rodrigues on cello and José Oliveira on percussion/acoustic guitar playing a more allow me to say “classic” but also highly inventive improvised miniatures which brought in mind many times the more “us improvised school” perhaps also as lately have found myself listening at times to such recordings (of Davey Williams, LaDonna Smith, David Moss, John Zorn, etc.) but that’s not the point. The what I find attracting here is not only their unique improvisations but also their “multiples” idea using the cd medium potential too, thanks to which you can always listen to the pieces in random (shuffle) mode so each time you can get a different result. See it as a whole track or little ones but each time different. [...] Nicolas (Absurd)

«Multiples» es la primera grabación de Ernesto Rodrigues en su propio sello discográfico. Grabado al finalizar el año 2000, en compañia de su hijo Guilherme Rodrigues, al violochelo, y José Oliveira, percussión y guitarra acústica.  Veintiocho temas de una duración media de dos minutos con amplios campos de desarrollo, influidos muy claramente por el mundo clásico contemporáneo (el libreto alude a la forma weberniana en sus trios e quartetttos de cuerda) y al free jazz (Ernesto toca el violín, la viola y, en algunas piezas, al saxo soprano con la fruición y energía propias de la ejecución libre). Es aquí donde el lenguaje evita posicionamientos cerrados, no únicamente por la instrumentación a la “falsa música de cámara” con la que los propios músicos aluden (aqui habría que señalar la presencia determinante de los objetos de percusión), para aportar otros ingredientes propios de este trabajo: libertad, concentración, escucha, equilibrio sonoro, espacio, luz, silencio.... Chema Chacón (Oro Molido)

Grande tension dynamique, chocs et fabrication d’objets complexes. Jerôme Noetinger (Metamkine)

With "Multiples" the whole new tradition of contemporary Portuguese improvisation was born: This is the first record of Creative Sources label, which nowadays has several hundreds positions in the catalogue! Here, Ernesto and Guilherme are joined by José Oliveira, who plays percussion and acoustic guitar. The music follows also the tradition of John Cage, but also of Anton Webern: The album contains 28 short miniatures, "Multiples I-XXVIII", very diverse in moods and spirits, with some being extremely dramatic and expressive, and other blooming with lyricism and emotions. Maciej Lewenstein