Tak Prosto cs395

Tak Prosto is another interesting trio that pits Rodrigues’ viola against a doubled instrument: this time the alto saxophones of Creative Sources regular Nuno Torres and Russian Ilia Belorukov, who in recent years has been increasingly documented by Mikroton Recordings. Tak Prosto consists of a studio track and a longer live recording captured on the previous day.

“Studio” mines saxophone territory similar to musicians like Michel Doneda or Seymour Wright, with an intense focus on controlling very quiet—almost precarious—pitches, sounds that are nearing the edge of the players’ ability to control. These often breathy explorations meld fluidly with Rodrigues’ feathered touch, which often activates the strings just enough to shave off a few wispy harmonics. “Live,” recorded as described at Vertikal Gallery in St. Petersburg, sheds the crisp, sanitized sound of the studio. At times it feels like a fog, or like looking through a hazy film: tones are stretched thinly, slowly, and here and there the outside world seeps through, doors or footsteps, low voices, a distant phone, an inexplicable woodblock tapping that may be the musicians, but may also be someone else, an unwitting accomplice. By the end, what began as a quiet piece of “lowercase” eventually awakens into a louder repartee, with Torres and Belorukov sputtering Parkeresque lines with their strange quality of pulsing time. Dan Sorrells (The Free Jazz Collective)

Two recordings from the lowercase acoustic improvising trio of Portuguese players Ernesto Rodriduges on viola and Nuno Torres on alto saxophone and objects with Saint Petersburg alto saxophonist Ilia Belorukov, recording at Belorukov's Spina! label's studio, and again live at Vertikal' Gallery in Saint Petersburg in 2016. (Squidco)