Klang cs449

[...] Another quintet, similar in some ways, is that on Klang, recorded in Lisbon in April: Here the guitarist is Nicola L. Hein, likewise much more subtle here than on e.g. recent favorite Rotozaza Zero, although sometimes displaying some of the same repeated striking. The horn player is Matthias Muche on trombone, invoking quite a sense of space for the proceedings, such that sometimes the musicians seem to be echoing around an empty warehouse — not at all unlike my original reference to Muche, Excerpts from anything, perhaps the first Creative Sources album I ever heard (discussed in a massive entry from April 2012). Finally, Carlos Santos — designer for most Creative Sources albums, and mixer/masterer for many — is on synthesizer (which is likewise subtle, and presumably also directly involved with the spatial exploration), rather than there being a percussionist. Klang is mostly a quiet album, featuring many Rodrigues-isms beyond the sense of space, with slow waves or crescendos fading back into more singular gestures. The second track is the more consistently contrapuntal of the two, but still generally quiet, sometimes focusing on e.g. string harmonics incorporated into a growling swirl that fades & echoes across space. It almost suggests a haunted house, and then perhaps some sort of mutant worker ants in a ghostly industrial setting. Much of the interaction occurs in the background, with e.g. various slow glissandi & (as noted) the guitar rarely distinctly audible as such: I might characterize the result as spirit volatilizing into sound. 15 June 2017. Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts

Recorded in Lisbon, Creative Sources core performers Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Miguel Mira on cello and Carlos Santos on synthesizer are joined by renowned German free improviser Matthias Muche on trombone and Cologne based guitarist Nicola L. Hein for two extended improvisations of actively subdued dialog that ebb and flow in commanding ways. (Squidco)