Intonarumori cs456

[…] Il primo si rapporta a quanto sta facendo Ernesto Rodrigues in Portogallo: è da tempo che il violista sperimenta anche con trio o quartetto di corde, ingenerando sonorità spezzate e contemporanee, nell'ambito delle proposte della sua etichetta Creative Sources. Un recente ciclo di improvvisazioni è stato imbastito con Miguel Mira al violoncello e Alvaro Rosso al contrabbasso nella denominazione di Lisbon String Trio. Nell'ottica di un approfondimento relazionale con altro tipo di strumentazione aggiuntiva, il trio ha chiamato alla partecipazione altri valenti improvvisatori, dedicandosi per ognuno alla scoperta di nuovi anfratti dell'immaginazione sonora, e tra questi si segnala la collaborazione intervenuta con il trombone preparato di Carlo Mascolo in un cd dal titolo Intonarumori. Mascolo si inserisce nella più proverbiale interpretazione del Russolo, con gli strumenti che grattano, strappano o scivolano sulle cordiere: il suo trombone si gonfia e sospira nella traccia II, lasciando intatto il senso del dialogo immaginario e dell'appeal industriale; in un'ambiente sonico impossibile, i rumori si affiancano e si compongono agli impasti e una grande scoperta sonora può essere persino il battito dell'archetto, un espediente creato a hoc per fornire una torbida trama immaginativa, dove il compito di Mascolo è quello di dare contributo a questo scenario di rumori da codificare in una memoria suppletiva; un trombone soffocato e quasi dolente aleggia in posizione aerea (senti la traccia IV), senza mai viaggiare nei territori timbrici convenzionali del trombone a cui ci siamo abituati (traccia VI). Percorsi Musicali (Ettore Garzia)

As introduced in an extended entry a couple of weeks ago, on Intonarumori (recorded in Lisbon in May, nine days after Akuanduba), the Lisbon String Trio is joined by Carlo Mascolo on trombone. As also noted, Mascolo has a recent solo album on Creative Sources, My Tubes, featuring a growling trombone & preparations, including splitting the instrument into its different components. Intonarumori likewise suggests more of a technical, exploratory orientation than other albums in the series, as well as marks a change in register for the wind joining the trio: Although harmonics ramify the sense of pitch hierarchy, the previous three albums feature winds that are (most commonly) in the soprano range, so recalling that the string trio has the alto (viola) as its highest-pitched instrument, here the trombone occupies the middle of the texture. The result involves less sense of space, due to more crossing of lines (as typical of so many other, recent Rodrigues string-majority albums), and consequently some closer interactions absent the same sort of layering. It begins in percussive mode for the strings, lending a kind of forcefulness to what are otherwise some fairly understated sounds moving into harmonics. The opening track is rather contrapuntal (as is the fifth), and one of the more appealing in the series. The second track opens with what might be described as an extended "raspberry" from the trombone that almost seems percussive itself, yielding to mimicking string accents. The next track emphasizes more harmonics, at least in part to occupy the higher pitches, while the trombone growls below. The interactions are tantalizing, but the latter part of the albums seems to struggle a bit to recapture some of the opening energy, and especially to forge a contrapuntal style, as a sort of wheezing grooving chordal structure sometimes emerges while emphasizing particular pitches (& their displacement). Basically, the polyphonic implications are rather different for this ensemble, and the single (I guess?) performance date yields an album with a more exploratory feel than the previous releases. It does retain a sense of force (at least until it simply ends, not quite with a whimper), however, which is difficult to describe, as the trombone often lurks "behind" the strings, and "changes" can arise anywhere. There are also fewer environmental sounds invoked by this performance than previously in the series. The trombone itself allows for pitch glissandi much like the strings, which is part of what brings a heightened sense of overlapping resources, and indeed trombone was an instrument that particularly interested me in the early days of this project — since I knew that jazz meant horns. (Matched glissando contours are one of the more intriguing technical aspects here.) Strangely, I don't currently have any trombone leader albums listed on my favorites list, so that's a question to ponder. (Probably the most prominent trombone there now is Steve Swell on Sediment, although both Sebi Tramontana on Sudo Quartet Live at Banlieue Bleue & Johannes Bauer on Grid Mesh Live in Madrid have important roles in those mixed quartets. There is also Henry Threadgill's use of trombone — together with tuba.) The subtle shifts & multiphonics of the trombone tend to stay in the background? Perhaps. I'll need to pay more attention to trombone albums, and Intonarumori has provoked that. As I hope this delay in the discussion suggests, it warrants close attention, and perhaps a similar ensemble will be attempted. (I'd be inclined to try replacing one of the lower strings with a violin or a second viola.) As I write, there is still "only" one more album in this series, and I'll be discussing it soon (perhaps next). I'll also be listening more for trombones (again). 11 August 2017. Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts

One of six Lisbon String Trio albums, each joining the core trio of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Alvaro Rosso on double bass, and Miguel Mira on cello with a 4th improviser, here with trombonist Carlo Mascolo, performing live at Mira's Palace in Lisbon, Portugal for one of the most harmonically unique albums of the set as the trombone weaves in and out of the strings. (Squidco)

[...] On trouvera semblable relation avec l’incroyable tromboniste italien Carlo Mascolo dans Intonarumori. Ce n’est pas l’urgence qui est ici convoquée mais une sorte de tension, proche du mouvement permanent, où le trombone préparé prolonge à la fois les rebonds de l’archet et la glisse du crin sur les cordes. Le souffle, totalement aspiré par la dynamique du trio augmenté, se transmute en un brouillard étrange où le moindre événement se comporte comme une entaille, un cahot dans une dynamique collective très dense et bruitiste où le silence est comme la surface d’un plan d’eau, qui se ride et se trouble à la moindre poussière. [...] Franpi Barriaux (citizen jazz)

The final of the series is another quartet recording this time by the Lisbon String Trio augmented by Carlo Mascolo on trombone. This one was recorded live at Mira's Palace in May 2017, and is for me the best of the bunch: the conversations between the trombone and the LST are not from this galaxy, and so is the overall atmosphere of the concert. Maciej Lewenstein