Ljubljana cs546

Ernesto Rodrigues continues to release albums at a dizzying pace, and as suspected, the advent of a Digital Creative Sources has meant even more albums: Many of the early Digital releases involved older material, but many are now quite recent. (I generally find them to be worth hearing, but it gets to be too much music to discuss in any detail. That Rodrigues works with so many other improvisers, both new & in new combinations, does keep things relatively fresh, though....) That said, one of the arenas in which I've found Rodrigues' work to be especially compelling is the improvising string ensemble — and I suppose that the most succinct way to describe the violins etc. is as "classical strings," since Rodrigues has other albums combining classical strings with guitars, etc. — and those explorations have continued to be quite frequent recently: In particular, on the heels of Dis/con/sent (a "jazz string quartet" album, discussed here in October), featuring Dietrich Petzold on violin & viola, there are yet more classical strings albums featuring Petzold: Ljubljana made it to the "main" Creative Source imprint, and it's an album that forges a powerfully calming mood. Recorded this past May, Ernesto Rodrigues & Petzold (here also on bowed metal, as on Dis/con/sent, as well as clavichord) are joined by Guilherme Rodrigues to form something of a classical string trio — pace the occasionally noisy metal or tinkling clavichord. In fact, this is the same personnel (& instrumentation) as on the double album Sacred Noise (recorded in October 2016), the second half of which was recorded in a church. Like many Rodrigues albums, Ljubljana starts rather sparsely, and seemingly with less planning or anticipation than on Dis/con/sent, but eventually evolves into powerful (& sometimes noisy) climaxes that are nonetheless assimilated into an overall air of calm. There's thus a consistently rewarding affective change that emerges from this album, not so unlike e.g. Penedo (by Rodrigues with a different ensemble, also discussed here in October), but in this case suggestive of breathing through stress. (And I can't help but think of Scelsi's Aion, especially pace Petzold's occasionally jagged bowing of metal.) And as already suggested, there is (much) more: Kühlspot Social Club, a short digital album, was recorded just this October, and features the exact same quartet as on Dis/con/sent: Like Ljubljana, it has more of an air of "mystery" than the latter, and involves shadowy (or watercolor) harmonics & what even seem like vocalization effects. Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts

German violinist & composer Dietrich Petzold joins violist Ernesto Rodrigues and cellist Guilherme Rodrigues, Petzold also bringing along a viola, clavichord and bowed metal objects, as the three perform live at SKUC Gallery, in Ljubljana, Slovenia for the 6 improvisations that build from languid tonal environments to detailed, rapid improv, all with remarkable control and patience. (Squidco)