Aura cs628

Three frequent collaborators--Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Nuno Torres on alto saxophone, and Abdul Moimeme on electric guitar--captured live in 2019 at Logradouro da Compostinha, in Lisbon, Portugal, each using their instruments with unusual approaches through extended techniques, in a half hour set balancing subtle aural ambience with rich, detailed activity; spellbinding. Squidco

The Creative Sources label should be well known to anyone interested in "different music", with well over 600 titles in their catalogue. Label boss Ernesto Rodrigues appears on quite a few of them, and his modus is generally to work with quiet sounds and extended techniques, captured by close-miking and careful attention.
Here, abetted by alto saxophonist Nuno Torres and electric guitarist Abdul Moimeme, the game plan gets stretched a bit. The single half-hour piece begins with quiet tones and scrapes, in soft clusters connected by gritty ropes, like cotton balls hung from a diamond saw. Recognizable notes intermingle with inexplicable sounds in constant forward motion. Chattering and buzzing feature prominently. Somewhere around the thirteen-minute mark, things become decidedly more tonal, led by Torres' sax. The trio expands into the kind of quick fairly straight-ahead combining we might've heard during the heyday of British improv. There follows then an exhibition of chordal mixing dissolving into quieter, sparser ruminations studded with an occasional pop or crack or metallic whang. A folk fiddle tune slides by amid big electric clouds. A stringed storm front skirts the edges and handfuls of whistles extrude out of the center. The artwork on the cover, what could be a messy pile of wire(s) with a dark center, fits the sound rather well methinks. Jeph Jerman (The Squid's Ear)

"Aura" is another non-standard recording of Ernesto, realised in March 2019 live at Longradouro da Compostinha in Lisbon. It is recorded by the trio of Ernesto-Abdul-Nuno, and it is really a vehicle for the fantastic alto improvisations by Nuno Torres, who is one of the truly great figures of the alto saxophone in Europe and in the world. Which does not mean that Ernesto and Abdul do not do anything! Amazing stuff!!! Maciej Lewenstein