Faint by Pedro Rebelo, Franziska Schroeder & Steve Davis

Recorded, mixed and mastered at Sonic Arts Research Centre, Belfast.

REVIEWS

Com actividade centrada na chamada “música erudita contemporânea”, a dupla constituída por Pedro Rebelo e Franziska Schroeder tem-se distinguido pelo facto de utilizar a improvisação e por se associar a músicos experimentais e do “avant” jazz. Sediados em Belfast, onde ambos desenvolvem trabalho a nível da arte digital e da interactividade, sendo Rebelo actualmente o director de investigação do Sonic Arts Research Centre da Queen’s University, o português e a alemã estão a desenvolver um projecto musical tão ecléctico nos contornos quanto são multidisciplinares os seus interesses intelectuais, cobrindo os campos da tecnologia, dos media e da teoria da cultura. Num interessante ensaio colocado na Net da saxofonista que ouvimos em “Faint”, argumenta esta que qualquer performance artística, incluindo a musical, é uma forma de «nos tocarmos a nós mesmos», sendo os instrumentos simples ferramentas para este «public self-touch». A ideia é curiosa, e não se pense que a música resultante tem alguma coisa de “masturbatório”, sendo indiferente a quem a ouve. O duplo álbum em que Rebelo e Schroeder se encontram com o percussionista Steve Davis é, pelo contrário, bastante cativante e inclui momentos de especial beleza. Conhecido em Portugal sobretudo pela sua música com computador, Pedro Rebelo surge aqui principalmente ao piano. Entre geometrismos (des)construtivistas, não estranhos à obra pianística de Stockhausen, e um quase lirismo que nos faz lembrar em certas ocasiões o Paul Bley dos primeiros anos, o músico tece ao longo destas curtas faixas (por vezes com apenas alguns segundos de duração) um labor de filigrana que prefere sempre a mutabilidade dos motivos e das figuras à sua reiteração (é comum sustentar-se que não há música sem repetição, mas assim não se confirma neste título da Creative Sources) ou à permanência de uma atmosfera. As intervenções da electrónica, que Rebelo prefere designar por “parasitas instrumentais”, ainda mais realçam a extrema agitação destes sons, mesmo quando a impressão geral é a de que os muitos espaços e transparências detectáveis induzem alguma calma introspecção. O “clin d’oreille” é, aliás, uma estratégia de “Faint”, ou não se chamasse a primeira parte deste palimpsesto, com humor, “A Wall of Sound: or at Least a Wall with Some Sonic Bricks in It”... Curiosamente, Franziska Schroeder faz asserções muito curtas, quase minimais, com os seus saxofones (alto e soprano), muitas vezes em fraseados descontínuos, contrastando com o que de mais acontece. Davis, esse, coloca-se onde Rebelo não está, para acrescentar mais tijolos... Rui Eduardo Paes

Mit der Masse der Veröffentlichungen erweiterte sich auch die Bandbreite des portugiesischen Labels vom dezidiert Reduzierten zu energischerem Plinkplonking und sogar zu komponierten Sachen. So bei Faint (cs 088, 2 x CD) von PEDRO REBELO, FRANZISKA SCHROEDER und STEVE DAVIS. Improvisierte, meist, aber nicht nur, kurze, immer wieder heftige Clashes von Piano, Saxophon und Percussion wechseln Schlag auf Schlag mit elektroakustischen Stücken, die Rebelo aus dem gemeinsamen Klangmaterial formte. Er arbeitet am Sonic Arts Research Centre der Queens University in Belfast und begegnete dort der deutschen Saxophonistin, mit der er auch das Forschungs- und Performance-Projekt laut betreibt. Ihr Partner, ein geborener Belfaster, rumpelt ein noisiges Vollspektrum, oft Ton in Ton mit Rebelos Turnübungen im Innenklavier und Meiselschlägen auf den Tasten. Schroeder spielt die Heißkalte, temperamentvoll, aber mit kühlem Kopf. Die Kompositionen sind sozusagen Remixes und ordnen die individuellen Handschriften den Möglichkeiten des Morphens unter, noiseophil statt egoman. Du bist nichts, dein Sound ist alles. Rigobert Dittmann (Bad Alchemy)

Mariaz jazzu - czy tez bardziej ogólnie: muzyki improwizowanej, w najszerszym z mozliwych znaczeniu tego terminu - oraz muzyki konkretnej, elektronicznej, czy elektroakustycznej nie jest niczym niezwyklym. Od kooperacji Boba Jamesa z Robertem Ashleyem i Gordonem Mumma, Music Improvisation Company z Hugh Daviesem, MEV ze Stevem Lacy, czy eksperymentów Bernarda Parmegianiego i Terry'ego Rileya z kompozycjami na tasme i jazzowych instrumentalistów uplynelo sporo czasu. Prawde mówiac, uplynelo go az tyle, ze obecnie efekty podobnych operacji ani specjalnie nie dziwia, ani szczególnie nie zaskakuja.
Na pewno nikogo, majacego jakie takie rozeznanie w historii "muzyki poszukujacej", "Faint" niczym nie zaskoczy - jesli juz, to prawdopodobnie tylko tym, ze tak kompetentni muzycy nie sa szerzej znani. Muzyka tria Rebelo/Schroeder/Davis wpisuje sie w tradycje awangardy sprzed kilku dekad, mieszczacej w sobie zarówno ekscesy free i post-jazzowych improwizatorów, jak i ekstrawagancje wszelkiej masci dekonstruktorów, "remikserów" i pladrofoników. Na liczace 32 elementy dwuplytowe dzwiekowe puzzle zlozyly sie dwie grupy utworów. Pierwsza stanowia akustyczne improwizacje skladu fortepian-saksofon-perkusja, druga natomiast elektroakustyczne wariacje wyimków z wyimprowizowanego przez trio materialu. Autorem tych ostatnich jest Pedro Rebelo, spiritus movens calego przedsiewziecia. "Faint", jak soczewka skupia wszechswiat jego muzycznych zainteresowan: kompozycje, akustyczna i elektroniczna improwizacje, media cyfrowe, instalacje dzwiekowe oraz muzyke elektroakustyczna. Zajmuje sie nimi równiez Schroeder, która podobnie, jak Rebelo jest nie tylko muzykiem, ale równiez teoretykiem muzyki i pracownikiem Sonic Arts Research Centre Uniwersytetu w Belfascie, gdzie dokonano tych nagran. To wlasnie tam, do pary Rebelo-Schroeder, grywajacych ze soba od 1999 r. oku w skladzie multimedialnego kolektywu Laut (który notabene w 2005 wystapil w Krakowie), dolaczyl perkusista Steve Davis. Ten kompozytor i improwizator,
absolwent Uniwersytetu w Leeds (muzyka wspólczesna), londynskiej Trinity School of Music (jazz) oraz stypendysta Skidmore Jazz Institute w Nowym Jorku grywa przede wszystkim jazz, nie stroni jednak od wycieczek w inne rejony.
Ponad dwadziescia z zawartych na dwóch krazkach nagran nie trwa dluzej niz trzy minuty, co wiecej wielu z nich nie przekracza kilkudziesieciu sekund, tak wiec "Faint" przypomina mozaike zlozona z drobnych utworów sasiadujacych z kilkoma dluzszymi improwizacjami. Przemyslana konstrukcja plyty sprawia, ze okolojazzowe peregrynacje tria, wcale nieodlegle od dzwiekowych podrózy w nieznane odbywanych przez np.: Schlippenbach Trio czy Gush, nie koliduja z otaczajacymi je elektroakustycznymi kolazami a la Parmegiani, Ryan, czy Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble. I choc, w odróznieniu od dokonan tej ostatniej formacji, na plycie nie ma przykladów podejmowanego na goraco dialogu brzmien akustycznych z elektronika, a zamiast tego mamy do czynienia z dokonanym pózniej nicowaniem materii akustycznej improwizacji, to cala ukladanka zachowuje jednolity charakter. Nic w niej "nie zgrzyta", przedstawiany obrazek jest kompletny i spójny. Co prawda elektroakustyczny aneks do wyimprowizowanych wczesniej form i struktur sklada sie z utworów, które sprawiaja wrazenie, ze trudno byloby je zagrac, ale nie wydaje sie to byc calkowicie niemozliwym. I choc niektóre formy sa mocno pogmatwane, a niektóre brzmienia lekko przerafinowane, to plyty slucha sie z latwoscia i przyjemnoscia. "Faint" to pozycja, która warto poznac. To kolejny argument na to, ze konwergencja akustyki z elektronika moze sluzyc nie tylko kreowaniu dziel hermetycznych, których zrozumienie przekracza mozliwosci zwyklych smiertelników, lecz takze tworzeniu nietrywialnej muzyki nieomal popularnej. Tadeusz Kosiek (Diapazon)

Right after starting to listen to this music one realizes that its creators’ technical foundations are strong. Two CDs full of inventiveness, twist and turns, romanticism, acousmatic sapience, and much more: the whole gamut of dynamics and an abundance of ideas are explored in “Faint”. The project starts from the meeting of the Laut duo (Rebelo and Schroeder) with Davis at the Sonic Arts Research Centre in Belfast, their instrumentation comprising piano with “instrumental parasites”, saxophone and drums. The trio improvises according to rather amazing processes, their sense of reciprocal listening utterly stunning, every note uniquely meaningful in the overall balance of each piece. Rebelo - an expert in digital media and installations - is above all an excellent pianist, responsive and coldly detached at once, able to generate a free-jazz outburst in a millisecond through dissonant runs and fragmented chords only to furnish us with sparse elegiac passages as in a bucolic promenade a moment later. Schroeder - a welcome revelation on these shores - constitutes a great addition in my book of favourite saxophonists, her attitude basically lyrical, sensitive competence just pouring out from whatever she chooses to release from a couple of soulful yet scientifically-oriented lungs. I’m not surprised to discover that she’s been active on the instrument since the age of nine - the perceived skill is undisputable. Davis avoids both reductionism and magniloquence, playing in an area that allows those figures to blend with electronic and acoustic sources in special fashion, his percussive organicism a major element of the collective feel that exudates just everywhere in the album. The set is a mixed collection, in that it juxtaposes improvised pieces and Rebelo’s nineteen electroacoustic tracks born from treatments of the same materials. The potion is guaranteed to cause instant addiction to the knowledgeable ones, for this is probably the best Creative Sources record of the 2007-08 biennium. High-class stuff all over the place, very highly recommended. Massimo Ricci (Touching Extremes)

This cd starts moving really slowly and silently presenting some soft improvisative puzzle game, but after the hesitant introduction it evolves almost immediately into a modern free-impro with many jazz/contemporary music reminiscences. That was a quite obvious thing to be said I know, but consider the piano is quite central in the economy of this double cd, in some sketches we can even dare to say it’s the main color, don’t worry we’ve no demonic player a la Petrucciani but Rebelo has a big weight in the majority of the track here contained. Hard for me to say if all this double cd accomplish the hardly reachable result to be “hella catchy” from the very beginning to the last track, but thanks to the great amount of material despite the strong character of the trio, you’ll slowly find they’ve been quite varied sacrificing their musical ego for the common cause. Regardless of what I wrote before, here the piano is the driver, there at the driver’s place seats the saxophone, here they’ve been really soft, there they’ve been pushing the keys of their instruments. Ok you always have that barely pronounced strangulated sounds that turned into Creative Sources’ own trademark but what surprised me the most is how Steve Davis have been able to keep far away from banging the drum: if we cannot speak about a Taku Sagimoto approach to the drums, he’s by the way one of the most silent drummer I’ve ever heard in my whole life. This Faint first cd doesn’t betray the average sound that characterized Creative Sources so far but it would be too reductive to cut it short here. According to my opinion is the second cd the one that presents the majority of the best materials, I think on the second cd they’ve been able to go deeper into their combination, electro-acoustic on the second cd has become nothing but a color with which they’ve been decorating the tracks. In between visible and invisible structure in the filling the blank process, where pause gain the same importance of played chords, there you’ll find lot of the intensity of these three performers. In many tracks they’ve been playing the piano pretty unconventionally, it all reminded me of one of those prepared pianos a la Cage just a bit more trapped into a patient improvisation where every note is left alone just when it’s the proper time to go. Nice cd above all in its most relaxed tracks. Andrea Ferraris (Chain DLK)

Born out of what the liner notes call an "impromptu" meeting at the Sonic Arts Research Center in Belfast, Ireland, Faint brings together three composer/improvisers who seek to find a chance commonality in their respective approaches. All three bring much to the table: Rebelo and Schroeder are the stauncher "academicians' in the group, both having studied, taught, and conducted much in the way of electroacoustic research at various international universities and symposiums; Davis, despite an educational background as sound as his colleagues, spent much time accruing street smarts touring with the European Jazz Orchestra, and playing with such luminaries as Joe Morris, Django Bates, Paul Dunmall, and Marc Ribot amongst others. On this two-disc outing, Rebelo is credited with piano and "instrumental parasites", while Schroeder plays sax and Davis sits behind the traps. Considering the trio's collective resumés and reasonably traditional nature of their sonic palette, first glances might discern nothing terribly out of the ordinary, but decked out across two lengthy sides, it's clear that they have other things than hoary tradition on their minds.
Had they altered this project name by but one letter — nicking it Feint instead of Faint¬ — most ears would have pricked up and taken notice, as all three players seem to thrust and parry at will, ducking each other's punches, recalibrating their equilibrium on a dime. Nevertheless, their vain search for an electroacoustic sweet spot eludes them despite their best efforts. Track titles prove more evocative than the actual sounds and voices: "A Wall of Sound: Or At Least a Wall with Some Sonic Bricks In It" is perhaps too site-specific for its own good, Davis' skittery cymbal accents and drum-edge rolls inciting Rebelo's chaotic rivulets of piano to riot, Schroeder piping her way into the melee towards the piece's conclusion, and then only when necessary. A piece such as "Toward Less Probable States of Concentration" seems to exist in an electroacoustic vacuum, enjoying the great tracts of silence arising between Davis' flurry of activity, Rebelo peppering away at will, but there remains so little collective spark, let alone psychic simpatico, between the trio that the trebly sonic eruptions are barely set alight, brief flare-ups that just as quickly dissipate.
The second disc's reconstructivistics at least provide some artistic ballast to the project's modus operandi, displaying characterizations worthy of onkyo traditions as well as the micro-tonality exploits of progenitors such as AMM. "Summit of Agony" explores notational space thanks to Davis' ratcheting up the tension via his corralling of metals, underscoring the second disc's experimentalist ying to the first's more "traditionalist" jazzier yang, but the overabundance of R&D so enervates the trio's designs that whatever recombinant energy is left comes to a screeching halt. More textural gunplay and less lab time next time could well discourage both player and participant from Faint-ing away. Darren Bergstein (The Squid's Ear)

Now this is an interesting album. Or double album actually, which is the main reason its taken me so long to get around to it- multi-disc releases take up more of my time than I usually have each day. Still, being on holiday this
week I aim to catch up on one or two. Today’s album is a release on the Creative Sources label by the trio of Pedro Rebelo, (piano and “instrumental parasites”) Franziska Schoeder (saxophones) and Steve Davis (drums)
named Faint. Although the musicians are German, Portugese and Northern Irish respectively, the trio are all connected to the Sonic Arts Research Centre, a part of Queen’s University in Belfast. The album then, consists of a total of thirty-two tracks. Thirteen of them are trio acoustic improvisations that veer between full-on, near t0 free-jazz sessions and slower, more texturally focussed works. The other nineteen tracks however are (mostly)
brief little electroacoustic pieces by Rebelo, created using the trio improvisations exclusively as source material.
So we are taken all over the place across these two discs. The acoustic improvisation and the digital rewordings go them are spaced roughly evenly, so while some of the improv tracks last five minutes or so each, we are never
really left in any one scenario for longer than this. So there are some rough and tumble skronky improv workouts, some soft, textural, tonal pieces and even a final smokey club crooner to end the album, but between these pieces the electroacoustic works throw us all over the place, from skittering drum’n bass resemblances to works of a kind of John Wall / electronic Lachenmann structure, to brief little Fennesz-esque flurries of colour. If the more full-on improvisations are all a bit too busy and jazzy for my tastes then the electroacoustic pieces somehow take the same energies, the same use of pace and quick changes but filter them through some kind of Max/MSP or similar system to stretch out some sounds, jam others together and twist the material into all kinds of shapes it didn’t already take. The thing is, on paper, this disc really shouldn’t work. If you asked me beforehand how you can jam all of these different influences, sounds and techniques together onto one (OK, two) CDs and produce something coherent, I’d say it probably couldn’t be done, but somehow it all works rather well here. Perhaps the way that each of Rebelo’s rewordings takes its sounds from the other pieces surrounding it links it all together, but while the digital tracks are all really quite different from their source material, it all flows together very well, and as the gaps between tracks are very short, quite often I found myself wondering which of the types of track was I actually listening to.
I’ll be honest, I set off listening to this album with a fair amount of trepidation. If I hadn’t known that the project was linked to a University research department in advance I’d probably had guessed as much from the description of the music alone, and as I generally speaking struggle with music that emanates from this kind of project I feared the worst, but you know what, I really rather enjoyed listening to Faint. It may not be full of pieces of music that attract me individually, and I suspect that, the Wallesque tracks excepted I wouldn’t want much of what is here to be stretched out to a full album, but somehow when its all brought together, and we are taken on this journey through different improv styles and their digital hall of mirrors it all works. While musically it doesn’t come close, I was actually reminded of Bitches Brew here and there, primarily through the way the technology impacts on a jazz(ish) base over a long passage of time. Some parts impressed me more than others, and I think that will be the case for whoever listens here, but overall this is an interesting work that managed to keep me gripped across all thirty-two tracks. Good going. Richard Pinnell (The Watchful Ear)

Creative Sources releases a plethora of improv/jazz and experimental electronic music.
Founded in 2000.

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