Kinetics by Ernesto Rodrigues, Guilherme Rodrigues, Oren Marshall, Carlos Santos & José Oliveira

Recorded by Diogo Tavares on April 6th 2004, at Tcha Tcha Tcha Studio, Lisbon.
Mixed and mastered by Ernesto Rodrigues and Carlos Santos.
Graphic design by Carlos Santos.
Production by Ernesto Rodrigues.

REVIEWS

"Kinetics", gravação de 2004 de um quinteto de improvisação liderado por Ernesto Rodrigues, realizada no Estúdio Tcha Tcha Tcha, em Lisboa, foi recentemente publicada sob o selo Creative Sources Recordings. Música concentrada no detalhe microscópico, que ainda assim não perde a visão de conjunto. As passagens de arco de Ernesto Rodrigues, a informação electrónica de Carlos Santos, os murmúrios do violoncelo e do trompete de Guilherme Rodrigues, o insuflar das bombas da tuba de Oren Marshall, e a percussão larvar de José Oliveira – são contribuições pertinentes e oportunas no modo como organizam o som, colectiva e individualmente.
Do grande plano faz-se zoom para a partícula, regressando de pronto ao olhar macro. Os silêncios dentro dos sons (e entre eles) pertencem à própria forma musical. Com ela estabelecem relações de descontinuidade, acentuando o binómio imagem/reflexo. Nestes andamentos não há superfícies estáticas; todos os movimentos são interiores ao próprio desenho sonoro. Incorporam vibrações numa gama ampla de frequências e polifonias micro-tonais. Daí que o enfoque seja posto no átomo, reconhecível tanto nas baixas frequências, quase inaudíveis, como nos picos (melhor dito, saliências) que de quando em quando irrompem sob a forma de estalidos de cordas, percussão ou ruídos de electrónica. Fragmentações, estilhaços, fracções, fissuras – sons com diferentes durações e intensidades. Na quase ausência de linhas ou frases melódicas, o cimento agregador é o conjunto articulado de fenómenos sonoros, aliado à actividade criativa do ouvinte, ele próprio convocado para encontrar e compreender o nexo lógico no qual as peças, em equilíbrio instável, se encaixam harmoniosamente em conjuntos de unidades que, noutros sistemas, se poderiam chamar notas, mas que aqui adquirem validade enquanto sons e extensões em movimento. "Kinetics" merece bem um mergulho em profundidade. Eduardo Chagas (Jazz e Arredores)

The biggest line up we find on 'Kinetics': Ernesto Rodrigues (violin, viola), Guilherme Rodrigues (cello, pocket trumpet), Oren Marshall (tuba), Carlos Santos (electronics) and Jose Oliveira (percussion). A recording that was made two years ago and seeing the labelboss appear himself (Ernesto), we can not be too surprised that this work overlaps the traditional and new forms of improvisation. The five players approach their instruments both as an object as well as an instrument. This leads to quite intense moments, since each of the five players decides to go in that mode whenever he feels to, without knowing if the others will follow or not. This back and forth going creates a tension between the players, which is audible throughout this disc. As a label statement, this one worked best. Frans de Waard (Vital Weekly)

The eight segments forming "Kinetics" - an improvised suite for violin, viola, cello, pocket trumpet, tuba, electronics and percussion - mark an important moment in Creative Sources' history as this is maybe the record in which the connection between the elements is heightened at the very top level. The music reaches several peaks of remorseless coldness, almost intimidating in its unalloyed brightness, but in those repeated machinations the warmth of an evolved acousticity is diffused all around, transforming splinters and chips in a cohesion of intents, a sharp-witted testimony of these musicians' uncommon capability to perceive a sound before it materializes. And once it comes, there's no looking around in confusion: every source is put at the service of a concrete, instantaneous development of a relational instability between often unrecognizable instruments. Pinched nerves, electrostatic halos and resonating suggestions constitute the ideal underwood for some peculiar animal that breathes through tubes and valves while sniffing around to locate its prey; plastic balls bouncing on strings generate multiform refractions, frisky snippets of already shattered "chords" that will never exist. Finally, scorching manipulations of feedback remind us not to trust our unplugged desires, mercilessly stinging our membranes. Every idea is strongly affirmed and counts an awful lot, everything makes sense, perfectly logical in the flow of impulsive creation. An unmissable release. Massimo Ricci (Touching Extremes)

Kinetyka to dzial dynamiki zajmujacy sie badaniem ruchu ukladów mechanicznych (np. cial) pod wplywem dzialajacych na nie sil. Jest to wiec calkiem odpowiedni tytul dla plyty z muzyka improwizowana. Wszak improwizatorzy stale, choc w odróznieniu od naukowców czynia to w sposób empiryczny, badaja zaleznosc miedzy rezultatem (tj. muzyka) i przede wszystkim samym procesem jego powstawania (tj. improwizacja), a wplywem dzialajacych na nie sil.
Dwa lata temu w portugalskim laboratorium (Tcha Tcha Tcha Studios) czterech Portugalczyków i Brytyjczyk przeprowadzili osiem doswiadczen, które po ich zarejestrowaniu, zmiksowaniu i zmasterowaniu zostaly nam objawione za posrednictwem omawianej plyty. Improwizatorzy wnikliwie
zbadali materie muzyczna, nieustannie wchodzac ze soba, a przede wszystkim ze swoimi instrumentami w szczególne interakcje.
Traktujac swoje instrumenty zarówno jak. instrumenty, jak i obiekty, muzycy wydobyli z nich dzwieki znajome oraz takie, których skrzypcom, altówce, wiolonczeli, tubie, kieszonkowej trabce oraz instrumentom perkusyjnym na ogól sie nie przypisuje. Nie czynili tego jednak, by
epatowac sluchaczy dziwacznymi brzmieniami, lecz by wzbogacic i zintensyfikowac teksture utworów. Osobna sprawa bylo uzycie elektroniki, bowiem Carlos Santos czesto zainteresowany jest nie tylko swoja gra, ale i jednoczesnym przetwarzaniem za jej pomoca partii towarzyszacych mu instrumentalistów. Co prawda na "Kinetics" nieczesto sie to slyszy - wydaje sie, ze specyficzna artykulacja wystarcza muzykom do kreowania niezwyklych brzmien - ale odnosze wrazenie,
ze cos takiego mozna tu sporadycznie wychwycic.
W muzyce granje przez kwintet nie ma pospiechu, nie ma naglych przeskoków. Zmiany sa ciagle, ale rozgrywane w sposób powolny.
Muzycy mozolnie prowadza swoje partie, z uwaga przygladajac sie kazdemu, nawet najmniejszemu detalowi. Kazdy dzwiek jest szczególowo dopracowywany, mozna by wrecz napisac: holubiony, i staje sie surowcem efektywnie wykorzystywanym do stworzenia poszczególnych nagran.
Utwory lawiruja pomiedzy stanem lotnym wlasciwym improwizacji a cieklym, przypisanym wspólczesnej kameralistyce. Sa trudno uchwytne, przez co zachecaja do powrotu, do wielokrotnego, uwaznego ich sluchania i odkrywania niezauwazonych wczesniej detali. "Kinetics" to znakomita plyta, zawierajaca wyrafinowana i pelna niuansów muzyke, o zlozonej fakturze i wyrafinowanej formie, wydaje sie wiec, ze tym razem doswiadczenia sie powiodly. Sugeruje, byscie sami sie o tym przekonali, siegajac po te plyte. Tadeusz Kosiek (Diapazon)

Label leader Ernesto Rodrigues in a quintet that works every inch of their instruments in quiet but tense micro-improvisations. You won't find any melodic/technical runs here, rather new methods of expression in an acoustic and electric mix of disruptive and fascinating environments. Scrapes, hisses and resonant tones, clicks and clacks and dreamlike reverberation - the art of noise and sound that Russolo's manifesto leads to. (Squidco)

The aptly named Kinetics (CS 043) features a wonderful quintet consisting of Ernesto Rodrigues (vln, vla), Guilherme Rodrigues (clo, pocket tpt), Oren Marshall (tba), Carlos Santos (elec), and Jose Oliveira (perc). Theirs is music of quiet gesture and nuance, the faintest scratch or breath, a snippet of pizzicato, and only the occasional spasm of raw noise (the sudden gusting on part 1 of this 8-part suite, for example). As much as I enjoy the chattery, forest-dwelling interplay of the strings players and Oliveira, I keep listening to what happens between the wonderful Marshall and the mischievous Santos. The quick darts from the former three seem as if they’re trying to escape from some slouching lower-register beast on part two. Over the course of these focused improvisations, things get even more intense, as if building to some kind of confrontation. And indeed, on parts five and six, the music is thick, scary, and at times even claustrophobic. By the time you hear Guilherme Rodrigues’ pocket trumpet on the final track, this recognizable sound seems alien to your ears. A fine work. Jason Bivins (Bagatellen)

Besides being responsible for the hyper-prolific label Creative Sources, Lisbon improviser Ernesto Rodrigues sometimes pops up in its catalogue with recordings of his own. Here he plays violin and viola together with Guilherme Rodrigues (cello, pocket trumpet), Oren Marshall (tuba), José Oliveira (percussion) and Carlos Santos (electronics, and author of the particularly beautiful layout). Let's say that these 8 untitled tracks, recorded in Lisbon in 2004, are some of the best collective albums in the CS catalogue, in my humble opinion, "Kinetics" being a perfect title for such an animated performance. I will just mention the first track, with its tight interplay of jerks and overlaps, breath overflowing and deep rumblings; or the second one, with whispered vocals, soft noises and electronic hisses; or the chaos running amok in track four. Very nice record throughout. Eugenio Maggi (Chain DLK)

Fusion de matières lentes et détaillées dans une rencontre délicate de l'acoustique et de l'électronique. Jerôme Noetinger (Metamkine)

Para este Kinetics, registo em quinteto, Ernesto Rodrigues (violino, viola) convidou o inglês Oren Marshall (tuba), congregando também a trupe de colaboradores habituais: Guilherme Rodrigues (violoncelo, pocket trumpet), Carlos Santos (electrónica) e José Oliveira (percussão). Às intervenções electrónicas do laptop de Santos, as respostas texturais da percussão de Oliveira e da dupla Rodrigues acabam por funcionar em dissonância. A tuba de Marshall, improvisador inglês que colaborou com Derek Bailey, acrescenta maior densidade ao som do grupo, uma malha de estímulos diversos onde se assinalam várias marcas de individualidade. Nuno Catarino (Bodyspace)

Ernesto Rodrigues kindly helped me fill in a few holes in my Creative Sources collection. This sessions was recorded in Lisbon in 2004. Four Portuguese musicians, all regular members of Rodrigues’ entourage, plus British tubist Oren Marshall. Kinetics is dry without achieving the aura of mystery that gives something special to several Creative Sources productions. The magic is less potent on this release, the improvised discourse is more scattered. François Couture (Monsieur Délire)

Ce quintet propose huit improvisations non-idiomatiques et réductionnistes, pas très longues, minimales, abstraites et arides. Je l'écoute peut-être avec un peu trop de recul (Kinetics a été enregistré il y a déjà sept ans...), mais en tout cas, on n'est pas loin des clichés du réductionnisme. Car sur chaque improvisation : aucune note, aucun rythme, aucun changement d'intensité, un faible volume, un intérêt quasiment exclusif porté sur les textures. Il s'agit toujours de nappes de sons, des nappes légères, fines, abstraites et abrasives, de souffles, de pistons, de sinusoïdes, de cordes et de percussions effleurées. Un ensemble de bruits légers qui fourmillent indistinctement.
Oui, Kinetics a assurément un aspect virtuose et talentueux, osé et aventureux, radical même, mais l'exploration sonore ne se suffit pas à elle-même. Elle manque de forme, de prestance, de profondeur et de consistance ici, notamment par rapport à tout ce qui a pu se faire dans cette esthétique, avant comme après ce disque. Julien Heraud (ImprovSphere)

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

creativesourcesrec.com