Berlin by Chris Heenan, Ernesto Rodrigues, Alexander Frangenheim & Ofer Bymel

Recorded by Alexander Frangenheim on April 25th 2010 at Studioboerne45, Berlin.
Master by Fernando Cruz.
Graphic design by Carlos Santos.
Production by Ernesto Rodrigues.

REVIEWS

Mais seco é “Berlin”, edição em que Ernesto Rodrigues surge num quarteto acústico com Chris Heenan, Alexander Frangenheim e Ofer Bymel. A ausência de instrumentos eléctricos e electrónicos não reduz a dimensão noise – ela está lá, mas é humanizada, por assim dizer. O gestualismo é mais rude, mais naturalista. Há uma menor dramatização musical e por isso talvez uma menor preocupação relativamente à própria musicalidade. Rui Eduardo Paes (Jazz.pt)

Recorded in April 2010 in Berlin, this set of six pieces for a mixed ensemble of strings, wind and percussion situates free improvisation firmly in a 21st century chamber setting. The ensemble, consisting of Chris Heenan (alto saxophone and contrabass clarinet), Ernesto Rodrigues (viola), Alexander Frangenheim (double bass) and Ofer Bymel (percussion) is a finely calibrated unit improvising in the vocabulary of fragmentary modernism. Variably grouped pitches organized as discrete points of sound abound, along with leaps in register and dynamics, punctuated by silences. The quartet tends to the cerebral, yet at the same time it is deeply physical in its engagement of the beauty of raw sound in a distinctly musical context. Rodrigues’ viola playing stands out by virtue of his creative use of a varied set of techniques and phrasings: Rapid bursts of notes offset by spiccato bowing, drones and stabs. Likewise Frangenheim draws on an interaction with the bass that exploits the rich span of the instrument’s range. Bymel’s percussion work is never less than astute and judiciously placed, while Heenan’s versatility on both high and low register winds complements the group’s sound with an essential array of timbres. Daniel Barbiero (AvantMusicNews)

This record sounds more coarse than Lisboa reviewed yesterday. The instrumentation (in the order above) is: alto sax/contrabass clarinet, viola, doublebass, percussion. Lots of multiphonics from the reeds, heavy grating from the strings, skin rubbing. These improvisations can be highly abstract and etheral at times, but elsewhere, and especially in Part 6, the music gains a strong animal quality, like a weird, menacing jungle. François Couture (Monsieur Delire)

The four blurred vertical lines on the cover artwork, which look like scuff marks on an asphalt-like homogeneous surface or possibly waveforms which crosses a silent space, could be a good graphical condensation of the umpteenth finding in the basket of recorded improvisations that Creative Sources decided to release and entitle by means of the names of the locations where they got recorded. Each line could be matched to the involved musicians: Ernesto Rodrigues, whose fanciful oestrus on viola should be known by my followers, talented double-bass player Alexander Frangenheim, that I already introduced here ad there, Israelian drummer Ofer Bymel on percussions and Berlin-based American saxophonist and clarinetist Chris Heenan on alto saxophone and contrabass clarinet. Besides the usual striking parade of odd techniques and dynamics, the first two parts of this suite let prefigure that no particular variations on a musical "organization", where all elements sound like strangled into a web of feeble interactions where no one can really stand out, could occur over the release and both the third and the fourth parts are in keeping with the previous expectations, but waters begin to get rippled in the final part of Part 4 and Fragenheim and Rodrigues begin to hit and scratch auditory nerves and strings on Part 5, before that sleeping wildness, which sounds like anesthetized in the previous parts of the record, explodes on the sixth final part of this session, which got recorded on 25th April 2010 at Studioboerne45, Berlin-Weissensee. Vito Camarretta (Chain DLK)

Gravado em Berlim, no ano de 2010, este disco reúne um quarteto über-internacional: o americano Chris Heenan (saxofone alto, clarinete contrabaixo), o alemão Alexander Frangenheim (contrabaixo), o israelita Ofer Bymel (percussão) e o português Ernesto Rodrigues (viola). O álbum tem por subtítulo “A Suite In Six Parts”, com os músicos a apresentarem uma peça repartida em seis momentos/blocos. Ao segundo tema ouvem-se picos de intensidade, com os instrumentos em choque; ao terceiro ouve-se o grupo unido num quase-drone; o quarto tema fecha em turbulência; ao quinto tema as cordas entram num animado diálogo/confronto. Este quarteto não repete ideias, trabalha diferentes ambientes, sempre de forma original. Nuno Catarino (Bodyspace.net)


Sur la couverture de Berlin apparaissent quatre marques de griffures. Symbolisent-elles les musiciens qui ont enregistré cette « Suite en six parties » ou sont-elles les traces de leur rencontre ? J’opterais pour la première hypothèse et j'ajouterais que la première griffure représente le violoniste Ernesto Rodrigues.
Avec Chris Heenan (saxophone et clarinette contrebasse de Trigger), Alexander Frangenheim (contrebasse) et Ofer Bymel (percussions), il improvise une petite musique de nuit et, malgré ses griffures, tendre est la nuit. L’archet tâtonne, glisse et après barre, tient le cap de l’improvisation. Devant l’inconnu que représente la minute ou la seconde qui arrive inexorablement, le quatuor peut vibrer (la clarinette en donne la meilleure preuve) et alors la nuit remue. Dans un cas comme dans l’autre c’est un beau souvenir de Berlin que nous dévoile là Ernesto Rodrigues ; un beau souvenir de nuit tendre qui remue. Héctor Cabrero (Le Son du Grisli)

Six pieces for strings, wind and percussion, free improvisation using unusual and extended techniques from the quartet of Ernesto Rodrigues (viola), Chris Heenan (alto saxophone, contrabass clarinet), Alexander Frangenheim (double bass)and Ofer Bymel (percussion). (Squidco)

Ernesto Rodrigues (Lisbon, August 29th 1959) has been playing the violin / viola for 50 years and in that time has played all genres of music ranging from contemporary music to free jazz and free improvisation, live and in the studio.
The relationship with his instruments is focused in sonic and
textural elements as well as the use of extended techniques.

creativesourcesrec.com
ernesto-rodrigues.blogspot.pt
erdiscography.blogspot.pt