A concise disc of improvisations for viola, two electric guitars and synthesizer, recorded in Lisbon 2017. The emphasis, as is most often the case with Rodrigues' dispatches, is on extended techniques � those sounds and actions previously determined to be "extra-musical", but which now seem to be among most instrumentalist's toolkits. A wooden creak and far off winds open out into a collection of soundings that slowly coalesce over time, gaining density and mass.

The opener, "Nila" (Blue? Indigo?) contains lots of open space and slow drawn-out hisses spiked with small creaks and cracks. Build and pause. A layering of drones and groans and morse-code beeping with whines and sibilance. It seems hardly the work of four independent minds, more like a sound organism growing of its own accord. Metallic grit and sour string vibration wind down into harmonic faints. "Kalkki" (Quicklime, think calcium) begins with twittering strings underscored by a slowly building buzz, as though a cable has come disconnected. A spate of sputtering erupts and the twittering gives way to overtone and hissing that sounds like breath being sucked in. The overtones waver a bit and seem to circle 'round each other. Repeated beeps. All four of the selections here have a palpable tension which resolves in logical ways, nudged rather than forced into being. The final low grouping of drones is especially interesting for its placement of differing textures alongside each other.

The title seems to refer to a hard shell, but also reminds me of the English word "quarry", a not unrelated idea. Cover images of what looks like pumice may also be imagined as photos of pock-marked alien moons. These ideas may be attached to the playing here, but are more playful than definitive.