A set of succinct string improvisations using extraordinary technique and concentration with a chamber improvisation feeling, recorded at Vivaldisaal in Berlin from the quartet of Portuguese father & son improvisers Ernesto Rodrigues on viola and Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, and Berlin performers Julia Brussel on violin and Klaus Kurvers on double bass.
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2021 Country: Portugal Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold Recorded at Vivaldisaal, in Berlin, Germany, on May 16th 2021, by Guilherme Rodrigues.
"[...] And there's more of a classical vibe to Fantasy Eight as well, featuring Julia Brüssel (violin, previously unknown to me...) & Klaus Kürvers (double bass, frequent Rodrigues collaborator...) joining the Rodrigueses in a similar quartet. Fantasy Eight also features short & evocative track titles, and might be regarded as something of a textural study, but the results are not only quite sophisticated technically (with a considerable level of ensemble coordination, given that this is improvised music), they retain an affective tension more or less throughout. (Perhaps I should also note the latest extended tapestry from the large IKB ensemble, Titanus giganteus: Once again, I don't really hear ethology per se in this beetle-inspired piece, but it's also unusually taut & vivid after some brief opening scuffling, so a highlight in that series, perhaps emerging from the excitement of being able to play together again, in that case just this past June....) One might compare such a series of miniatures with e.g. those of Vulcan by Stellari String Quartet (an ongoing group?) & its sense of ensemble, but Fantasy Eight projects its individual ideas more clearly & concisely. Beyond the classical counterpoint, then, the group also features various glissandi & twisting shapes, i.e. makes great use of the string resources, forging various webs of sound & affective relation - & more in an "erected" mode than "found," pace similar prior comments here. Rodrigues continues to perform in a variety of string quartets, but Fantasy Eight seems to take particularly conscious steps to develop a collective repertory (together with emotional resonance...) per se. (And I should probably also note that Kürvers was most recently mentioned here, also in the same December 2018 entry noted above, with Hexagon, another string album, also featuring various string bending around classical counterpoint....) I don't know the provenance of half the group, but there's also a sort of 20th century Eastern bloc feel to the string technique here, amid a relatively meaty sense of ensemble. Through its sophisticated harmonic combinations, Fantasy Eight thus also comes off as more substantial than its modest length."-Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts