The Squid's Ear Magazine


Lopes, Luis Humanization 4tet: Electricity (Ayler)

Portuguese guitarist Luis Lopes joins forces again with Rodrigo Amado on tenor sax and Gonzalez brothers Aaron and Stefan on bass and drums for a muscular set where free jazz meets rock meets blues.
 

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Product Information:

Personnel:



Luis Lopes-electric guitar

Rodrigo Amado-tenor sax

Aaron Gonzales-doublebass

Stefan Gonzalez-drums

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UPC: 7320470118597

Label: Ayler
Catalog ID: aylCD-113
Squidco Product Code: 13731

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2010
Country: France
Packaging: Cardstock foldover
Recorded on December 3rd & 4th, 2009 by Joaquim Monte at Namouche Studios, Lisbon, Portugal.
Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

Artist Biographies

"Averse to any linearity, the idiosyncratic Luís Lopes, a musician connected to Jazz, improvised and experimental music, has been building his career, a simple and singular story, characterised by a unique voice, free of corsets, formal ties or constraints and mannerisms regarding strict stilistical implications. He is an unfollower... experiments himself through paradoxes. Invokes teachings by following standards of subversion to any possibility of pre-established idea. Eminent self-subversion... Introspective timeless trance.

Running Multi-international groups, especially his Humanization 4tet (with Portuguese Rodrigo Amado and Texan's Aaron and Stefan Gonzalez), Lisbon Berlin Trio (with Germans Christian Lillinger, Robert Landfermann), and his "Noise" or "Love Song(s)" Solos, plus his highly recommended records he is growing as an international artist, playing at important Festivals and venues not just in Portugal but in Europe and U.S.

Coming from a rock/punk and blues background, while studying at local classic and rock schools, he began studying Jazz at Hot Club Portugal School and then was finalist at Escola de Jazz do Barreiro/Lisbon. Then did studies with Saxophonist Joe Giardullo who opened for him the doors of modern jazz harmony complexity through the George Russell's "Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization", plunging Lopes into the world of improvised and experimental music, without disregard for his fascination with distorion and guitar feedbacks, expressed in different incursions into noise music, while also canalizes energys towards projects where he can develop his composing abilities.

In more recent times, Lopes has played and / or recorded with different artists connected to jazz and improvised music, such as Noel Akchoté, Christian Lillinger, Robert Landfermann, Marco Von Orelly, Marc Unternahrer, Adam Lane, Igal Foni, Floros Floridis, Joe Giardulo, Harvey Sorgen, Benjamin Duboc, Phill Niblock, Ernesto Rodrigues, Paulo Curado, Sei Miguel, Rodrigo Amado, Hernâni Faustino, Gabriel Ferrandini, Rodrigo Pinheiro, Miguel Mira, Aaron Gonzalez, Stefan Gonzalez, Dennis Gonzalez, Elliot Levin, Alfred Hart, Daniel Levin, Reuben Radding, Daniel Carter, Jeb Bishop, Josh Abrams, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Samuel Blaser, Boris Hauf, Evan Parker, Olivier Benoit, Fred Lomberg-holm, Valentin Ceccaldi, Gonçalo Almeida, among many others."

-Luis Lopes Website (http://www.luislopes.pt/?page_id=972)
4/25/2026

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Portuguese saxophonist (alto, C melody, baritone, and tenor) Rodrigo Amado specializes in free-form, composition-in-the-moment jazz, and his various projects and trios have given him an international following. Born in Lisbon in 1964, Amado began studying the sax at the age of 17, briefly at the Hot Club Music School of Lisbon and with mentors Carlos Martins, Pedro Madaleno, and Jorge Reis, among other leading Portuguese jazz artists. With diverse musical interests, he explored how improvisation is handled in other genres, although his work with his various ensembles like the Lisbon Improvisation Players and the Motion Trio (with Miguel Mira and Gabriel Ferrandini) falls clearly under the umbrella of 21st century jazz, and he has been an in-demand studio player on numerous recorded projects. He started his own label, Clean Feed, in 2001, with brothers Pedro and Carlos Costa, before leaving the imprint in 2005 to start a second label, European Echoes. Also an accomplished professional photographer, Amado continues to be a bright light on the Portuguese and international improvisational jazz scene."

-All Music, Steve Leggett (http://www.allmusic.com/artist/rodrigo-amado-mn0000249324/biography)
4/25/2026

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Drummer Stefan González was born in Dallas, Texas. Raised in a musical household, he took early inspiration to start drumming from the elders who rehearsed and recorded with his father, Dennis González Ð the masters Alvin Fielder, W.A. Richardson, Andrew Cyrille, and Louis Moholo. By the age of 11 he had put together his first heavy grunge bands (Facelift and Oblivion) and he started focusing on his main project, Akkolyte. Akkolyte, which started as a solo project in which Stefan overdubbed drums, guitar, bass, and vocals, added Aaron on electric bass, and it became a duo. By 2004 Akkolyte had already done a myriad of successful mini tours and an all encompassing 28 day tour of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. He also began playing in the family New Jazz/Improv trio Yells At Eels.

Stefan has since gone on to play with the bands Target Rats, Terminal Dysentery, Just Another Consumer, Waking Terror, Rat Salad, Forbes/Young/Gonzalez Trio, =2 0Unconscious Collective, and the Portuguese group Luis Lopes' Humanization Quartet, as well as leading a big band with fellow experimental improvisers in Mexico City in 2006: German Bringas, Remi Alvarez, Gabriel Lauber, and many others.

In the free improvisational/avant garde jazz realm he has played and recorded with Oliver Lake, Sabir Mateen, Douglas Ewart, Tim Green, George Cartwright, Ernest Khabeer Dawkins, Rodrigo Amado, Luis Lopes, Tatsuya Nakatani, Faruq Z. Bey, Damon Smith, Alvin Fielder, Leena Conquest, Famoudou Don Moye, and many more. Recent endeavors have included touring the East Coast and Colombia with Puerto Rican punk legends Cojoba, as well as the recording of Akkolyte's long awaited LP."

-No Idea Festival (https://noideafestival.com/old/2009/stefan_gonzalez.shtml)
4/25/2026

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:
Related Categories of Interest:

Ayler Records

Improvised Music
Jazz
European Improvisation and Experimental Forms
Quartet Recordings

Search for other titles on the label:
Ayler.


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The Squid's Ear Magazine

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