The Squid's Ear Magazine


Rodrigues / da Rocha / Parrinha / Oliveira: Chiaroscuro (Creative Sources)

Aptly described as chiaroscuro--a veritable play of light and shadow in quick-witted--through nearly microscopic and highly interactive acoustic improvisation from the quartet of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Maria da Rocha on violin, Bruno Parrinha on clarinet & bass clarinet and Jose Oliveira on percussion, performing live at Galeria Monumental, in Lisbon in 2022.
 

Price: $15.95



Quantity:

In Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 2.00 units

Sample The Album:





product information:

Personnel:



Ernesto Rodrigues-viola

Maria da Rocha-violin

Bruno Parrinha-clarinet, bass clarinet

Jose Oliveira-percussion


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




UPC: 5609063407365

Label: Creative Sources
Catalog ID: cs736
Squidco Product Code: 32059

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2022
Country: Portugal
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Live recording at Galeria Monumental, in Lisbon, Portugal, on March 19th 2022, by Carlos Santos.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"[...] with Chiaroscuro (recorded March 2022 in Lisbon), Rodrigues (viola) & Parrinha (clarinet & bass clarinet only here) turn to an ensemble formation with fewer obvious precedents, adding Maria da Rocha (violin) & José Oliveira (percussion). Rocha had appeared with Rodrigues on Iridium String Quartet (with e.g. Miguel Mira on bass, reviewed here in May 2016), but I hadn't noticed her since: Much of her work seems to involve classical music, including integrating electronics, but Chiaroscuro does appear to be an acoustic album.

And Oliveira appeared on some of the earliest CS albums, but most recently on Pentahedron (along with e.g. Carlos Zingaro), another album under half an hour in length that I reviewed here in March 2020, calling it (potentially) a crowd pleaser...! It brought more of a "traditional" free jazz vibe, while more of a 20th century rhetorical balance does also maintain on Chiaroscuro, including via some "classical" figurations. Oliveira functions as a colorist on both albums, adding (especially) various metallic tones (e.g. chimes), as well as a sort of bent metal "bass" to Chiaroscuro. (The latter can be rather subtle, although the bent metal is at its most distinctive - & higher pitched - after a slowdown in the interaction about two thirds through.... Oliveira also opens the album with a tinkling figure, soon joined by pizzicati.)

And then both the close coordination & independence of the quartet are remarkable, proceeding through a single track that (per the norms of free improv...) does have its slower moments, but sparkles with creative new textures & intriguing exchanges almost throughout: The title explicitly evokes the play of light & shadow, as well as (perhaps) a sort of 2d canvas, but Chiaroscuro has a significant "3d" aspect as well, its play of foreground-background forging a sort of equivocating texture overall, a mingling of solidity & space: The musicians forge such an impression via close interactions & attention to timbre & grain, i.e. technique beyond impressionism per se. One might even sense something of a café scene (pace Dada...) for instance, but also various skittering, an orientation on line that suddenly isn't line.... (One might even question what I call elsewhere segmentation, i.e. the "chunking" of perception into entities: The musical play of light & dark here can take on the character of illusion, but the segmentation-entities in our world are not given, i.e. are not "real" anyway. They are learned & culturally contingent.)

There's consequently a sort of clustering sound in motion, traditional counterpoint at times, but just as seamlessly becoming unwound... sometimes sunny, maybe biological (e.g. via zoo-mimesis), but always (usually tightly) shifting perspectives. There's thus various motion through different styles, but in close (nuts & bolts) correspondence, and not really in a linear-temporal format, e.g. what I've characterized previously as travelogue style, moving onward: Maybe in that sense, Chiaroscuro can be characterized as a perspecti-logue... i.e. a tangled (nonlinear, ongoing) shifting of perspectives. (And Rodrigues does rarely seem to get bogged down in linear-temporal, i.e. narrative, progressions in general....)

Such equivocation then suggests its own sort of translucency, although coloration does often appear more solid (if actually illusory) here. Yet, as the "café" remark already suggested, and the raising of "perspectives" per se only confirms, this is also human-social music: Evocations are not merely observed or narrated then, but felt & inflected. (And it's been difficult to find comparisons elsewhere, but e.g. Nauportus involves some similarly quiet & shifting counterpoint, but with more of an "anthro" feel, as well as a more soloistic horn.... And then New Dynamics, also featuring Rodrigues from 2016, suggests some vaguely reminiscent quartet counterpoint, but more in the realm of parity than spectral interpenetration....)

Chiaroscuro thus ends up being short yet engrossing: Its density isn't overwhelming, but very real (making its duration seem significant...). As is its interrogation of perception, perspective & ontology per se - as figured into chamber music. And its basic sense of refined texture-in-motion, its sort of transverse intensity..., can be understated, but also relatively immediate."-Todd McComb, Jazz Thoughts


Get additional information at Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts

Artist Biographies

"He has been playing the violin for 30 years and in that time has played all genres of music ranging from contemporary music to free jazz and improvised music, live and in the studio.

His main interest shifted towards contemporary improvised and composed music.

The relationship with his instruments is focused in sonic and textural elements.

Electronic music was an early influence on his approach to violin playing, which challenges traditional romantic concepts of the violin/viola through use of preparations and micro tuning.

Active in different settings on the Portuguese scene for free improvised music, both as a collaborator and in leading his own groups.

Music for Dance, Cinema, Video and Performance.

Has created the record label Creative Sources Recordings in 1999, which mainly concentrates on releasing experimental and electro-acoustic music."

-Creative Sources (http://creativesourcesrec.com/creative_artists.html)
3/13/2024

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

"Maria da Rocha's music has emerged from an intimate connection to the violin and from the fascination how analog synthetised noises can resemble those from everyday life: nature, machines and other sounding objects, partly with a life of their own.Maria da Rocha (Lisbon, PT) plays violin & viola, researches, teaches, creates mostly in the field of new, experimental & electroacoustic music. She played various works solo with orchestra or as tutti and collaborated with ensembles in new music festivals in Portugal, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, United Kingdom and Poland. Maria is also active in other musical styles such as barroque, classical and tango. Her multimedia compositions emerged in collaboration and have been presented in various festivals, such as the release of the album Pink: daRocha/Horn (viola and live electronics). Her solo album Beetroot&OtherStories (violin&electronics) was recorded at awarded composer residencies at EMS, Stockholm and mastered in VICC, Centre for Composers in Visby."

-Cargo Collective (http://cargocollective.com/mariadarocha/About)
3/13/2024

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

"Bruno Parrinha - alto sax / soprano, Clarinet Sb / Alto, flute

Around the age of 10 began playing the clarinet. At 17 he bought a flute and entered the Academy of Music where he Amateurs solfeggio and instrument with Paulo Curado for two years . Later he was always playing clarinet and tenor saxophone ( self-taught ) and at age 21 he was invited to join the band Pop Radar Gaddafi with whom he recorded . Later he was cast of musicians on the play " Vieux Carré " in teatro da Graça playing tenor sax . Spent a year on the scene . At 87 he began to attend formations of Sei Miguel resulting in vinyl LP recorded at 88 " Songs love and against terrorism ." Since then he has dedicated his commitment to free improvisation and has participated in numerous trainings and concerts with illustrious musicians including Rodrigo Amado , Rodrigo Pinheiro , Miguel Mira , João Lucas , Paulo Curado , Ernesto Rodrigues , Guilherme Rodrigues , Ulrich Mitzlaff , Manuel Guimarães Cyril Bondi , " D' Incise ," Raphael Ortiz , Nicolaus Gerwinsky , Phill Niblock , Raymond McDonald , Victor Nubla , Nuno Rebelo , Marco Franco, Gabriel Ferrandini , Hernani Faustino , Luís Lopes , José Oliveira , Carlos Santos , Carlos " Zingaro " João Pedro Viegas , Victor Rua , Abdul " moimême " , Luís Vicente , João Lancaster , Luis Gil , Paulo Pimentel , Francisco Andrade , Albert Cicera and many others.

Presently a part of groups : ARGUE, IKB , VGO , Miguel Mira Quartet , Open Mind and Puma. "

-Bruno Parrinha MySpace Page (https://myspace.com/brunoparrinha/bio)
3/13/2024

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

"Polivalent artist with conections to the Fluxus movement, José Oliveira is well known, besides music by his "mail art" creations, performance and poetry.

As an improvisor, his aproach to percussion is similar to Paul Lovens, Roger Turner, Lê Quan Ninh and Paul Lytton. He prefers a non conventional "set", where he uses instruments and objects as raw materials to create an improvised language rich in terms of timbre and textures. To this he adds sometimes inside piano manipulations and prepared guitar, in the same way as John Cage: the objects are placed on the strings or in between them in real-time performance, and not according to a previous plan.

He belonged to Sei Miguel collective between 1989 and 1996, played with Carlos Bechegas and Pedro Roxo and has a regular activity with Ernesto Rodrigues."

-Creative Sources (http://creativesourcesrec.com/creative_artists.html)
3/13/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. I 29:21

Related Categories of Interest:


Creative Sources
Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
lowercase, reductionist, micro-improv, sound improv, onkyo sound
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Quartet Recordings
New in Improvised Music
Recent Releases and Best Sellers

Search for other titles on the label:
Creative Sources.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Belorukov, Ilia / Ernesto Rodrigues / Nuno Torres
Tak Prosto
(Creative Sources)
Two recordings from the lowercase acoustic improvising trio of Portuguese players Ernesto Rodriduges on viola and Nuno Torres on alto saxophone and objects with Saint Petersburg alto saxophonist Ilia Belorukov, recording at Belorukov's Spina! label's studio, and again live at Vertikal' Gallery in Saint Petersburg in 2016.
Rodrigues/ Rodrigues / Barbiero
(The) Nature (Of Things) Likes To Hide
(Creative Sources)
Recorded over a 3 year period, the trio of Portuguese string improvisers Ernesto Rodrigues on viola and Guilherme Rodrigues on cello met with New Haven, Connecticut double bassist & synth player Daniel Barbiero, developing this detailed, two part lowercase acoustic improvisation with a spacious, patient feeling that interacts with its ambient environment.
Rodrigues / Rodrigues / Torres / von Buttlar
Leipzig
(Creative Sources)
Named for the Leipzig, Poland location in which this live concert was recorded, the acoustic free improvising quartet of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, Nuno Torres on alto saxophone, and Johannes von Buttlar on percussion, explore extended ranges and approaches to their instrument in these building and detailed dialogs.
Rodrigues, Rodrigo / Abdul Moimeme / Antez
Basalto
(Creative Sources)
As the album cover displays, basalto are the black rocks resulting from lava, here represented in the slowly flowing, hard toned electro-acoustic improv of the Portuguese trio of Ernesto Rodrigues onoctave viola & baritone violin, Abdul Moimeme on electric guitar, and Antez on percussion.
Garcia, Miguel A. / Sebastien Branche / Abdul Moimeme / Ernesto Rodrigues / Guilherme Rodrigues
Golden Towers And Electric Frictions
(Creative Sources)
Popovskiy, Andrey / Ernesto Rodrigues / Nuno Torres
Ululo
(Creative Sources)
Rodrigues, Ernesto / Hans W. Koch
Nostalghia
(Creative Sources)
Portuguese violist Ernesto Rodrigues joins with German electronic improviser Has W Koch for an album of interactive acoustics and electronics, where textures from Rodrigues' viola are fed into Koch's electronics to create new and unanticipated transformations, both patiently evolving the textures to reveal sublime minutiae and detail.
Rodrigues / Parrinha / Madeira
Into the Wood
(Creative Sources)
Working together in a variety of setting and ensembles--Variable Geometry Orchestra, Suspensao, groupings with Hernani Faustino & Jose Oliveira, with Michel Stawicki, and with onsieur Trinite--the core trio of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Bruno Parrinha on bass clarinet and Joao Madeira on double bass, is heard in three studio improvisations of dark woods explorations.
Variable Geometry Orchestra
There's Always Someone Who Says No
(Creative Sources)
One of the largest ensembles associated with Creative Sources, merging acoustic and electronic improvisers, this conduction by violist Ernesto Rodrigues at Torre Do Tombo in Lisbon in 2023 was the opening for an exhibition about the struggle of college students against the Portuguese dictatorship during the years 1970-74, leading to the Carnation Revolution.
dis/con/sent (Petzold / Rodrigues / Rodrigues / Bauer)
Munchen
(Creative Sources)
A double opus of improvised String Quartets in four movements each, using impressive technique and exquisite pacing in this live recording captured at the Offene Ohren, in Munich, Germany, 2023 by Dietrich Petzold on violin, tenor violin, clavichord & bowed metal, Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello and Matthias Bauer on double bass.
Rodrigues / Lonberg-Holm / Hencleeday / Oliveira
Uncommon Statement
(Creative Sources)
Two unique string players--Lisbon's Ernesto Rodrigues on viola and Chicago's Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello--with pianist Andre Hencleeday and percussionist Jose Oliveira, in an exhilarating concert of dynamic free improvisation captured live in 2023 at Lisboa Incomum in Lisbon, presented as two "Statements", an apt description of their confident and declarative interplay.
Bechegas / Rodrigues / Rodrigues
Secrets Under Trees
(Creative Sources)
Recording at Berlin-Wedding's performance space Werkhalle Wiesenburg in the summer of 2023, the free improvising chamber trio of violist Ernesto Rodrigues and cellist Guilherme Rodrigues meet with Portuguese flutist Carlos Bechegas, bringing contemporary classical technique to an extended and energetically tempestuous improvisation and a sprightly "Time Between".
Kim / Rodrigues / Rodrigues / Cholet
Taedong
(Creative Sources)
Emulating the Korean river Taedong through it's undulating flows, uproar, flux and treachery in eleven succinct chamber-oriented improvisations from the quartet of South Korean tenor saxophonist Jung-Jae Kim, French-born South Korean-based drummer Quentin Cholet, with the Portuguese father/son duo of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola and Guilherme Rodrigues on cello.
Okura / Rodrigues / Rodrigues / Buder
Your Dramatic Joy
(Creative Sources)
Father and son string improvisers Ernesto Rodrigues on viola and Guilherme Rodrigues on cello join with Berlin improvisers Fumio Okura (Ensemble 222) on violin and Hannes Buder on guitar for six collective chamber free improvisations using extraordinary technique and focus, creating parallel and converging conversations that build and recede in vigorous momentum.
Claman / Rodrigues / Rodrigues / Tallone
Three Shadows
(Creative Sources)
Berlin recordings from the lowercase chamber improvising string quartet of New Zealand violinist Sarah Claman, Portuguese violist Ernesto Rodrigues and cellist son based in Berlin, Guilherme Rodrigues, with Swiss sound artist Caroline Cecilia Tallone on electroacoustic hurdy gurdy & amplified objects, exploring three shadow aspects of "Umbra", "Penumbra" and "Antumbra".
Suspensao
Frottage
(Creative Sources)
Configured as an electroacoustic chamber nonet led by Ernesto Rodrigues on viola & crackle box, with two saxophones, bass clarinet, piano, electric guitar, double bass, electronics & percussion, in two live, highly concentrative and subtly detailed improvisations performed in 2023 at O'Culto da Ajuda, during Ciclo Indeterminação na Música do Séc. XXI.
Rodrigues, Ernesto / Nuno Torres / Guilherme Rodrigues / Eric Bauer / Stephen Flinn
Letters to Milena
(Creative Sources)
Referencing the book Letters to Milena (Briefe an Milena) by Franz Kafka of his intense love affair with Czech journalist & writer Milena Jesenská, through four lettered parts of a subtly sophisticated set of improvisations by Ernesto Rodrigues (viola), Nuno Torres (alto sax), Guilherme Rodrigues (cello), Eric Bauer (electronics) and Stephen Flinn (percussion).
Suspensao
Serendipity
(Creative Sources)
A fortuitous 2015 concert from the lowercase chamber/ea-improv octet Suspensão, captured live at Ler Devagar Bookstore in Lisbon from Ernesto Rodrigues (viola & harp), Guilherme Rodrigues (cello), Nuno Torres (alto sax), Eduardo Chagas (trombone), Antonio Chaparreiro (guitar), Rodrigo Pinheiro (piano & melodica), Miguel Mira (bass), Carlos Santos (electronics) and Jose Oliveira (percussion).
Suspensao
Teufelmuzik
(Creative Sources)
Portugal's suspenseful reductionist improvising ensemble, blending acoustic and electronic instruments in delicately detailed motion, heard in this live recording at SMUP in Parede from Ernesto Rodrigues (viola), Nuno Torres (sax), Bruno Parrinha (bass clarinet), Luisa Goncalves (piano), Flak (electric gutiar), Joao Madeira (bass), Carlos Santos (analog synth) and Jose Oliveira (percussion).
Suspensao (Rodrigues / Torres / Parrinha / Goncalves / Flak / Madeira / Santos / Oliveira)
Impromptu
(Creative Sources)
The Suspensao octet are heard in this live performance at SMUP, in Parede, Portugal in 2023, blending primarily acoustic instruments with electric guitar and analog synth, using a reductionist approach to highly concentrative and suspenseful free improvisation, their long-running collective history allowing an impressive level of articulation and control through the integration of diverse voices.
Lopes, Luis Abyss Mirrors
Echoisms
(Clean Feed)
Citing references including Sun Ra, electric Miles, Ornette, Wadada Leo Smith, Stockhausen & Gabriel Prokofiev, guitarist Luis Lopes's Abyss Mirrors brings together artists drawing on European & Brazilian performers from Clean Feed, Shhpuma and Creative Sources for these evolving and often ecstatic collective, experimental improvisations; unpredictably edgy and exciting!
IKB
Limosa Limosa
(Creative Sources)
IKB, a ten-piece reductionist electroacoustic ensemble of strings, reeds, guitar, computer, percussion, piano, drums & objects, continues their exploration of exotic animal species with this 2020 live performance at O'Culto da Ajuda in Lisbon, Portugal, detailing the long-billed shore bird Limosa through intricate, restrained and remarkable expression.
IKB
Rhinocerus
(Creative Sources)
One of Portugal's most interesting large scale lowercase ensembles led by violist Ernesto Rodrigues, with frequent Creative Sources collaborators including Nuno Torres on alto sax, Carlos Santos on electronics, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, Miguel Mira on bass, 14 musicians move with subtlety in a tapestry of electroacoustic resonance and mystique.
Rodrigues, Ernesto / Guilherme Rodrigues / Stephan Bleier
Anamorphose
(Creative Sources)
A confluence of strings from the trio of Portuguese improvisers Ernesto Rodrigues on viola and Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, performing in Berlin with double bassist Stephan Bleier, the title referring to a gradual ascending progression formed through small changes, an apt analogy for the illusory and shape-shifting approach their 5-part improvisations lead.
Rodrigues / Carvalho / Rodrigues / Valinho
Eclipse
(Creative Sources)
Emulating a solar eclipse and a lunar eclipse in two evolving improvised chamber works that take the quartet of Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, Mariana Carvalho on piano, Joao Valinho on percussion and Ernesto Rodrigues (switching from viola to harp & deploying electronics) through mysterious soundwork that move from darkness to light in detailed and subtle ways.
Suspensao (Rodrigues / Torres / Parrinha / Goncalves / Flak / Madeira / Santos / Oliveira)
Impromptu
(Creative Sources)
The Suspensao octet are heard in this live performance at SMUP, in Parede, Portugal in 2023, blending primarily acoustic instruments with electric guitar and analog synth, using a reductionist approach to highly concentrative and suspenseful free improvisation, their long-running collective history allowing an impressive level of articulation and control through the integration of diverse voices.



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC