Reviews
Beyond (perhaps subtly) novel combinations of instruments featuring bowed strings, Rodrigues also continues to explore more specifically traditional (& acoustic) formats, with another "string quartet" album already appearing: Dis/con/sent is also over an hour in length, this time in a suite of seven tracks (alternating long & short) recorded in Berlin in May by Dietrich Petzold (violin, viola, bowed metal), again with Ernesto & Guilherme Rodrigues, now joined by Matthias Bauer (who was new to me, although he's previously appeared on Creative Sources) on bass. In Rodrigues's recent output, Dis/con/sent might thus be compared directly to Crane Cries (discussed here in April) by a "true" string quartet (i.e. with two violins, although Petzold once again changes instruments), or to Theia (discussed here in July) by what I've dubbed a "jazz string quartet" (i.e. bass instead of a second violin). Dis/con/sent is rather different in tone from either, an impressive & imposing release that's often quite aggressive, although slower or more mysterious around extended techniques at times too: Indeed, the "bowed metal" makes a jarring entry within moments, but is used judiciously from there. Dis/con/sent also employs a wide array of 20th century string quartet technique, including in its ensemble interactions, making it an improvised successor to some of the most dissonant — yet conventionally motivic — music in that format. (It might thus also be compared to the recent Ignis Fatuus, another string quartet discussed here in August, in that case doubling cello, and with more of a romantic or wry sensibility around Honsinger....) Indeed, listeners who enjoy e.g. Bartok or Shostakovich might well enjoy Dis/con/sent, although it's that much more adventurous: It's highly contrapuntal, even as the counterpoint can be repetitive at times, extending continuity (per Eris), and even (perhaps) yielding to nostalgia by the end. (However, the fern cover art doesn't appear to be supported by the kinds of naturalistic evocations sometimes found on these string albums from Rodrigues....) Parts of Dis/con/sent end up being calming, but (perhaps as implied by the title) that's more internal to the suite of movements, rather than an overall result, which suggests something of an intentional symphonic form (presumably as spurred by Petzold) & shifting attitudinal dynamic. It makes for a weighty & sometimes almost intimidating album, difficult to hear as fully improvised....
Todd McComb's (Jazz Thoughts)
Todd McComb's (Jazz Thoughts)
An album for bowed strings, bowed metal, and double bass, from the quartet of Dietrich Petzold on violin, viola, bowed metal, Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, and Matthias Bauer on double bass, presenting a seven part suite recorded in the studio in Berlin, active and exciting music that bridges classical technique with free improvisation.
Squidco
Squidco
The title of the album rightly suggests that we meet the musicians at the annual festival of improvised music, which takes place in a city of that name. We are at this year's edition, exactly on the first day of May. On stage: Dietrich Petzold - violin, clavichord and metal bow (sic!), Ernesto Rodrigues - viola, Guilherme Rodrigues - cello and Matthias Bauer - double bass. The German-Portuguese quartet will play three improvisations for us, lasting a total of almost a full 40 minutes.
The announced action film is, above all, the first two improvisations, during which the musicians generally rely on a rather pure sound and a whole lot of sensual, sometimes dynamic interactions. The first sounds are, of course, a lazy exploration of the stage situation, inhalations and exhalations, string squeaks and whimpers. Small, broken phrases are rarely interspersed here with longer strokes of the strings. Some of the latter dance, some jump under the strings, others make rapid runs over the griffins drenched in morning rain. The whole seems to be fleeting, but lined with a nerve of anxiety. After a short time, the artists find themselves in a chamber of darkness and silence. After a quick resuscitation, the story sparkles with a whole range of more feisty phrases, but it does not avoid delicate strings either. The first, very intimate part finishes its life with a beautiful post-baroque rocking, coloured with singing phrases of each instrument. The second part starts with a few prepared phrases and a free pizzicato mode on double bass and cello. A subtle rhythm and remarkable dramatic suspense emerge. The dance of short-cuts is now created by four strings, each of which simultaneously sobs and sings under its breath. The subsequent descent into silence is even more impressive, performed on extremely low bended knees. The inevitable return to the world of the living, however, results in a far denser ending.
The third improvisation, by far the longest, immediately takes us from the philharmonic hall to a small grinding workshop. Scrubbing, sharpening and sawing strings, something like semi-pizzicato, murmurs, mysterious pleiades of fake sounds. Here even the double bass seems to sound like a violin! Dynamics appears in this narration as if out of the blue, built up with almost rock riffs, done at a pace worthy of punk explosions! After a while, a new instrument appears on the stage, probably the announced clavichord. For a moment, it alone leads the narration with a dry, dull sound of anguished strings. The other instruments return in high concentration, searching for resonance and darker phrases. Presumably we hear another new instrument, this one a metal bow, which creates a quite surprising post-baroque industrial. This theme, as intriguing as it is, ends in silence. The one who wakes up the quartet from lethargy is the double bass player. The rest accompanies him with repetitions and creates a rather nervous flow, concentrating mainly on plucking the strings. The violin and viola begin to sing, and after a while the other participants of the performance do the same. This little final harmony does our emotions good - four strings in dramatic spasms lead us to the edge of the concert, sounding collective and droning.
Andrzej Nowak (Spontaneous Music Tribune)
The announced action film is, above all, the first two improvisations, during which the musicians generally rely on a rather pure sound and a whole lot of sensual, sometimes dynamic interactions. The first sounds are, of course, a lazy exploration of the stage situation, inhalations and exhalations, string squeaks and whimpers. Small, broken phrases are rarely interspersed here with longer strokes of the strings. Some of the latter dance, some jump under the strings, others make rapid runs over the griffins drenched in morning rain. The whole seems to be fleeting, but lined with a nerve of anxiety. After a short time, the artists find themselves in a chamber of darkness and silence. After a quick resuscitation, the story sparkles with a whole range of more feisty phrases, but it does not avoid delicate strings either. The first, very intimate part finishes its life with a beautiful post-baroque rocking, coloured with singing phrases of each instrument. The second part starts with a few prepared phrases and a free pizzicato mode on double bass and cello. A subtle rhythm and remarkable dramatic suspense emerge. The dance of short-cuts is now created by four strings, each of which simultaneously sobs and sings under its breath. The subsequent descent into silence is even more impressive, performed on extremely low bended knees. The inevitable return to the world of the living, however, results in a far denser ending.
The third improvisation, by far the longest, immediately takes us from the philharmonic hall to a small grinding workshop. Scrubbing, sharpening and sawing strings, something like semi-pizzicato, murmurs, mysterious pleiades of fake sounds. Here even the double bass seems to sound like a violin! Dynamics appears in this narration as if out of the blue, built up with almost rock riffs, done at a pace worthy of punk explosions! After a while, a new instrument appears on the stage, probably the announced clavichord. For a moment, it alone leads the narration with a dry, dull sound of anguished strings. The other instruments return in high concentration, searching for resonance and darker phrases. Presumably we hear another new instrument, this one a metal bow, which creates a quite surprising post-baroque industrial. This theme, as intriguing as it is, ends in silence. The one who wakes up the quartet from lethargy is the double bass player. The rest accompanies him with repetitions and creates a rather nervous flow, concentrating mainly on plucking the strings. The violin and viola begin to sing, and after a while the other participants of the performance do the same. This little final harmony does our emotions good - four strings in dramatic spasms lead us to the edge of the concert, sounding collective and droning.
Andrzej Nowak (Spontaneous Music Tribune)
When ordering the In The Sea album, the faithful Ernesto Rodrigues put this album in the package because, as a committed string player - violinist, he suspected that this dis con sent would find favour with my ears. He is absolutely right. This album, in which the two Rodrigues fathers and sons are pitted against two Berlin stars, violinist Dietrich Petzold and double bassist (and the youngest of the Bauer brothers - the trombonists) Matthias Bauer, in a salutary exercise: As has always been professed, repeated and set in stone, instruments of the violin family only come into their own when gathered together free from the bursts of brass, the invasive frequencies of percussion and having to adapt their fingering to the cheating of piano tuning (the addition of the frequencies of the intervals of second, third, fourth, etc., is not transitive). This is not the first of the Rodrigues tandem's recordings, together or separately, as a bowed string group, but this recording is undoubtedly a major discographic trace in the curriculum. Good to know, given the extent of the C.S. catalogue. To recognise them from each other, Guilherme is the smiling son and he plays the cello. The father, pensive, excels on the viola, a difficult instrument for which Dietrich Petzold is also credited, in addition to bowed metal. Listening to the pieces numbered I to VII, one is treated to the full range of sonic occurrences, cadences, emotions, refinements and outbursts. It is not uninteresting to compare the Stellari Quartet of Phil Wachsmann, Charlotte Hug, Marcio Mattos and John Edwards, of which Emanem has released two albums and whose instrumentation is almost identical. With two Brits and an adopted Brazilian from London, there is a dose of eccentricity, of more individualized expressions. But the moments offered by this Lisbon-Berlin quartet contain many qualities in terms of timbre and interactive arrangements in a fully lived synergy. Bright-silver glows, dark colours, evening elegies, playful twists and turns, well-marked and evolving forms, open to contradiction, intermingling of saturated rubs and jerky fingerings, twists of woody and moiré sounds. It is quite simply exemplary. During his lifetime, Pierre Boulez invited the Stellari Quartet to the Lucerne Festival to listen to a CD proposed by Charlotte Hug. Charlotte: "Maestro, this is completely improvised music! The composer had often expressed his "disapproval" of improvisation. But he was convinced by the result, which, using the sonic possibilities of the strings and their interweaving etc., was very close to the consistency and dramatic and musical evolution of a work conceived by an excellent composer and played by instrumentalists at the top of their game. It is indeed the impression of this truth, this reality that I perceive here. A work that calls for re-listening, for Rosenbergian cherishing and deserves to be in the annals.
Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg (Orynx)
Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg (Orynx)
