REVIEWS

"When it comes to collaborative, timbral-spectral musical investigations though, it seems that no one is really more prolific than Ernesto Rodrigues, and he's been very ready to articulate his ideas across a variety of social & environmental relations in the post-pandemic space, producing an ongoing series of notable new releases, even relative to his already imposing discography. Dérive — recorded in Lisbon in December 2022 — continues that trend, both "pairing" with Aeon (recorded one day prior, and reviewed here in January) to interrogate a sort of spatial (versus temporal) relationality, and addressing the Situationist tradition in particular. The album Dérive itself then suggests a series of nonlinear interactions & interrogations — or "strolls" per the flâneur track titles — via the music per se, but also through an array of potential opening remarks here: Staying with the Situationist theme, the psychogeography entailed in this (multi-)instantiation of a Dérive doesn't conform e.g. to literal geographic space — pace e.g. Psychogeography, an Improvisational Derive (reviewed here in March 2019) by a quartet around Marco Scarassatti & Otomo Yoshihide, which specifies actual latitudes & longitudes — but more to an abstract exploration of psychic space. (This might obviously be characterized as an inner space, pace Rodrigues' frequent naturalistic inspiration, although a more acoustic spatiality does also present itself.) And I should note moreover my favorite late composition by Pierre Boulez, Dérive 2 itself being a single long-form tapestry, various ideas (contrapuntally) taking off in all directions: Instead, this new Dérive both includes a variety of (timbral, deconstructive) restarts, rather than a single movement, and involves spectral counterpoint, i.e. beyond the twelve-tone space. And although it aims at a specific philosophical-historical method, Dérive also involves a continuation of Rodrigues' main recent collaborations, i.e. with Guilherme Rodrigues (of course...) & Bruno Parrinha (here notably on flute, as well as bass clarinet), both e.g. also on Aeon, ultimately projecting a folksier sound there, but also already forging the core trio album, Sans oublier les arbres (as reviewed here in the massive May 2022 entry introducing the newly ongoing series of collaborations between Ernesto Rodrigues & Parrinha...) — itself just reprised by Signes Émergents (also "only" that trio), a shorter & more recent (& less naturalistic) issue, recorded five days prior to that earlier (by release) trio.... All three had already appeared together for the quintet album Quelque chose prie la patience des nuages (reviewed in the same entry here...) too, itself more linear-distended around piano (& electronics), versus the tighter (& less minimalistic) new quintet on Dérive, now featuring three strings — adding João Madeira on bass — as well as Monsieur Trinité on percussion. The latter was reviewed here (in October 2016) in trio with the two Rodrigueses on Aether, and is sometimes credited (more specifically) with "small" percussion: Trinité often seems to be accenting the proceedings here, i.e. rather than navigating the intricate microtonal counterpoint per se himself, but does add distinctly to the timbral combos. And then Madeira (who made this recording, also doing the mixing & mastering...) has been an increasingly frequent collaborator for Rodrigues lately himself, e.g. with the étude-like quartet album Chaos (with percussionist José Oliveira & the same three string players) having been mentioned here in a January 2023 entry, that quartet itself being a followup to the string trio album Cosmos (recorded in January 2022) — plus e.g. other formations (with Parrinha as well) as noted in the first review here (in September 2022) of Distilling Silence.... So Dérive can actually come off rather aggressively, and is certainly mixed with a great deal of presence — not unlike Distilling Silence, to which it might otherwise be compared, not least for their two senses of liminality. And although the strolls can be quite atmospheric, and indeed highly multi-dimensional in their senses of spatial counterpoint, as already suggested, there's also no concrete sense of location. (Although there're certainly outdoor allusions, these don't tend to be figured into outdoor scenes: Perhaps they figure more as partial memories....) And so there's no concrete, physical sense of moving — but rather an internal, mental sense of movement... prospectively, of breaking out of mental ruts. (I found the full sequence of nine flâneurs to be quite disorienting initially.) So the sort of spatial nonlinearity (& abstraction) sets this exploration apart for me in the technical-planning sense, but the execution is also superlative, tautly articulated & frequently intense. There's a suggestion of electronics at times too, but this is an acoustic album — tending to add a bit to the aura for me. (The cover tends to remind of how I diagram my own paragraphs too. But it's difficult to find further comparisons, even as Rodrigues has traversed similar philosophical spaces in the past.... Farther afield, perhaps there's Precepts for strings & "percussion," itself with a different sort of ritualistic vibe, maybe more roughly articulated, more insistent....) And the distinctive general mix of timbres should probably be highlighted here more as well, i.e. from the richly contoured & sometimes imposing bass line to tinkling metallic percussion & various resonant shadings in between, the technique & experience that's required to develop this sort of (infrachromatic) "sound" can become deemphasized due to Rodrigues' prolific output.... For me though, this is useful & even central music for the 2020s, historical (& extra-musical) allusions & all, as Rodrigues & company balance (timbral, acoustic) strength against ethereal & open (harmonic) delicacy.... Indeed, a critical aspect of spectral music in general, i.e. for our new era of "post-"s (like it or not...), is that it doesn't smooth over the inherent physical complexities of sound & acoustics. And the Rodrigueses et al. also manage to articulate such complexities improvisationally, i.e. without stiffness or a heightened sense of (e.g. compositional) artifice. The music flows." Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts

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Rated 9/10
"Four other musicians gather around Ernesto Rodrigues' viola, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, João Madeira on double bass, Bruno Parrinha on flute and bass clarinet and Monsieur Trinité on percussion for an improvised exploration of the sound and space around them, a idea that develops into a sequence of nine pieces that take the name of Flaneur I-IX. .
Everything flows very fluidly around them, the string trio presents itself in a variation of expressions that lives the contemporaneity of their instruments, joining in the dialogue to the subtle percussions and the primordial sound of a flute and the bass clarinet which is at ease, when required, amidst the tensions unleashed by the strings.
Listening to this hour of contemporary improvisation allows us to get to know a close-knit and totally at ease group with the result of a session which, despite the duration of one hour, never lets go of the listener, gripped by strings in constant fibrillation and stimulated by a very sensitive percussionist.
Convincing and passionate, theirs is an avant-garde with a lot of human warmth that shines through at every moment, perhaps the result of the newfound possibility of interacting in a real space after the long quarantine." VITTORIO LOCONTE, kathodik.org

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"Drifting, because from a very precise pointillist sequence at the outset, this super-team of improvisers instinctively transits into different playful, sonic and interactive congruences by totally improvising their instrumental escapes, making them evolve in the moment by taking into account exclusively what they have just played in the last few seconds. Although this is not indicated in the (virtually absent) liner notes, the album is made up of nine collective improvisations that evolve quite differently from one another, even if there is an obvious musical coherence between each of them. The strings play a predominant role: Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello and Joao Madeira on double bass come together like five fingers in a velvet glove. It would be hard to listen to their improvisations ten times (and more) without coming to the end of their inventions, continually discovering new sound elements in a multiplicity of forms and acoustic configurations of sound effects. The search for timbres and sonorities linked to instrumental actions is placed here at the integral service of collective play and improvised musical construction, stretching these sonic possibilities to points of no return where their advances are instantly and unconsciously metamorphosed into other dimensions. Monsieur Trinité's sparing, ethereal percussion deftly colours and punctuates their comrades' every move, deftly adding welcome sonic touches that blend seamlessly into the string players' performance. What's the point of saying too much and filling in when the music being played stands on its own - even though the three string players also cultivate a percussive approach with their tingling and col legno bowing on the strings? And it's also the essential quality of Bruno Parrinha, here on flute and bass clarinet, that he integrates the dynamics of his colleagues' playing without ever overplaying and respecting the sound characteristics of the specific work of the viola cello double bass trio, because as we know, the instruments of the violin family are only completely free of their souls when they are together to the exclusion of other instruments (wind instruments, keyboards, etc.). And it is to Bruno Parrinha's credit, and that of saxophonist Nuno Torres before him, that he embodies this axiom by bending his playing as a blower to these obvious aesthetic-instrumental requirements (or else do something other than free improvisation). For a detailed description of the 'alternative' sounds and techniques, please refer to my previous reviews of the music of Rodrigues et al published in these lines. Fantastic and marvellous drift!" Jean - Michel Van Schouwburg, orynx-improvandsounds.blogspot.com

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"Attuned to a semi-traditional setting is the viola playing of Portuguese Ernesto Rodrigues with the Dérive quintet on its self-titled CD (Creative Sources CS 772 CD. Also featuring the cellist Guilherme Rodrigues, bassist João Madeira, flutist/bass clarinetist Bruno Parrinha and percussionist Monsieur Trinité, the nine-part Dérive suite evolves on the cusp of contemporary chamber music and free form improv. At various junctures, especially on “Dérive VI” and “Dérive VII”, there are melodic intervals which stack moving viola swipes against chalumeau bass clarinet buzzes on the former and feathery flute trills swaddled in layered string rubs that undulate up and down the scale. But while the unfolding suite stays linear, its dynamic is defined by contrapuntal evolution, where shaking and swelling string parts vibrate collectively, sometimes interrupted by cymbal claps or maracas-like shakes from Trinité. Further consistency result from Madeira’s low pitched plucks. While this formula is constantly present as a continuum, other techniques are present elsewhere. For instance the extended fourth sequence is introduced with a powerful arco twang that precedes the other strings entry and stretches the exposition so that all three soon create squeaking but harmonized timbres. For added variety throughout, the cello, bass and viola sometimes divide into separate duos to contrast high and low pitches. Elsewhere group string glissandi serves as a backdrop for the violist to initially shake out a theme statement, latterly use spiccato strokes and sawing squalls to torque all the players to produce theme variations, and finally use double strokes to outline a reconstituted sequel to the initial statement. In the end this statement is preserved among metal-banging percussion, energetic double bass rubs, multiple string stops and jittery flute whistles or deadened reed blowing to mark a sense of connection." Ken Waxman, jazzword.com

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