assemblage

creative sources | cs007

Ernesto Rodrigues /violin, viola. Guilherme Rodrigues/cello, pocket trumpet. Manuel Mota/electric guitar. José Oliveira /percussion, acoustic guitar, inside piano.

Total Time 37:36 © 2003. Recorded on 13 December 2002 at Tcha Tcha Tcha Studios, Lisbon. Photographs by António Graça. Cover design by Carlos Santos

Here is a very nice work of improvisation. «Assemblage» is an ad-hoc ensemble with Ernesto Rodrigues (on violin and viola), Guilherme Rodrigues (on cello and pocket trumpet), Manuel Mota (on electric guitar) and José Oliveira (on percussion, acoustic guitar and inside piano).

They play three compositions (so it says on the cover, but we can safely assume this was all recorded during improvisation) and do this by using objects that are not commonly used to play instruments like this. Thus the result is an assemblage of sound (hence the title). Overall they love small sounds happening all over the place – a small scratch here, a pluck there, some bang inside the piano, slowly building tension in a piece, but there is never a lift-off. Nowhere the procedures explode and erupt in a wall of noise. These four people are rather held-back in their playing, maybe pre-arranged (who knows?) before they started recording, but they cleverly know to keep the tension on the right spot. Well done. Frans de Waard