Chaos by Ernesto Rodrigues, Guilherme Rodrigues, João Madeira & José Oliveira

Ernesto Rodrigues - viola
Guilherme Rodrigues - cello
João Madeira - double bass
José Oliveira - percussion


Reviews:

**** Ernesto Rodrigues Guilherme Rodrigues
João Madeira José Oliveira: Chaos Creative Sources
Recordings CS 759 CD Guilherme Rodrigues (clo);
Ernesto Rodrigues (vla); João Madeira (b); José Oliveira
(dr). September 2022.
According to the Greek mythology, Chaos (kháos) was
the rst created being, from which came the primeval
deities Gaia, Tartarus, Erebus, and Nyx. In Christian
theology, the same term is used to refer to the gap
or the abyss created by the separation of heaven and
earth. In contemporary physics, or better to say contemporary
science one uses the concept of deterministic
chaos or chaos theory, popularized by "Jurrasic Park"
movies. Wikipedia says: "Chaos theory is an interdisciplinary
area of scientic study and branch of mathematics
focused on underlying patterns and deterministic laws of
dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions,
and were once thought to have completely random
states of disorder and irregularities." Note that deterministic
chaos deals with classical Newtonian physics,
where in principle everything is deterministic, according
to Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace!
For me as a theoretical physicists there are four most
important properties of chaos:
1) Unpredictability. Trajectories of individual particles,
when observed in time, seem to be unpredictable.
2) Sensitivity to initial conditions. Two trajectories
that start innitesimaly close one to another diverge
exponentially in time. This is the famous butterfly
effect. A buttery moving its wings in Australia
might aect weather in Europe decisively on
a few days time scale. The exponent controlling the
speed of divergence of such close trajectories is called
Lyapunov exponent, after Aleksandr Mikhailovich
Lyapunov (1857-1918), a Russian mathematician,
mechanician and physicist.
3) Strange attractors. Chaotic trajectories move
typically on a very strange manifold with fractal dimension.
For instance a systems with 3 coordinates
(i.e. three dimensional) might have a strange attractor,
on whihc chaotic trajectories live, of dimension
say, 2.5, not not 3 and not 2!
4) Islands of regularity. In many systems transition
to chaos occurs by the appearance of growing island
in the space of trajectories, where chaos rules, but
with still existing islands of regularity, where trajectories
are regular and predictable.
Amazingly, all of these properties of chaos theory,
find interpretation in the fantastic album of the quartet.
"Chaos" is a suite in 8 movements. Obviously,
there is plenty of, at least apparently unpredictable moments
 free improvised parts. Obviously, each of the
musicians sometimes enter a trajectory, corresponding to
regular islands, with full coherence, regularity and consonance.
Yet, this situations are unstable and thus sensitive
to initial conditions, and the "close" trajectories of two
instrumentalists start to diverge. Of course, it is dicult
to say how does it happen in the quantitative way, i.e.
determine the Lyapunov exponent. Neither is possible to
determine a strange attractor.
Wonderful, inspiring music!!!" Maciej Lewenstein

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"The four Portuguese are now veterans not only of their instruments, but also of the avant-garde, of which they are standard bearers at the western end of Europe.
Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, João Madeira on double bass and José Oliveira on percussion are the authors of a suite divided into eight movements and which rightly takes the name of 'Chaos'
Yes, because it is chaotic music, made of irregular sounds extracted from instruments that we usually know under another guise, but with its own charm that emerges from the tangle of sounds, of strings that meet and collide, of percussions that dialogue now with one now with the other instrument or placing itself as a narrator against everyone else
There is no middle ground, either you appreciate them or hate them, or you get involved in the chaos or you immediately look for a way out, certainly you don't listen to them in the background without paying due attention to them
The long part VIII which closes the album it unfolds for almost eighteen minutes, aggressive, wild, free in the purest sense of the term, outside all the canons.
It is an important album for improvised music in Europe, which seems to have drawn energy from an unknown source after the break due to Covid." Vittorio Loconte, Kathodik, kathodik.org

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"Trois cordistes et un percussionniste portugais nous disent construire – déconstruire un Chaos. Ernesto Rodrigues à l’alto, son fils Guilherme au violoncelle, Joao Madeira à la contrebasse et José Oliveira à la percussion nous offrent ici une manière de tourbillon interactif dense, hérissé, tout en cisaillements, zébrures hyperactives toutes cordes enflées par les frottements pressurant les cordes enflées par ces vibrations forcenées, saturant l’espace tout en maintenant une bonne lisibilité de chaque instrument. Et cela dans les trois premiers (I, II, III) « Chaos » numérés de I à VIII. Il semble loin le temps où les deux Rodrigues et leurs acolytes incarnaient le minimalisme bruiteur et grinçant et le réductionnisme. Avec José Oliveira , Ernesto avait gravé Sudden Music en 2001 (Creative Sources cs2cd), au début de leur aventure avec ce label. Des dizaines et dizaines d’albums jalonnent leur parcours et leur association présente avec Madeira et Oliveira pour ce n° 759 du catalogue CS est tout sauf fortuite : ces quatre-là jouent comme les cinq doigts de la main dans un gant … multidimensionnel comme le démontre le Chaos IV où les échanges sont dosés, alternés avec glissandi, moirages désarticulés, harmoniques irréelles, et les frappes précises et sélectives du percussionniste. Au fil des morceaux, la musique collective se diversifie et l’invention ludique monte en graine avec forces détails, mouvements fugaces, imbrication de frottements, col legno, suraigus, grondements qui s’enlacent et se charadent poétiquement, le bassiste poussant les graves charnus sur la touche avec ses gros doigts. Les deux Rodrigues jouent en tandem comme si leurs centres nerveux étaient en osmose totale, reliés par les fils d'une écoute transitive organique comme de très rarement. Il faut noter le jeu affairé mais discret et ouvert, crépitant et pointilliste du batteur qui laisse tout l’espace aux aiguillonnements des archets virevoltant sur les cordes. Sonorités frissonnantes et cascades de vibrations boisées, chœurs multiphoniques, utopie du jeu « ensemble ». Une ivresse nous surprend, les Chaos révèlent un ordonnancement naturel qui s’échappe de la rationalité et bouleverse nos perceptions." Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg, orynx-improvandsounds.blogspot.com
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"In today's first quarter exhibition, we find the Rodrigues family in Lisbon, accompanied by double bass and percussion. The meeting seems to be very interesting, as it is not the first time that the viola player Ernesto and the cellist Guilherme seem to have fierce dramatic disputes, reaching for elements that combine casual chamber music and post-jazz, especially the one that has inclinations towards free jazz escapades. Our heroes in the work of creation at the junction of two aesthetics are greatly helped by the excellent double bass player, Joao Madeira, who constantly poses questions about genre boundaries.

The first few improvisations are constructed in the form of 4-5 minute stories. The musicians build narratives here both from feisty, prepared sounds, and patiently draw clear, more delicate phrases. Thus, we have three creative strings on stage, which can count on the support of delicate percussion at any time, not devoid of a rhythmic layer, but above all illustrative. The musicians do not force themselves on any appetizers, they immediately create a moderately dynamic situation, they are also able to achieve an almost post-industrial sound in a short time, which they then conclude with a large portion of melodies. In the second part, the improvisation acquires a certain intriguing dance quality, and the phrases acquire an original melodiousness. Chamber music builds emotions here, and post-jazz accents adorn it successfully. In the third installment we also get post-baroque elements, full of nervous action. Immediately afterwards, the artists take a deep breath and play with sounds around silence. Prepared and resonant phrases quite quickly fall under the power of dynamics, although closer to the wholefree chamber than jazz. The fifth story continues the threads and also focuses on call & response activities . In the sixth movement, each of the strings seems to be phrasing in its own individual style, and nimble percussion glues the cohesive narrative together. A handful of more and more emotions successfully leads us to the last two improvisations, which last the longest on the album. The first one is built with many percussion actions, both on the snare drum and cymbals, as well as the necks of stringed instruments. Good tempos, oceans of emotions, this is a real hard-core chamber, also thanks to the multitude of sharp, grinding plays from each of the musicians! The last story is almost the third part of the album and seems to sum up all the artistic plans that the musicians had when starting the recording. Nervous preparations at the start, supported by deep drumming . The dynamics this time follows the up & down rule . We have a spectacular, post-jazz slowdown, then a festival of intimate stage directions. The drone slow-motion phase seems to be equally charming . For the finale, the artists let their imaginations run wild and create an almost free jazz intrigue." Andrzej Nowak, spontaneousmusictribune.blogspot
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"Pressure and percussiveness are emphasized on Chaos. But with the stressed accents coming from four directions, lyrical motifs also enter the performance. Layering is as important as linear motion as high-pitched string arcs are stacked up with double bass strokes in the middle and Oliveira’s woody clips and pops on the bottom. As Madeira’s andante pumps advance the exposition, viola and cello interjections break up the exposition to prevent passivity. Encompassing tropes include speedy string stops and strums, squeezed staccato runs, positioned bell-ringing, cymbal scratches and rim shots. These motifs are emphasized for extended or briefer interludes that sweep along until culminated in the elongated penultimate and final tracks. With multiple tones soaring from the bassist and rugged ruffs from the drummer, the andante density of “Chaos VII” is challenged by stridently pitched strings. Yet as a harbinger of what entails on the nearly 18-minute final selection, the kinship among supple drums pushes and intense arco shrilling serves its purpose. Nearly every motif that has been proposed during the preceding seven track is expanded on “Chaos VIII”. But, also as before, the chaos described in the track titles is moderated by the narratives’ broken octave balance. Swift sul ponticello cello stops abut moderato double bass plucks, and later on a concentrated lilting interlude is interrupted by col legno string pops and woody drum emphasis. Winding each players’ timbres together into swells and stops, Madeira’s and Oliveira’s gradual lessening of tension leads to a rounded, almost lyrical finale." –Ken Waxman - jazzword.com

Musician, Composer.

João Madeira has been totally committed to discovering new processes of creating and composing music, whilst, at the same time, exploring new concepts of musical performance.
Soundcloud upload with constant activity! Follow!
“A Fábrica de Nada”, 2005, and “A Máquina Hamlet”, 2020 - “Parece que o Mundo”, 2018, (contemporary dance).

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