released December 4, 2008

Looking back over recent posts this morning it occurred to me that it has been a good while since I wrote about any acoustic improv, and even longer since I took a Creative Sources disc from the pile to play. Tonight then I have been listening to Fower, the latest release on Creative Sources by the quartet of Neil Davidson, (acoustic guitar) Ernesto and Guilherme Rodrigues (viola and cello respectively) and Hernani Faustino (double bass). The first three names in this version on a string quartet are all favurites of these pages, the last completely new to me.

Split into three tracks, Fower is a bit of a bumpy ride, not exactly easy listening. All of the musicians seem to grind and scrape at their instruments rather than stroke and caress them. The instruments sound as if they have been recorded up close and so everything sits in the foreground of the recording, the four musicians nudging and shoving each other’s sounds around in the search for space, the music formed from this interactive game. The first piece on Fower, named Heuch, and lasting some twenty-two minutes is a gritty, dry affair with a serrated edge. While it is always clear that we are listening to four wooden boxes with strings stretched across them, it is quite difficult to pin down sounds to particular musicians.

There is little silence, and what we hear is a constantly changing series of tight musical forms made up of the musicians’ muscular, jagged inputs. While it isn’t particularly loud (its certainly not quiet either) and the sounds are maybe not as harsh as can be heard elsewhere, there is a certain aridity to the music. Like a photoshopped picture with the contrast turned right up very sound is firmly stated, and the music feels like it is has been scratched directly into the surface of the CD, such is the immediacy of the music. Mostly the instruments seem to be played with bows, but they do not all sound traditionally tuned, and their body seems to be played as often as the strings, the closely miked recording amplifying the slightest scratch and scrape into something bigger. While the four musicians are very much in tune with one another, and they merge together easily into the one writhing mass of dry sound it is hard to pick out particular voices in the music, with perhaps only Davidson’s guitar easy to identify in places.


The second track named Haugh clocks in at half the length of the first, and at just over five minutes the final Hume is half as long again. This last piece is perhaps the quietest of the trio, still utilising similar sounds but with a little more air in the music and a more delicate sense of structure. While the first two tracks barge their way out of the speaker and roll about the floor fighting, Hume sounds like a more considered affair, still full of twists and turns, but with a more composed feel. Overall Fower is a tough listen, something that needs to be engaged with fully as a listener to take anything from it. Closing your eyes and really getting to grips with the music, almost literally wrestling with its sinewy vigour reaps rewards however. The interplay between the quartet is excellent, and only under close scrutiny is this completely apparent, as picking apart Fower’s vibrating, grinding structures reveals how well these four musicians are listening to, and anticipating each other’s moves. Fower takes some work, but spend time with it and it pays you back with interest. This isn’t an album that will appear in anyone’s end of year lists, and won’t get many mentions in the hip and trendy corners of the internet, but its one that fans of good, robust and detailed improvised music should pay attention to.

Richard Pinnell The Watchful Ear

Ernesto Rodrigues - viola
Neil Davidson - acoustic guitar
Guilherme Rodrigues - cello
Hernani Faustino - double bass

Recording by Diogo Tavares at Tcha Tcha Tcha on the 18th November 2007
Mix and Master by Carlos Santos and Ernesto Rodrigues
Photography by Maria Castro
Graphic Design by Carlos Santos
Production by Ernesto Rodrigues