Variable Geometry Orchestra

This is the Creative Sources release number 100. An historic goal reached by such a small label, therefore worth of a serious celebration. That’s why Ernesto Rodrigues prepared this triple CD featuring the VGO, a marauding multi-timbral collective comprising several among the finest Portuguese (and not only that) avant-garde artists, all able to grace our ears with their ability of performing impromptu. Among the many, Sei Miguel, Fala Mariam, Johannes Krieger, Nuno Rebelo, Carlos Santos, Rafael Toral, Alípio C. Neto. Rodrigues himself describes the conducting procedures as “balancing the sound masses that travel in the acoustic space, dictating the construction of the real-time composition, and thus revealing the organized juxtaposition of specific instruments as mobile sound groups”. The five lengthy tracks were recorded live (in Lisbon and Barreiro) in different settings - art galleries to festivals to jazz stores. Rather than swallowing an impossible “regular” review, take a look at the notes that this writer jotted down in reaction to the sounds heard, just to have vague indications of what’s contained in this boiler.

By Maximo Ricci, Touching Extremes.