"After A tale unfolds (reviewed here last month), Ernesto Rodrigues and Joao Madeira return again, also with Monsieur Trinite, for Free to Open (recorded in Lisbon earlier this month). For this live outing from the Creative Sources Cycle, instead of adding three musicians (including two clarinetists) to the quintet lineup on their "instant classic" Derive (yielding consequent, smoother textures as an octet...), they instead pare down to a quartet (i.e. minus cello) with Carlos Bechegas (piccolo, flute and alto flute).

So whereas when reviewing Open in Finder (with Madeira and Bechegas) last November, I'd noted the long gap in the flautist's discography, thinking the release was an unusual event, there was already Secrets under Trees (with Rodrigues, both of these first new trio releases adding cello...), and then soon after, Echoing the Chorus of Life (also reviewed here last month) with Rodrigues and Bechegas and Carlos Santos on electronics....

Now there's yet more, and Free to Open comes off as a relatively experimental outing, sometimes in more static or repetitive textures, but also striving for new combos, including with Rodrigues increasingly featuring crackle box (alongside viola) for what can eventually seem like some vocalizing passages (alongside some throatier flute as well... and perhaps some other electric "small toys" from Trinite?). And note e.g. that Bruno Parrinha already played quite a bit of flute (alongside his usual clarinet) on Derive, so the substitution here of Bechegas is not as big an ensemble shift as it might even appear. (And speaking further of clarinet, let me also mention now another new quartet album from Rodrigues: Xafnikes synantiseis pairs Floros Floridis - born 1952, returning to Creative Sources already following Fields, as also reviewed here last month - with a string trio, recalling the first Lisbon String Trio "guest" album K'Ampokol Che K'Aay at times, the former recorded also last month in Berlin....

These kinds of ensembles have certainly become more frequent in improv over the past few years....) And the first track on Free to Open does open with an attractive and quiet pointillism then, recalling portions of Derive, indeed employing various of the wavelike exchanges that've become a feature of Rodrigues albums lately, but in turn also unusually opening to more in the way of soloing, with the second track then bringing more linear, layered or banded interactions.

There's again various zoomimesis involved, including into a sort of jungle vibe (becoming industrial-hybrid at times too). Both there and in the shorter final track (of this hour+ session), senses of building up materials over time are involved as well, yielding more extended arcs and independence of line (i.e. with lighter harmonic fill...). There's a general opening of texture, but also more in the way of stasis at times, perhaps stormy (e.g. with roiling bass...), but more often tending toward sparseness or setting melodic line against melodic line.

Free to Open thus does feel as though it's an "opening" for this intriguing quartet (and I have to wonder if it's implying the term "open improv" as well...), beginning from other recent work, but also soon striving for novel textures, moving into the unknown...."-" Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts