Pedro Rebelo, Franziska Schroeder, Guilherme Rodrigues, Ernesto Rodrigues - May There Be... (2008) 320 Kbps

Piano, soprano sax, cello and violin. Great album: an assortment of moods and dynamics changing from track to track, a tendency to utilize the extremities of the instruments while maintaining a distinct chamber flavor. The Rodrigueses are concerned with making the strings sound as a marble-cutting machine one moment, a chain of delicate whispers the next. Rebelo can handle different kinds of timbral duty – inside and outside the piano frame - with ease, in certain circumstances (“…Stillness”) approaching a pseudo-romanticism of sorts. Schroeder is the most unobtrusive voice, an almost spiritual rather than instrumental participation, but her absence is noticed as soon as we realize. Impressive ensemble work in the static dissonance of “…Tension”, and an overall sense of control on the directions that the music, even if instantaneously generated, should take. Harmonically fragile yet percussively emphatic in several episodes, this material sounds like having been somewhat planned in advance, possessing a kind of implicit contrapuntal substratum that renders the listening experience even more gratifying. - Massimo Ricci, Temporary Fault