Suspensão

"Suspensão (Suspension in Portuguese ) is one of the many free improvised ensembles that prolific violist Ernesto Rodrigues leads. A Question Asked by the Empty Horizon is the thirteenth album of this ensemble that has been operating since 2016 with a rotating line-up of local musicians coming from different backgrounds, with different instrumentation. 

The current version of Suspensão features a nonet with violinist Inês Ferreira, double bass player Hernâni Faustino, trumpeter João Silva, melodica player Tiago Varela, guitarist Flak, André Hencleeday on oscillator, Carlos Santos on modular synthesizer (and mastering the recording and doing the graphic design), percussionist Monsieur Trinité, and Rodrigues. The album was recorded live during the Small Formats #8" cycle at Galeria Monumental in Lisbon in February 2026, with the nonet sitting in a lf circle.

The thirty-minute piece, with its poetic-cryptic title, is focused on Rodrigues on reductionist and almost silent dynamics, and sustained or suspended treatment of notes. The ensemble explores subtle and nuanced electroacoustic timbral and textual interplay in a patient and methodical way, while employing a set of extended techniques, but allows some urgent and sharp sonic collisions. The ensemble finds the piece's intimate, organic, and collective inner logic and sonic identity almost immediately and keeps it throughout the performance without reaching dramatic or cathartic climaxes. It creates a horizontal, almost static sonic landscape that suggests a fine lesson of deep listening and in sonic humbleness." - Eyal Hareuveni