ENSEMBLES
ALMEIDA & BASTIEN
Gonçalo Almeida- double Bass & sound objects
Pierre Bastien – trumpet & sound objects
Almeida & Bastien is a duet based in Rotterdam that creates explorations of non-idiomatic music on double bass and trumpet along with several sound art objects, creating a concert metamorphosis between the acoustic instruments and the various mechanical devices.
The music works are conceived in a close dialogue and every performance uses instant composing, triggered by several surroundings elements; such has architecture /space, environmental sounds, and the random motion of their sculptural sound objects.
While encouraging an active listening relationship with one’s space and their sound identity, these sound assemblages have a visual impact strengthened by the contrast of light and shadow.
The general contour of our performance deals with hypnotic, ritualistic and meditative narratives.
HYDRA ENSEMBLE
Nina Hitz - cello
Lucija Gregov - cello
Gonçalo Almeida - double bass
Rutger Zuydervelt - electronics
Hydra Ensemble is an electroacoustic quartet based in Rotterdam. It features Nina Hitz (cello), Lucija Gregov (cello), Gonçalo Almeida (double bass) and Rutger Zuydervelt aka Machinefabriek (electronics). The ensemble is a juncture of four distinctive expressions finding common ground. Together they form a four-headed entity that emerges from highly pensive collective improvisations, creating an intricate patchwork of concurrent melodic lines, textural explorations and expansive drones.
The quartet’s sonic language exists on the cracks of free improvisation, minimalism and experimental foreboding ambience. Hydra Ensemble's sonic language is as ominous and majestic as the multi-headed Greek mythical animal they're named after.
THE ATTIC
Rodrigo Amado - tenor saxophone
Gonçalo Almeida - double bass
Onno Govaert - drums
Originally the meeting between Gonçalo Almeida, Rodrigo Amado and Marco Franco, three influential figures of the Portuguese improvised music scene, The Attic has evolved to include Dutch drummer Onno Govaert, a crucial member of the Amsterdam jazz scene and part of the youngest generation of European improvised music. Together, they recorded the second album of the Attic, Summer Bummer, live in Antwerp, and released Love Ghosts in 2022 (both on No Business records).
All About Jazz concluded that, “while Amado will no doubt continue to find willing partners among his fellow avant-garde luminaries, his trio recordings offer the most complete glimpse of his prowess, and Love Ghosts could be his best yet.”
Set between free jazz, improvisation and real time composition, the music recovers different elements from the jazz tradition, reconfiguring them in vibrant in-the-moment improvised songs, building and developing a fluid dialogue between the three musicians.
THE SELVA
Ricardo Jacinto : cello + electronics
Gonçalo Almeida : doublebass
Nuno Morão : drums
The Selva is a free-improvisation unit featuring Lisbon based Ricardo Jacinto and Nuno Morão on cello and drums, and Rotterdam based Gonçalo Almeida on double-bass. Formed in 2016 their music explores the intersections between their member´s wide musical spectrums, proposing a synthesis based on a live narrative construction incorporating this multi-idiomatic approaches.
ALBATRE
Hugo Costa – alto sax.
Gonçalo Almeida – bass, loops & effects
Philipp Ernsting – drums & electronics
The screwed up, angry, either riff-based or totally abstract punk-metal-free jazz-noise played by Albatre may be one of the very best offers coming from the Rotterdam underground scene. Everything emerged in distortion and with a sometimes heavy, sometimes crazily fast beat. But if the music is explosive and always searching for the maximum impact, there’s a place for nuance and for detail, with the three contributors throwing intriguing elements to the magma of sound.
www.albatre.bandcamp.com
www.albatremusic.wordpress.com
SPINIFEX
Tobias Klein – alto saxophone
John Dikeman – tenor saxophone
Bart Maris - trumpet
Jasper Stadhouders – guitar
Goncalo Almeida – bass
Philipp Moser – drums
Spinifex seeks out the challenge of crossing stylistic borders.
Non-Western world music encounters Western contemporary composed music and
anarchic European free improv clashes with tightly structured math metal. Typical
basic ingredients of Spinifex include: forceful grooves, intense improvisation,
virtuoso solos, psycho-rhythms and extreme dynamics. It is a continuous quest to
push back and expand stylistic boundaries.
TABULA SONORUM DUO
Gonçalo Almeida - prepared double bass
Bart van Dongen - prepared piano
The Portuguese bassist Gonçalo Almeida, resident in the Netherlands, meets the Dutch pianist Bart Van Dongen to create the duo Tabula Sonorum. In this project, in which improvised music has a strong minimalist influence, the piano and the double bass are explored in a wide range of preparations, challenging the conventional use of instruments and producing a musical sequence of its own, with an almost hypnotic character.