‘Eventual’ is the first album by double bass player Gonçalo Almeida and ’knob twidler’ Rutger Zuydervelt. It’s not exactly their first collaboration though, having released two EPs, ‘Doze Ruinas’ and ‘Jangadas’, and being colleagues in Hydra Ensemble (with cellists Lucija Gregov and Nina Hitz).
When film maker Lex Reitsma commissioned Rutger Zuydervelt for the soundtrack of his documentary about photographer Koos Breukel, Zuydervelt proposed to involve Gonçalo Almeida. Reitsma agreed and visited Almeida to record a selection of double bass improvisations. The plan was for Zuydervelt to weave these recordings into the score, but in the end not much of it was used.
Both Almeida and Zuydervelt felt that the wealth of recorded material was too beautiful to lay to waste, and since they had plans to create more music as a duo anyway, it was logic step to give this session a new purpose.
After a few false starts (and more than a year after the recording), Zuydervelt found a successful angle and constructed ‘Eventual’; a long-form drone composition, created by combining multiple edits of Reitsma’s recordings, and making use of the gorgeous harmonics and overtones of Gonçalo’s playing.
While Almeida is also a master in furious skronk, ‘Eventual’ highlights his more minimalistic and patient side, combined with the detailed and multi-layered sound design by Zuydervelt. The icing on the cake is the beautiful mastering by Jos Smolders.
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Gonçalo Almeida (Lisbon, 1978) is a Portuguese musician and composer based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. With a strong interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to his work, Gonçalo plays in a variety of projects that go from modern jazz, freejazz, jazzcore and free improvisation music, having shared the stage with improvisers such has Ab Baars, Balasz Pandi, Chris Speed, Carlos Zíngaro, Ig Henneman, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Jasper Stadhouders, Jorrit Dijkstra, Luis Vicente, Luis Lopes, Martin van Duynhoven, Nina Hitz, Peter Jacquemyn, Rodrigo Amado, Rutger Zuydervelt, Susana Santos Silva,Tobias Klein, Wilbert de Joode, among others.
He is the founder/main composer/ bass player of Hydra Ensemble, Lama Trio, Albatre, The Attic and member of Spinifex, Tetterapadequ, The Selva, Roji, Almeida/Duynhoven/Klein trio. Gonçalo Almeida also collaborates frequently with audio-visual artists, modern dancers, poets and theatre makers, such as Arnold Dreyblatt, Julyen Hamilton, Rita Vilhena,Ricardo Jacinto, Pierre Bastien, among others.
Since 2001 has been touring internationally within several of these projects, in Europe, U.S, India and Japan. Adding to a prolific publication of records on international labels from his various projects, Gonçalo Almeida created also his own digital label, Cylinder Recordings, in order to document and share material from his frequent and experimental encounters with other improvisers, making crossovers between musicians from different projects and researching on new collaborative paths.
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Rutger Zuydervelt resides in Schiedam, and is active as an electronic musician/composer as well as graphic designer. He operates under the name Machinefabriek often, and released a great amount of albums on various labels, numerous of them collaborations - with artists such as Peter Broderick, Chantal Acda, Dirk Serries, Vasco Trilla, Michel Banabila, Gareth Davis, and many more.
Rutger also regularly does commissioned work for dance pieces, film and television, and art projects. He worked with choreographers like Iván Pérez, Yin Yue, Alexander Whitley, and Roshanak Morrowatian, and with film makers Makino Takashi, Jessica Gorter, Margarida Cardoso, Lex Reitsma, and more. He regularly scores documentaries for VPRO, and composed his first video game score in 2016, the successful Astroneer.
For live performances Rutger’s setup is mostly analogue, using oscillators, cassette players, contact mics and effects panels to create -improvised- sonic environments.
credits
released February 23, 2024
Gonçalo Almeida: double bass
Rutger Zuydervelt: electronics, post production
Constructed by Rutger Zuydervelt
Double bass recorded by Lex Reitsma,
Additional recordings by Gonçalo Almeida
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