Portuguese, Lisbon-based double bass player João Madeira’s 4DaRECORD label celebrated the Record Store Day of 2025 with two albums featuring a free improvising string trio – veteran violinist Carlos «Zíngaro», American cellist and frequent visitor to Portugal, Fred Lonberg-Holm, and Madeira, all collaborated before in different formats and contexts, plus a guest.

The first album Na Parede features the string trio expanded with the Swiss guitarist Florian Stoffner, known for his collaboration with British master sax player John Butcher, for its first-ever meeting, spanning three generations of improvisers. The album was recorded live at SMUP in Parede town near Lisbon in March 2023, and an early version of it was released for the Catalytic Sound subscribers, as the quartet was titled The Wall 4tet, in October 2023. This quartet plays four unhurried pieces in tight, inquisitive, and focused dynamics, suggesting complex and layered string textures that reach only briefly cathartic climaxes. The quartet adds that «The listener almost has the feeling that left and right, above and below are always present at the same time».

The second album Enleio features the string trio with local bass clarinetist José Bruno Parrinha, who has recorded before with Madeira (and is known for his ongoing work with violinist and Creative Source label head Ernesto Rodrigues’ ensembles). The album was recorded at Oficina das Artes in Lisbon in November 2024. The atmosphere is restless and much more powerful. The quartet often opts for intense, dark, and woody sonic collisions in which the fearless and strong-minded voices of these seasoned improvisers entangle around each other and explore thorny and uncompromising, uncharted textures, even in the most quiet and lyrical segments.

Eyal Hareuveni

Carlos «Zíngaro» (violin), Flo Stoffner (guitar), Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello), João Madeira (double bass), Bruno Parrinha (bass clarinet)