IO Pages. No. 19 , 4/1999
In Latin American countries such as Brazil and up to some extend Argentina we have already discovered some good symphonic bands, but Venezuela was until now still a blind spot on the map.
Now thanks to Musea this has come an end to this. They knew how to trace the former members of Tempano , who published in 1980 the LP Atabal-Yemal.
A record which has become a myth throughout the years, because only a few outside Venezuela ever had the vinyl in hands.
According to the biography that Musea has sent with the disc, the record is basically an instrumental mix of Camel, progressive symphonic and light jazzy from Happy The Man, the complexity of King Crimson and the creativity of Tantra. Especially Happy The Man, one of my personal all-time favourites, similarities can be found on Atabal-Yemal. On the tracks which are sung, this is less the case, but however even these songs are superb. There are even some elements from the Italian PFM in Hecho de Horas, Anhelos (sensitive ballad) and Precencias y Ausencias ( wonderful easygoing symphonic).
The masterpieces are however the instrumentals like the opener Cascada, Las Olas ( Virginia Woolf) and the spicy title piece, in which the gitarplay shows some King Crimson.
As a surprise, this re-edited CD also contains 3 instrumental bonus tracks with a total paying time of 23 minutes.
They were written in the same period as the rest of the CD but only recorded last year.
The sound quality of the bonus tracks is better then the reasonable good and clear sounding original record, on which you can hear that it is not a 90 s production .
If however you like smart compositions with a lot of basspaly ( Migel Angel Echavarrenta), subtle but genius Drums and Percussion ( Gerardo Ubieda), harmonious gitarplay ( Pedro Castillo) , and varied keyboardplay (Giuglio Cesare Della Noce) on instruments like electric piano, synthesiser and some organ, then you are with Atabal-Yemal on the first row.
A genuine classic.
(Trans. by Hans Goltz)
