SORPRESA DEL TIEMPO

After releasing Avenida Larco, Fragil changed their style and recorded simpler albums that mixed pop, neo prog' and native Peruvian music. At this point many progressive fans lost interest in the band, not also for the style change, but for a few vocalist changes, Frágil without the powerful voice and charismatic figure of Andrés Dulude was not really the same band.

But in 2002 with Dulude again on vocals, they release Sorpresa del Tiempo, live album that features the band playing with a 27-piece philharmonic orchestra. Most of the album is filled with songs from Avenida Larco (for the happiness of the older fans), two songs from the album Serranio (which I personally don't like at all) and three new songs that really haven't impressed me too much but are good enough. The Orchestra mostly enhances the keyboard parts, so there's no interference with the rest of the band, a great option if you compare the results with other bands that let the orchestra mix their sound with all the instruments, creating a mess instead of enhancing the good sound of the music.

As the title says, this album is a Surprise of Time, because many of us didn't expected such a good album after so many years of so different music. Best songs: The first eight songs are great. Weakest song: El Abuelo/Le Dicen Rock

Frágil have been one of Peru's most important progressive rock bands for over twenty-five years, and to show that they are not at all pretentious this live album was recorded in 1999 with a 26-piece philharmonic orchestra. The booklet and all of the songs are in Spanish, so I can't tell you a great deal about what is going on, but I do know that the band are a five piece with Andrés Dulude on vocals and acoustic guitar (and he seems to wear quite strange make-up), César Bustamante on bass, Luis Valderrama on guitar, Octavio Castillo (keys/flute) and Jorge Durand (drums).

I have been racking my brains and can't think of any other South American prog bands that I have heard, the closest I can get to is Cast from Mexico, but I do know that when prog bands tour over there they get a rave reception. This is one of those annoying live albums that does fade in and out a bit (I know that it is rarely an actual concert, but I like to imagine that it is) yet the music does manage to make up for it. The crowd are obviously huge fans and on "Mundo Raro" it takes a while for Andrés to start singing just because all of the crowd are doing it for him.

This is not exciting or ground breaking prog, but rather music that takes lots of influences (at one time the guitar sounded exactly the same as Gary Chandler's) such as Camel, Tull, Genesis and mixes it with a Spanish feel and local sounds to make music that is enjoyable and listenable without being hard work. The orchestra are used mostly as an extra keyboard player although it can take on a more driving edge when the brass is more to the fore. Overall while not essential it is a very pleasant album.

Originally appeared in Feedback #70, Oct 02