VOLUMEN 1 (BUENOS AIRES FREE EXPERIENCE)

Amagrama

Symphonic Prog

4.03 | 28 ratings

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hdfisch
Prog Reviewer

The "Buenos Aires Free Experience" project is an associated production of Brazilian Record Runner company and Argentine UTOPIA Music Factory with the intention of showing the hidden side of musicians and their playing of instruments from the spirit. These "jam sessions" consist in meetings where every musician generates a musical frequency of energy able to harmonize with the others.Every piece of music is created and improvised live at the studio, without overdubs nor rehearsing, and later they are edited and mixed with a very creative criterion.

That's the description of this record series cited from the booklet of this disk here in review. I think that's a great idea and so is to be called what young talented band AMAGRAMA is presenting us here. The six loosely structured musical pieces (all instrumental of course) actually don't sound that much like typical improvisations (apart from a few sections) but represent some really enjoyable music played off the cuff with a high degree of soul and spirit. Moreover I've to say I almost prefer this one to their eponymous debut "Ciclotimia" (which I like a lot as well) just for the reason that here they are sounding much more native, inspired and their obvious influence by DT is much less present. There are some guest appearances by Eduardo Amaya (father of keyboardist Agustin) playing bass and Carlos Lucena (from country fellows NEXUS) on guitar in the last track "Patriarcal" which is a superb collage of many different influences starting from the 70's until recent past. Some people might call this band's style derivative I would call it rather eclectic since they're trying to combine the best essence from more than 30 years of progressive music and they're doing this very successful and highly appealing (obviously not only for me but for many Prog fans). To make another citation from the booklet, what AMAGRAMA actually is presenting us here can be called "a sound collage including rock, hard-rock, blues, psychedelia, symphonic rock, jazz, avant-garde, etc. fully in the spirit of the legendary and endless jam sessions of the seventies which were the most sublime passages of musical expression."

Though this record might certainly not be considered an essential addition in a general sense I'd still call it an excellent and much impressing work and therefore I'd highly recommend it not exclusively to fans of this band but to anyone who doesn't mind instrumental jam-session music and would like to hear how a modern foursome of talented musicians sound like when they're allowed to play without any limiting studio chains. For this reason I think this album deserves a 4-stars rating.

As a little additional information, there's also an interview with the musicians (both in Spanish and English language) to be read in the booklet making this CD even more a worthy purchase!

hdfisch | 4/5 | 2006-11-26

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