MARE TENEBRIS

This 2005 album by Venezuelan progressive band Parthenon has only just come into my possession, but even then, this in many ways an old album as the band were originally formed in 1979 by drummer Juan Carlos Ballesta and keyboard player Robert Santamaría. The band went through the usual round of line-up changes, and played a few gigs before breaking up in 1981. Fast forward to 2000 and Juan and Robert got together to form a line-up to record the old songs, and over the next four years then did just that, with this album comprising 8 new recordings, 2 recorded in their rehearsal space between 1980 and 1981 and one recorded at a concert in 1980.

There are a few guests, but the group operated as a quintet, although the female singer is only present on a few songs, and they are obviously hugely influenced by Emerson, Lake & Palmer in particular. There are also some nods to a more commercial sound than the classic period, but it is impossible to state if this band always sounded like this or if they have changed their approach to be more Nineties given when they actually got around to record it. If I had been asked to work out where they were from, I would actually have guessed Italy as opposed South America, as their style of symphonic prog also has quite a lot in common with RPI, although it must be said the use of fretless bass is quite different to the norm and works really nicely. While not doing anything dramatically different, this is a pleasant progressive album and perhaps I should not be surprised that given it took so long for this album to be recorded that they have not released anything else since then. However, this was made available through Bandcamp a few years back, and is now available to download at the princely sum of ?3, so anyone interested in this style of prog should certainly do some digging. This is one of those "lost" bands which are worth seeking out for the quality of the music as well as just the scarcity, with the album giving a string indication of what might have been if things had worked out differently.