CONFUSIÓN

In the weekends my father used to play LP's with folk music from Russia, Roumania and Spain, and especially from Latin-America, like Los Paraguayos, Los Incas and Los Calchakis. So I grew up with the sound of Andean flutes, the 'quena' and 'zampona', and after falling in love with progrock I was delighted about Los Jaivas, the highly acclaimed Latin-American prog folk band. But I am even more pleased with Peruvian formation Supay, especially their first album Confusion, originally released in 2004 and then 2 years later re-released by the French label Musea and the Chilean label Mylodon Records.

On Confusion two totally different worlds meet in an exciting way: the ethnic Andean sound with the distinctive soaring flutes, and rock music with the powerful electric guitars. This creates a lot of tension, on one side the cheerful 'quena' and the melancholic 'zampona', and on the other side the Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton inspired heavy guitar play. For me it is unique prog, to be carried away by the duels between sparkling ethnic flutes and biting and howling electric guitars, especially with the use of the way-wah pedal, wow, shivers down my spine! The sound of the keyboards can be described as often functional, apart from a jazzy organ solo in Avanzado and a duet with a flute in La Nueva, on the other tracks he delivers pleasant organ layers.

So the focus in on Andean flutes and harder-edged guitar work, fuelled by a powerful and dynamic rhythm-section, highly recommended for those who are into more heavy sounding folk prog.