Вижу Землю / LOOKING AT THE EARTH

I only know two prog rock bands from Turkmenistan. Gunesh Ensemble and Firyuza. Both have released each one amazing album. Just as it happened on other countries, in the cited region progressive rock only started to develop on the passage from the 1970 to the 80's. But I can't tell you if there is(are) other prog rock releases from there. In a brief research I didn't find any other groups within this musical genre coming from Turkmenistan.

The first album from Gunesh Ensemble is from 1980, and this one came four years later. On that time, you couldn't Google about that country or their people. And if I'm not mistaken, the north-west side of the world had a simplified and naive preconception of the middle east region: thought as a population with a very traditional, archaic culture. It's very understandable that this work is so unknown by europeans and north-americans.

Don't be fooled by the beginning of this work. The sound of winds doesn't have anything to do with world music, new age and/or traditional songs. It ends very briefly and gives place to a consistent dynamic interplay of jazzy prog tunes disposed in various layers; lots of wind musical instruments collaborate. Next, a smoother jazz-prog takes in, but when they go back to a more energetic execution, starts to gather some few psychedelic ideas. These are replaced by a brief blend of electronic prog with world music. That´s when the first vocals are included; with almost 10 minutes of the vinyl. The vocals that are made before the end of side A, along with the use of atabaques and other percussions, delivers a charming oriental/arabic felling. The beginning of side B is similar to the first minutes of side A. Bass sometimes becomes a little funky, and the violin has the incredible ability to quickly change from a straight-rock tune to a more classical sound, or go very arabic. I find deeply touching those vocals that seem to be carried with some very profound and emotional lament, that can be heard only on the middle east. When he finishes, the drums, violins and atabaques get very fast, as they were celebrating an important confraternization. The last track, called Vietnamese Frescoes, can catch your attention because of its singularity and exotique musicality. But for me it's the weak part of this sublime effort. If this track wasn't there, I'd give them 4.7 stars.

4.4 on a five-star scale.