QUIET EUPHORIA

Canterbury scene - Irony, fantasy, and spontaneity: these are the watchwords of this submerged branch of prog rock, in the perennial balance between jazz, prog, and psychedelia. The band with their third album "Quiet Euphoria" presents the magical alchemy of surreal atmospheres, lightness, and jazz flavor to reach its stylistic and expressive peak. There is room for everything: experimentation, delicacy, and power, they all manage to coexist in this album with a thousand faces, very tight and full of feeling in a fully jazz-rock sound. Behind this floral, colorful, and complex creature are the eight members of the group: Alberto Villarroya López / bass, guitars, keyboards, compositions, Ricardo Castro Varela / piano, electric piano, Hammond organ, arrangements, Iago Mouriño / piano, electric piano, Moog, Hammond organ, Fernando Lamas / drums & percussion, Pablo Añón / tenor saxophone, alto clarinet, Dubi Baamonde / soprano saxophone, flute, Rubén Salvador / trumpet, flugelhorn, and Israel Arranz / vibraphone.

This album explodes into an exciting ride supported by a rhythm section with a bass loaded with a melodic, imposing, sometimes enhanced with a distorted effect and constantly evolving groove. Also, notice how the rhythmic inserts of the guitar are placed to mark the accents with few but effective chords, but above all pay attention to the refined melodic embroidery of the keyboard which expands and enrich the already excellent bass lines. Music also shows colorful horn arrangements with rhythm changes and beautifully played keyboard sounds in a Canterbury dress. The musicians are given the freedom to perform solos, and so are allowed to shine individually.

There is a constructive and compositional constant, a very coherent line, but also an enlargement and a deepening towards each theme, so that the jazz parts sound even more jazz, the Canterbury contacts are decidedly clearer, all the purposes and proposals have become coherent, and more robust. The great and skillful use of wind instruments leads to orchestral jazz sounds, sometimes in the classic jazz-rock style, sometimes with a greater reference to the big bands of the twentieth century. However, a certain catchiness of the themes remains firm, although the arrangements are always elaborate and rich. Also occasional dissonances give additional volume and RIO touches, proto-prog feeling also sneaks into the melodies and all this together forms a masterpiece of progressive music.

The entire work is developed around fantastic melodies, here in great shape both on a strictly technical level and in terms of compositional taste. The album flows rapidly alternating valuable instrumental sections, halfway between jazz fusion technique, prog, and some caressing folk melodies. The album is strong in every respect, the songs have a melodic feel on the one hand, and yet not less demanding. On the contrary, the band acts in a complex way, be it in relation to the song structures themselves or the instrumentation. Long and complex instrumental pieces, which blend psychedelia, jazz, rock, classical references, and that difficult-to-explain note typical of the Canterbury movement, are never boring, on the contrary, they sound agile and fluid. The instrumental presentation is of excellent workmanship and allows us to better appreciate the multitude of themes, and counterpoints contained within it. Describing this album means peeking into the lavishly decorated pieces, where the musicians translate all their knowledge and skill into a musical context, loading each piece with strangeness, layering the arrangements, and zigzagging the melodic paths.

A lot of time has passed since their last album, seven to be exact, but I have to say that the wait was worth it, with this album the band reaffirms its place as one of the best bands in the world and delivers another masterpiece that will definitely, and with every right, resonate into the world of prog and jazz rock and become an inevitable classic of this music.