FUSIOON

Fusioon was undoubtedly one of the great, albeit too short-lived, prog-fusion catalan bands of the 70's, its 4 members were highly skilled musicians, with special mention for the classically trained keyboardist Manel Camp who after the prog era would become one of the most sought pianists and arrangists in the catalan musical scene.

This 1972 debut consists only of adaptations to jazz-rock-fusion of traditional spanish popular songs (a couple of them actually adaptations from late 19th / early 20th century spanish classical composers, La Danza Del Molinero by Manuel De Falla and Negra Sombra by Xoan Montes). Being catalan I recognize most of the tunes, but the adaptations are so free that they hardly bear any resemblance to the originals except for some phrases here and there bringing up the original melodies and some of the original backing chord progressions transposed onto jazzy rythms on which they play their solos and improvisations.

The album is totally instrumental, very good fusion with classical flavour, with quite a lot of piano (organ, synths and mellotron not lacking either) and great musicianship all around. The songs are all short between 3 and 5 minutes which makes the album flow swiftly. There are saxes and flute too making the music more diverse.

But in this debut they do not use their musicianship for showing off and they are not too adventurous, no pyrotechnics, no agressive nor stunning music. As good as it is, it feels a bit like just "innocent jazz-rock", the songs feel rather simple and it's in the details where you realise their quality.

In their next two albums Fusioon would truly unleash their talent and challenging spirit and venture into top-level eclectic-symphonic-fusion prog (in Fusioon II) and back to fusion- symphonic-experimental but at a vastly more sofisticated level (in their last album Minorisa).

A certainly interesting and nice-to-have album, but only after you have discovered their next two masterpieces.