ALTAIR 3

As a duo featuring Alfredo G. Arcusa on drums and Isabel Muniente on keyboards and bass-synthesizer, Spanish band Altair made two albums in the Nineties: Altair from 1990 and Fantasias Y Danzas from 1999. In 2003 Italian progrock label Mellow Records released this live CD, recorded live in Barcelona (2000) after drummer Alfredo Arcusa re-founded Altair as a trio with Emilio Ruiz on keyboards and Albert Guitart on bas.

On this album simply entitled 3 (running time almost one hour) we can enjoy seven compositions delivering a modern, tasteful keyboard sound, dynamic drums and flowing bass play. The climates change from dreamy and compelling to fluent and propulsive including a varied colouring from the keyboards: flashy synthesizer flights, jazzy, swinging and swirling piano runs, fine organ waves, wonderful orchestrations and some spacy sounds. At some moments the keyboard driven progrock from Altair evokes ELP but not so obvious as on their two studio albums because the new keyboardist has more an own style and plays with more variety. Due to this Altair sounds more convincing and powerful so I would like to recommend this album to the keyboard aficionados, not really earthshaking but just a pleasant one.