LOS ELEMENTALES

Certainly one of the best fusion albums ever. Coincidentaly with the departure of Gustavo Santaolalla (who's influence in the group was strong enough to keep them from the developement of their true style) they left the etnic and folkloric sound for a complete jazz- rock fusion venture with LOS ELEMENTALES as their prime opus. Ara Tokatlian shows himself as a virtuoso multi-instrumentalist and composer, sadly, they moved to the States where they found other musical interests (film scores, etc. ) and so, the follow ups are a blend of jazz, rock and South American folk music more elaborated but with a clear lack of the feel that you find in LOS ELEMENTALES.

With their double album "Agitor Lucens V", Arco Iris had reached the zenith for their exploration into their musical vision, a vision of psychedelia, ethnic vibrations and folkish textures in a peculiar progressive amalgam. With teh departure of guitarists Santaolalla, one of the band's main writers, a crisis took place but Arco Iris managed to survive it and become stronger under the direction of wind player-keyboardist Ara Tokatlina, who serve now as a sole leader for the refurbished band. "Los Elementales", a concept-album about the four elements, is a delicious gem of fusion prog. The band's sound is tighter tha never before, reinforcing the jazzy side of their offering and taking it to a particularly intense level. 'Gob' kicks off the album with an orgasmic based on a multi-precussive explosion invaded by Andean woodwinds - this lisergic opening intro gives way to a Weather Report-like motif lead by the synth. Next come a duel between synth and guitar and an excellent tenor sax solo, which seems to capture the inherent resitance of the Earth. Meanhwile, the rhythm duo of Bodarampe and Pérez set a most solid frame for this excursion. A big entry, indeed... and there are still many great things to come all through the album. 'Destilando el Perfume de los Minerales' brings us a more melancholic vibe: it's a slow piece full of poetic candor, which is enhanced by the soaring synth lines and the final guitar lead. 'Cristalizando los Rayos del Sol' brings us back to frenzy jazz-rock, a bit less centered on the fusion side, for the instrumental passages; the sung parts are set on a rockier mood, alternating with flute-driven bucolic interludes. 'Elemental de Agua' is just a brief reprise of the preceding track's opening theme. The vinyl's A-side ends with the first song of 'Elemental de Agua', titled 'Despertar de los Hijos de la Mañana'. This one is a beutiful instrumental that comprises much musical richness in its less than 4 minutes' duration. The piano motifs, the epic excursions of the full band, the evocative flute and sax leads - all of them are exquisite items ordained within a delicious whole. Even though it somehow bears the aura of a prelude, it has enough qualities as to be appreciated as an autonomous apex of the album. 'Necksa' kicks off with a reprise of the closing theme of 'Despertar...', and then leads things toward an 8 minute jamming excursion tha tbrings red hot jazz-rock in a funky mood: very much like Weather Report-meets-Return to Forever, but with an interesting addition of Latin percussion, a crucial element for the track's particular development, which has more to do with serene sensuality than just frenzy fun. Arguably, here are the most accomplished sax interventions in the album. 'Los nacidos del Viento' is quite different, an acoustic ballad constructed by dual acoustic guitar chords on a 3/4 tempo, ornamented by dreamy interactions of synth and flute. 'Paralda' closes down the album with a similar vibe to that of 'Necksa' but with a wider array of ambiences and a more through aggressiveness in some climatic passages. Even in the rougher sections, the ensemble always sounds as a sonically polished unit. "Los Elementales" is, in my opinion, an absolute gem of South American prog: unlikely but true, Arco Iris came back to life expanding the wildest musical trends that they had envisioned during their pioneering first era and framing this expansion in a very solid fashion. 4 and a half stars for "Los Elementales".

A Jazz Fusion band from seventies very powerful. The first track has a style Soft Machine, with sax and a powerful drums work. Second track a calm context with piano and voice (lirycs in spanish), but with some hard parts. This album has many different styles and sound environments,with all the instruments very well integrated, giving lots of musical maturity. Argentina in the seventies, gave us a lot of bands with quality which is not usual in other countries of South America, with very different musical styles of Brasilian progressive rock . Jazz Rock Fusion was not a commercial style for this decade but really, we can listen a masterpiece in this album. It is a work that unfolds with the hearings continued and that is never boring. High maturity, very good sound and very balanced. I like very much this album and it's a very good adiction of Jazz Rock Fusion collector of seventies. A masterpiece? yes absolutely I give 5 stars

I'm not sure when this Argentinian band changed their style but this sounds nothing like their debut from 8 years earlier. What I loved about the debut was that mood, an almost romantic RPI flavour. What I love about this one is the "lights out" instrumental work that is very much a Jazz Rock / Fusion style. Man these guys can play though. I'm not going to use the complete titles of each track because they are all so long.

"Gob..." is a top three for me.The drumming is so impressive here as it's intricate and crisp throughout and the sax plays over top. Flute joins in then the song kicks in just before a minute. So good. Some nice chunky bass here and excellent guitar work too. Sax and electric piano come to the fore after 2 1/2 minute. Killer stuff. "Destilando..." opens with laid back piano as flute then reserved vocals join in. A fuller sound before 2 minutes. It settles back again and the vocals stop.The tempo continues to shift though. "Cristalizando..." reminds me of the first track, this is such an impressive instrumental display to say the least.Vocals just before 2 minutes as it settles back some.Great track !

"Djin..." is a short uptempo piece with guitar, bass, drums and everyone else putting on a show.Too bad it's so short. "Despertar..." opens with some relaxed piano but a fuller sound arrives quickly.The sax sounds amazing here. Cool tune. "Necksa..." is a top three for me. I love how heavy the rhythm section is on this one as the sax plays over top. Just a pleasure. It turns brighter before 5 minutes then settles down a minute later and vocals join in. "Los Nacidos..." opens with acoustic guitar, synths and bass as reserved vocals join in.

"Paralda..." is my other top three.The wind is blowing and so is the sax as bass and drums help out. It reminds me of NUCLEUS when it gets fuller. It picks up 1 1/2 minutes in. Great sound ! Killer drumming too. Just some incredible instrumental work from 6 minutes to the end. The two bonus tracks are excellent as well.

4.5 stars and a must for fans of ICEBERG and the like.

If you're a REAL fan of jazz-rock made at the right time (mid 70's) with the right people, then chances are you'll be havin' a treat with this album from 1977. Based on the *so many times approached* concept of the four elements, it nevertheless includes everything you'd wish to get from a production of that time: expressive Moog, burning guitars, wailing saxes, solid deep bass and a healthy dose of ethnicity (though much discrete). Starting at full speed already on track one, a joyful percussive feast, the album moves on a more melodic path with flutes and this irresistible South-American perfume, sustained by a soft singing and lovely Moog lines peaking up here and there, strongly reminding of early Return to Forever. And so you'll keep travelling through the entire album, from cool to wild, from guitar to sax solo, from melodic riffs to pushing rhythms, everything played with competence and great control. Two bonus tracks are added, the last one being maybe the most ethnic piece of the album. It seems there exists at least two CD releases, both with the same content (also the bonus tracks); one has the reference LM 605457 9122 2 9, coming from Leader Music, a Chilean distribution company. This release is a digipack and includes in the booklet an interview (in Spanish) of Ara Tokatlian as well as the reproduction of the cover of the single made in 76, which is the basis of the two bonus tracks. The other one, referenced SC 9013 and coming from a label (?) called Derie Collector (no infos available on the net), has instead a booklet with a colour photo of two of the musicians and a short bio in Spanish and English. Both booklets include the same layout and content as regards the description of the tracks (text written in a circle probably supposed to figure the Earth, assorted with B&W drawings of the four elements).

This album has been one of my biggest surprises while searching for new music here on Progarchives. Arco Iris is an argentinian band who displays a good mixture of jazz, psychedelic and symphonic rock with andean influences. On their first two abums you can hear a simpler, less sophisticated music but with growing traces of briliance. It is with their third and sixth albums, 'Sudamerica' and 'Agitor Lucens V' where these guys finally reach the level of the best progressive music, showing this impresive amalgam of styles in full form.

And then is this album. A fusion beast that needs to be pùt among the best albums of history. The musicianship is impressive, original, catchy and eclectic. Imagine the pastoral passages of Premiata Forneria Marconi, and the Canterbury fusion of Bill Bruford, add some Pink Floyd emotional guitar work and sound experimentation and you will have Arco Iris.

Extremely recomended.

The seventh studio album released by this amazing band of virtuosic musicians from Buenos Aires.

- "Elemental De Tierra" : 1. "Gob (Maestro-Mago De Los Gnomos)" (5:58) awesome opeing with some very impressive drums-and-percussion interplay with distant saxophone and Fender Rhodes adding accents in the backgrround. At the very end of the first minute the band shifts into a punctuated Mahavishnu/RTF-like performance of electronic instruments. Man! This drummer is so good! (And his drums are recorded so perfectly for this kind of dynamic power Jazz-Rock Fusion!) Surprisingly, Ara Tokatllian's tenor saxophone takes the first significant solo--really flying off into near-Coltrane free jazz realms with his reckless abandon! But the support crew keeps me well engaged--and makes Ara's craziness quite tolerable. Bass player Guillermo Bordarampé is also quite impressive, but the work of percussionist Jose Luis Perez may rival that of both Ara's sax and his own drumming! It's really hard to imagine Third Wave Power Jazz-Rock Fusion being any better than this! (10/10) 2. "Destilando El Perfume De Los Minerale"s (4:58) with the gentle piano and flute opening to this it's hard to fathom its supposed-connection to the previous song (within the umbrella of the "Elemental de tierra" suite title). Vocals and soaring saw-synth enter with Guillermo's melodic bass as Ara's piano and synths expand their involvement beneath the singing. There is some feeling of RPI bands like PFM and Maxophone as well as Chick Corea in this as well as some KHAN! Pretty but nothing as Earth-shattering as the opener. (8.875/10)

- "Elemental Del Fuego" : 3. "Cristalizando Los Rayos Del Sol" (4:26) the heavier side of Jazz-Rock Fusion, bordering on Jazz-Rock or straight-up Prog. Complex with plenty of magical individual performances from all of the musicians (though the drums are a little poor in their volume levels), the multi-voice vocal enters around the two minute mark, delivering a round of lyrics before giving way to folk flute and then a powerful section with some great chord progessions supporting both electric guitar and synth solos. Then we're back to the group lyrics for another round of the same, this time with synth, sax, organ and then guitar offering the harmonized "solos" till the end. (9.5/10)

4. "Djin (Maestro-Mago De Los Salamandras)" (3:52) metronomic piano chords support a rather bombastic intro with drums, bass, and multiple searing guitars exposing the power this band is capable of. But, this only lasts about 50 seconds before the storm passes and we're left with piano and soprano sax (and, soon, flute) to deliver some gentle pastoral beauty for about a minute before the drums-and-duo-guitars explode onto the scene again. This cycle continues until the pastoral and main theme combine to softly take us out. (9.25/10)

- "Elemental De Agua" : 5. "Despertar De Los Hijos De La Mañana" (3:45) electric piano playing two chords opens this before the rest of the band crashes the party with some quite bombastic play: everybody but the bass (and piano) seeming to scurry off into their own soloing. By the arrival of the second minute things are calming down, eventually leaving just the piano and flute to play for us, but then--just as with the previous song--the cycle of pastoral beauty being broken by 20-to-30- second bursts of bombast continue--until a bass and cymbal crash at 3:26 signals the intro to the next song of the suite. Wonderful stuff! (9.25/10)

6. "Necksa (Maestro-Mago De Las Ondinas)" (8:07) opens to quickly establish a cool Jazz-Rock Fusion bass and drum groove, funky yet well-steeped in rock, before tenor saxophone presents the main melody. The bass player's style sounds like Stanley Clarke with the thick bass lines mixed with heavy bass chords. So cool! An extended "pause" or "repeat" in which no real soloing is going on is then followed by another explosion of sax melody-making before the music shifts into a different motif--one that seems to combine a 1960s spy-theme with the big RTF sound palette. At 5:45 things thin out, making way for the arrival of vocals: first all female choir, then male. By 6:30 the music turns back to all-instrumental with a more Latin rock sound and feel while a spacey synth and flute fly above the rhythm guitar and heavy bass work. Excellent! (14/15) - "Elemental De Aire" : 7. "Los Nacidos Del Viento" (3:57) a gentler, more spacious soundscape is created over which breathy, gentle male vocalist (doubled up?) joins in sounding like a cross between something between classic NEKTAR, CAMEL, CELESTE, PFM, and modern DEVIN TOWNSEND. Sax and odd synth sounds take the lead in the fourth minute before volume- pedal-controlled electric guitar notes and flute provide bird-like sounds to take us out--while the gently-arpeggiated electric guitar chords that started it all continue throughout and right to the end. Very pretty. Almost more prog folky than JRFuse. (9.125/10)

8. "Paralda (Maestro-Mago De Los Silfos)" (8:09) a rock-heavy Jazz-Rock Fusion song built around a variation of Henry Mancini's "Peter Gunn" while deploying a heaviness that well-emulates the peak music of VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR: this is truly remarkable! At 4:45 the band takes a detour down a JAN HAMMER-like road so that Ara Tokatlian can show off his synth prowess--in two channels--in opposition to his guitarist, Ignacio Elisavetsky. An extraordinary duel (triel?)--one that is right up there with anything Mahavishnu or RTF or their numerous offshoots and imitators ever did. (14.25/15)

Total time 39:20

After starting with the band's early releases, and now skipping ahead to this full-fledged Jazz-Rock Fusion-bordering- on-Proggy album, I have to admit my astonishment at the growth and progress the band has achieved. They were always good--with great musicianship top to bottom--but to so wonderfully blended the sounds and styles of such high in such an impressive way is beyond all expectations.

A/five stars; a full-blown masterpiece of proggy Jazz-Rock Fusion: on the same level as the best from Fermáta, SBB, Jan Hammer, or any of the early RPI classics! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED--especially if you profess yourself a prog lover!