ALHAMBRA

I couldn't find much written history on this unusual "collective," as we describe them in our bio, but they hail from Bologna. Members of Alhambra have connections to other PA-listed bands such as Amanita, Arjuna, La Maschera di Cera, and Stereokimono.

When I first heard this album, I had a sudden desire to build a campfire, get everyone baked, and start passing out the instruments. While we used to jam to other people's stuff--Bird Song comes to mind--this is so much more impressive and creative. My first reaction brought to mind was the Haight scene, acid-folk, and occasionally even raga. But there are also jazzy elements to these jams and even some classical references in some guitar parts. So much is happening, but unlike overly cerebral fusion or overly frantic heavy-prog, Alhambra always has an earthy vibe that keeps things grounded. While you could definitely point out psych-folkie scenes or different "ethnic music" from all over the world, my most familiar frame of reference as I mentioned is the old San Francisco scene, when people would trip and break out the acoustic instruments. When the electric guitars come to the fore and things get more rockin', I start to think about some of the late '60s Bay Area bands like the Airplane and Dead and others who would create a very vibrant communal scene with festive jams and dancing. And yet, the Italian vocals here certainly remind us of the RPI movement as well.

While I believe this is a studio recording, Alhambra does a great job here of capturing essentially a "live" sound, the sound of jamming "of the spirit." You will hear tons of lovely flute from Andrea Monetti. All of the musicians dig deep and are just continuously exploratory. This is an album that needs to be heard a few times, and it might take some time to digest properly. Marina Girardi sings with great expression and a sense of connected consciousness. That's what I love about this whole band, actually, is that the experience is communal and feels consciousness-raising, trancelike, spirit-sharing. It feels like more than just musical connection. It feels like camaraderie. While all three albums are good, I think each progressed to be a little better than the previous. This one is easily my favorite of the three because of the live feeling and the vibe. My thoughts are so scattershot; it's frustrating to feel incapable of really articulating an album, of capturing how special it is. But I love an album that can make an old guy feel young again, and this is one of those albums. If you love Italian prog that is trippy and all over the place in a good way, do give it a shot. Some may find it challenging or downright difficult, but I just loved it.

It is hard to find anything more spaced out than Italian politics post 1945, but this band feels they are not enough spaced out. Or do they just reflect the politics with this band and album ? Actually, that is a viewpoint I would subscribe to........

Alhambra's music is spacy and airy in the vein of the San Fransisco/West Coast wave of hippie space rock. Bands like Jefferson Airplane and Canned Heat springs to mind. But Alhambra has taken space rock some planets further out into space.

The female vocals, aided by occasional male vocals, is very fitting for this music. It is also sung in Italian and that language fits this music like a hand in a glove. Try this music in English and the fluency will disappear. So please, don't make an English version of any of the songs on this album.

The songs here is flowing into each other and the music is performed with plenty of vocals, flutes, acoustic and electric guitars, some tangents and the usual bass and drums. The use of the Australian aboriginal instrument didjeridoo also gives this album a spaced out weird feeling.

The overall quality is not that good and the final ten minutes of this album is a waste of time type of improvisations. But this album still has a lot of things going for it. Marina Girardi's vocals is superb and should give her a lot of work as a guest vocalist on other works. She is the star of the band. But there is also a lot of other good melody lines and the album is pretty much addictive. Most of it, that is. This album has grown on me and I really like it. So good three stars, it is then.

3 stars

I do not know much about this band. On this album, they does a very jazzy, Canterbury scene like form of prog folk based space rock. Their guitar work can be compared to Django Reinhardt with it's driving, gentle picking. The flutes is very haunting jazzy and does a lot of the solos too. The female vocals very distinctive jazz based. There is also a lot of folk music in this music too. But mostly jazz and space rock. The sound is a bit muddy though and it seems not many resources has been put into getting the sound right. This album is a free download and their music is perhaps meant to be a bit muddy, but most free downloads has far better sound than this album. The quality of the songs are not that great either. The opening song Canto di sabbia, which is a nice mix of folk and jazz, made me believe this was going to be a good album. But the quality drops off after this. But there are some very good jazz stuff on this album which makes this a very decent album. But my main problem is the sound. But if folky spaced out jazz with female vocals is your thing, this is an album down your street.

2.5 stars