INVOCACION A LOS PAJAROS

From the region of Salta hails this Argentinian band, beginning its activities in 2005 around guitarist/singer Ivan Luis, bassist/singer Sergio Caram, guitarist Pablo Moreno and keyboardist Adrian Moroni.They recorded a 10-min. EP the following year with drummer Adrian Chocobar, featuring also past members Facundo Salvatierra on keyboards, Nathaniel Fernandez on drums and Rupert Corimayo on guitar.Three years later Gardenia would add Guido Rojas in their line up, who played synthesizers and the bandoneon.As a sextet they recorded their first full-length album ''Invocacion a los pajaros'', released in 2009 as a free download.

Gardenia unleash their tendency towards creating short and very dense tunes with both lyrical and instrumental flexibility, mixing Latin-spiced soundscapes with atmospheric textures and powerful guitar riffs.Each track is vastly different from the previous or following one, making it a bit hard to fully focus in the listening.Thirteen tracks combine for a work around 35 minutes long, characterized by its furious rhythms, complex breaks and pronounced vocals and the music shifts constantly between bombastic, almost Prog Metal grooves and lighter passages with mellow psychedelic touches and strong Ethnic/Latin vibes through the clever use of bandoneon.The performances are quite tight with solid thematic changes, the question arises though from the combination of so many different influences in such a short album, which even features some discreet jazzy flavors in a few cuts.Let's get clear this band has tons of talent, the music is pretty great, complex and maybe each individual piece has its own decent value.The problem comes from the rather inconsistent result as a sum.However it is really hard to pass by these emphatic grandiose parts, the comfort the group changes the sceneries and the extremely high level of technique.

A free listening of this album will convince you of Gardenia's impressive skills.A more consistent songwriting would also lift this band to another level.For the moment, ''Invocacion a los pajaros'' is a warmly recommended for all fans of diverse, complicated and adventurous Progressive Rock.