ASCETA

ASCETA is an 8 piece ensemble out of Santiago, Chile led by Rodrigo Maccioni who composed the music and plays guitar, flute and synths on here. We get classically trained musicians playing this sophisticated brand of Chamber Rock including cello, violin, drums, bass and double bass, bass clarinet and clarinet, piano and electric piano and lastly the bad ass of the group the bassoon player. Interesting that Rodrigo's father is Italian because I thought of Italian bands like CALOMITO and STORMY SIX when I first played this. This is all instrumental and not far from the UNIVERS ZERO area code.

When I got this originally I was listening to a lot of Psychedelic music so when I spun this at that time man I was blown away at this structured music that is classical and avant and so well played. Udi Koomran mastered this in Israel which only adds to the value. Kind of cool that on my cd package there was this loose fitting cover over it of the original cover art, primitive like it was done by a pencil but so interesting comparing this to the final result plus on mine it has 23/100 so I'm also blessed to be one of the eventual 100 people who have this physical copy.

I'm thankful that this clocks in at around 44 minutes because this is a lot to take in. Often there is so much going on with the array of sounds but then we get the contrasts thankfully where the atmosphere is welcomed. A dark and mysterious vibe to this one which made me think of UNIVERS ZERO of course but this isn't like "Heresie" at all, it just has that mood at times. A song like "Ameba" brings some light to the table but that's not the only example and I really like how some of the tracks start with atmosphere and experimental bits before the song kicks into gear. Songs like "Fobia", "Gigante Microscopico" "Los De Afuera" and "Movimiento Estatico".

While Chamber Rock is down the list a ways as far as my favourite styles of music goes, I can't help but be so impressed with what Rodrigo and his band have come up with here. As beautiful as the city from which this band comes from.