DREAMS

A talented guitarist from Maracay,Venezuela, Raimundo Rodulfo was born in 1970 and before becoming an adult he had already took lessons for violin, classical and electric guitar.After being part of several groups he focused on composing hiw own material.By the dawn of the new millenium Rodulfo manages to release his first ambitious and indepedently released album ''Dreams'', where he was joined by several session musicians on bass, drums, violin, keyboards and sax.

Containing six long instrumental tracks along with a 21-min. grand suite,the album kicks off with a pair of great compositions, based on the changing sections between delicate flutes, classical-influenced violin parts and Rodulfo's virtuosic guitar playing as well as careful interplays obviously in a classic Symphonic Rock style, not unlike mid-70's PREMIATA FORNERIA MARCONI.The PFM resemblance continues with the next ''New Horizons'', this time Rodulfo focuses on his elegant classical guitar and this is a Symphonic/Folk Rock piece with plenty of violins and flutes to be heard.''Brainstorm'' sees the album's hero exploring the Fusion territory with complex guitar playing along with dominant keyboards and violins and lots of complicated interplaying.Rodulfo returns on his Folk-influenced side with ''Hard Times'',an all acoustic track scanning Classical Music,Folk and Jazz in a decent mix with fine results.''Math & Arts'' is the jazzier composition in here,Rodulfo's guitar work reminds a bit of early SANTANA with some dissonant parts to be found,still he throws in some Classical-influenced breaks and melodies here and there.The ultra-long closing Symphonic Rock/Fusion suite ''Universal Codes'' holds all of this album's flaws and remarkable moments: Virtuosic electric guitar work, acoustic textures with echoes of mandolin added, a touch of Fusion towards the end, warm folkish flutes, even some nice spacey synthesizers at the opening part,but also a bit of stretched ideas to push the composition to overindulgence at some point.

Rodulfo's debut is a nice discovery for all fans of Progressive Rock in general, being influenced by Classical Music, Jazz-Fusion and Folk at almost equal doses and interpretating them into long symphonic orchestrations.Despite sounding a bit excessive at moments,his album comes as warmly recommend at the end.