INTENCION / REVIURE « REVIVIR »

This release brings together onto one disc Atila's brace of highly regarded albums from the years 1976-77. Since you get 'Intención' and 'Reviure' for the price of one normal CD there's hopefully no need to raid the biscuit tin. Several of our prominent reviewers have already posted their thoughts on the individual albums and readers would do well to check those reviews if they're looking for a detailed commentary on Atila's music. And YouTube is your friend. What I will say is that this is symphonic prog at its best and among the most significant to come out of Spain, although from looking at Atila's history I think there's one issue that needs some clarification.

The sleeve notes in this digipack edition are more or less identical to the band's bio here on PA, and those sleeve notes give the impression that the tracks from 'Reviure' on this release were taken from a live 1999 recording. These two albums have been paired previously so perhaps that's the release the notes refer to. It's all a bit confusing but the version here is for sure the studio version from 1977. Just to complicate matters further, the MP3 stream of 'Al Mati' on PA is ostensibly the 1977 recording but it's clearly a live cut with applause at the end. It's actually superior to the studio version, which means I'm now trying to track down that elusive live recording from 1999.

Anyway, that's more than enough about my lame sleuthing procedures. Returning to the fundamental issue of the review and there really is some fantastic music here, particularly on the 'Reviure' half of the album. Definitely one for the list.