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Kant Freud Kafka - No Tengas Miedo CD (album) cover

NO TENGAS MIEDO

Kant Freud Kafka

Crossover Prog


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Evolver
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Crossover & JR/F/Canterbury Teams
4 stars This, the debut album by drummer/composer Javi Herrera and raft of talented side musicians has become one of my favorites of the year very quickly.

Herrera's music is lushly orchestrated symphonic rock, that easily migrates from classic sounds of seventies symph prog, to tight jazz fusion, with even heavy Pink Floyd like space rock, and even funk.

Herrera's notes say that the album is a story of light and darkness, fear and anger, expressed through music. That may be so. All I know is that I've become obsessed with it, an album that excels in composition and performance from start to finish.

I know that these are very few words for such a fine album, but I just find it deliciously indescribable.

4.5 stars, that I'll round down, in case they get even better.

Report this review (#1234775)
Posted Monday, August 4, 2014 | Review Permalink
BrufordFreak
COLLABORATOR
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars No tengas miedo is a conceptual "symphony" which comes as the result of the inspiration and coordination of one man, one mind, Barcelonan Javier Herrera. On this album Javi is principally the drummer, keyboard player, as well as composer and technical wizard. The music is inspired by a "Light out of Darkness" myth--a variation on the Demeter-Persephone mother-daughter dynamic--the story of which is printed within the album's liner notes. In it, Adah and her mother, Dama, inhabit of a world of darkness. this is, in fact, the only world either have ever known. Yet Adah, emerging adolescent that she is, is unsatisfied; she is curious to see what other 'options' are 'out there.' Ultimately, Adah's defiance of her mother's rules, expectations and commands result in the irreparable destruction of their once-loving relationship--as well as in unstable psychology within both women. A powerful, if tragic, story set to powerful music.

1. "Principio" (7:44) begins quite dramatically, quite cinematically, building and mounting tension for the first two minutes before giving way to a solo piano exposing a arpeggiated theme to be repeated throughout the rest of the "symphony." At 2:45 a full scale prog electric ensemble and theme bursts forth, with the introduction of a nice melodic theme from Moog and later electric guitar. Then at the 4:30 mark the whole mood and sound shifts toward that of a kind of cinematic jazz with a rock fusion ensemble performing within the horns and orchestrals of what sounds like a full orchestra (but I think is a synthesizer)--which reaches full crescendo before collapsing for the final 15 seconds into a kind of piano-jazz dénouement recapitulating its theme from the song's third minute. Cool song. (9/10)

2. "Dama" (12:34) opens with a solo piano establishing itself with a ballet-like arpeggiated play before settling into some chord play which establishes a melodic theme to be heard throughout the remainder of the symphony. The themes and moods here are presented slowly, gently, sweetly woven together--I think, to connote the beautiful of the mother-daughter relationship that has transpired up to this point. Some of the ANT PHILLIPS 12-string guitar arpeggios in the song's eighth minute, and, a soon, the discordant electric guitar solo and decaying drum and synth play, hint at the discord and wildness welling up from within the "insatiably curious" pubescent daughter. Mother (flute) tries her best to comfort her daughter with words in the order of "the way things have always been." Which work for a little bit. The classical guitar and oboe play of the final 75 seconds indicate that a peaceful harmony has been restored. Beautiful mostly bucolic song. (9/10)

3. "Viajes" (7:52) opens with minor-keyed cello and horns and before falling into a kind of jazzy-classical, relaxing, if slightly unsettling, piano and synth theme. This reminds me of the kind of piano theme music popularized in the 1970s by many artists--performing both original works and covers of well-known pop tunes of the day. Think Claude Bolling or Michel Legrand with a little Jean-Pierre Rampal. Flute, and later, "orchestra" are added in the third minute. At 2:30 flute and mellotron give way to thumping bass, floating ARP synth, funky rhythm guitar, and solid supporting jazz rock drums. Awesome section! Great CHICK COREA-like jazz piano work. Reminds me of KOTEBEL. Some very nice Hammond organ play ensues at the 4:15 mark before some rather insistent electric guitar chord repeats itself to interrupt the flow and restore the opening pastoral theme among flute and clarinet. In the seventh minute a sequence of rather heavy guitar chords reasserts its influence, setting loose some awesome synth and organ dueling over heavy jazz rock rhythm play. Nice song with some great prog power to it. (9/10)

4. "Antítesis" (16:02) opens with odd 'horn-gong,' 'Hammond-scrape' and mellotron before piano and flute restore their now-familiar theme from the two previous songs--woven a little more intricately, thanks to "harp," strings, and mellotron. Excellent and gorgeous section! At 2:28 a very-KOTEBEL-like theme and sound ensemble establish an awesome melodic theme over a catchy odd-tempo rhythm. Ear-catching bass play throughout this section. Gorgeous jazz guitar solo in the fifth minute. Then all things quite down for a chaotic bit of cymbal and electric piano interplay before a string quartet section restores harmony and beauty, if in a sad minor key, for a little while. Piano, electric piano, and woodwinds play with the tension in quite the ANTHONY PHILLIPS way. Beautiful work--then transitioning into and combining classical, to jazz-rock is extraordinary--breathtakingly beautiful--giving one hope for a positive resolution to the story's conflict. At 10:30, a kind of Eastern Peter Gabriel Passion-like 'animal horn' signals a shift of the struggle into an ensuing overdrive. Many of the album's themes are here pitted against and woven within one another using a vast array of acoustic and electric instruments. At 13:30, everything shifts into a fast-paced rhythm as solo synth and electric guitar take turns exerting their powerful voices--mother and daughter. But listen to that bas and drum play beneath it all! Awesome! Then everything stops (is the feud over?) for the final 30 seconds as classical guitar, flute, and then piano repeat their beautiful themes of peace and harmony. But what an awesome ride! My favorite section of the "symphony." (10/10)

5. "Hombre" (10:56) opens with sea waves over which the piano chord theme from before the SATIE-like variation of the solo arpeggiated piano theme return. Acoustic guitar and mellotron orchestra join in before the electric bass and drums complete the ensemble in a laid back song of healing and rejoicing. Oboe and then, at the 3:20 mark, that insistently repetitive electric guitar chord, disrupt the mood of harmony and beauty with a dose of the reality of the tense situation as the daughter reconfirms her independence with her act of defiance. Various and familiar themes ensue and continue to "battle it out" in true TONY BANKS/GENESIS form (including some truly remarkable PHIL COLLINS-like drumming beneath an awesome jazz/ERIC GALE-like guitar solo) until the final mellotron orchestral minor chords finally fade out in their unresolved, tension-laden forms. The way the three-minute ending ploddingly winds down is not my favorite part of the "symphony," but it's still good--and does make sense to me: it is consistent with the story content. I guess I just want a slightly different story ending--like one in which the mother can accept and detach from trying to control her daughter. Or one in which the daughter can prove her "adult" independence without her mother showing such signs of ego-driven immaturity, with instead, praise and adulation. (8/10)

How anyone could not see the symphonic structure of this song to me indicates that those persons had not given their true attention to the entirety of this beautiful and powerful piece of musical theater. When coupled with a familiarity with the accompanying story, it is clear to me that this album of music is a masterful musical expression of one artist's literary inspiration. Though it may truly be a 4.5 star album, I am elevating this one into my pantheon of prog "masterpieces" due to its exceptionally well done realization of literature as music.

Report this review (#1236711)
Posted Wednesday, August 6, 2014 | Review Permalink
Gerinski
PROG REVIEWER
5 stars This must be one of the best efforts I have heard at merging classical music composition style (or perhaps one might say, movie soundtrack composition style) and Prog-Rock.

KFK is the project of Spanish composer and drummer Javi Herrera and its inception dates back to 25 years ago when a lady friend told him of her fear of darkness and her overcoming it, and it turned into a story about a mythological opaque world inhabited by two ladies, Dama and her daughter Adah, where Adah's curiosity and intransigence leads to the revealing of light and colour. Javi has been busy 25 years composing the music and the last 7 recording it, so it's anything but a hurried work.

I often get disappointed with modern one-man efforts but this is completely different. Javi has recruited a vast number of guest musicians, many of them playing orchestral instruments with plenty of violin, viola, cello, flute, oboe, English horn, clarinet and Spanish guitar, and he himself is an accomplished drummer and there is a lot of grand piano too, so we get a very warm and organic sound, nothing to do with those cold DAW-VST Instruments-made albums. He also understands how subtle tempo cadences are required to create emotion, and the album is full of them, we get nothing of the click-track-feel which permeates many modern Prog works (and often one-man albums in particular).

It's an instrumental album, and a sign of its value is that it's hard to name clear influences. Perhaps The Enid, After Crying and some Anthony Phillips come to mind because of the classical instrumentation, but the compositions are quite different.

It's all very cinematic, highly dynamic, visual and emotional, Javi has a great command of the different chord forms combinations and sounds to create atmospheres and moods, very much in movie soundtrack style but with the Prog-Rock ingredients thrown in the mix for our delight. The guest musicians provide some highly emotional passages, mostly the violins and flutes notwithstanding the others such as the oboe, the English horn, the viola or the Spanish guitar.

The 5 tracks are long (7m44 the shortest), and it's difficult to name highlights since all of it is so good. Most of the music is composed in classical music (or soundtrack) style, thinking not about typical progressions/melodies/verses/choruses/solos, but about an emotive interplay between the different orchestral instruments creating a dynamic story, but now and then the electric rock section comes in throwing a welcome dose of energy, often with jazzy colours and otherwise with more clear Prog-Rock leanings such as Camel and a few bits of harder rock.

I can only say that I'm very impressed by this excellent album, this is music in pure form. Just one warning, Prog-Metal / Tech-Extreme fans stay away from it unless you want to learn about something completely different.

Report this review (#1348630)
Posted Monday, January 19, 2015 | Review Permalink
Windhawk
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars Spanish project KANT FREUD KAFKA is the creative vehicle of composer and musician Javi Herrera, who operates out of Barcelona. " No Tengas Miedo" is the debut album by this venture, and was self released in 2014.

I understand that this project has been in the works for quite some time, and that the initial versions of the music on this album actually came to be some 30 odd years ago, and that the material have slowly developed over time into the album that saw it's release in 2014 with recordings done over an elongated period of time. Which probably explains why this album comes across as so well developed and coherent throughout: My impression is that this is the work of a critical creator that have steadily worked to improve all aspects of the material.

As for the music itself, it will by and large go down as a symphonic progressive rock production in my book. It's not a case of this being a typical venture of this kind however, but more a case of this being the genre description that is the most fitting for the end result here.

What we are dealing with here is an album that moves rather freely between multiple genres as a matter of fact, and where the compositions might as well have been written as classical music suites expanded to become progressive rock as they might be progressive rock excursions expanded into the realms of classical music.

Typically the compositions on this album will move freely between multiple styles with, say, an orchestral opening sporting acoustic and digitized instruments, smoothly seguing over to a more delicate passage that then expands into a more typical jazzrock oriented sound, which gradually opens and blooms into a more typical symphonic progressive rock creation, at times also venturing into more of a classic hard rock sound, and then gradually moves the other way again, concluding with a classical or orchestral feature of a comparable nature as the one that opened the composition.

Other varieties of developments are present here as well, but just about all of them covers the main bases outlined above. The classical sections may be a single piano, delicate chamber music material or more majestic classical symphonic music, the jazzrock sections tends to be smooth, elegant, and occasionally with a funky presence by way of the guitar. When venturing into symphonic progressive rock territories there is a slight tendency to stick to a sound and mood comparable with Camel, but occasionally these will also be rather more dramatic in scope and execution, with bands like Genesis and ELP also given planned or accidental nods along the way.

The end result is an album that should be a delightful experience for those who have a soft spot and strong affection for symphonic progressive rock. A certain taste for both jazzrock and classical music will be warranted, but most of all this is a production that should interest the progressive rock crowd, and arguably those who tend to appreciate bands similar to Camel most of all.

Report this review (#1533714)
Posted Sunday, February 28, 2016 | Review Permalink

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