ALTAIR

The debut album from this Spanish band.

The music is instrumental. The instruments are drums, keyboards and synth-bass. And that alone really says a lot about this album. But if in any doubts; the music is somewhere between new age muzak/elevator music, classical music and symphonic prog. This is in Keith Emerson & ELP territory and this is by no means the most exciting or interesting music I have heard this year. It is leaning towards the other side of the spectrum, in fact.

The quality of the music is pretty good and it is obvious that Alfredo G. Arcusa & Isabel Muniente knows their stuff. And melodies like Estrella en el camino is great too. But there are some other melodies which does not really interest me too.

Overall, this is a rather weak triple stars album, Estrella en el camino and the many ELP references being the saving grace here. Those of you not in awe of ELP can safely bypass this album and spend the money on some fudge donuts instead.

3 stars

Altair was a project of Catalan drummer Alfredo Arcusa, found in 1986, after he met female pianist/keyboardist Isabel Muniente at the music school were he was teaching.The duo recorded the self-titled debut in Barcelona during June 1989 and it was eventually released the next year on the tiny Spanish label Sirius Records.

As written in the liner notes of the booklet the album is dedicated to KEITH EMERSON, thus indicating some of the music's orientation.Arcusa handles the drums with Muniente being responsible for the piano, keyboards and bass synthesizers.The (all instrumental) music has mostly a certain Fusion edge with complex breaks and is filled with the complicated drumming of Arcusa along with Muniente's keyboard pyrotechnics with virtuosic solos among others.So the comparison with E.L.P. is reasonable and other bands coming to mind are TIEMKO, SOMBRE REPTILE, MONGOL or WAPPA GAPPA, however it is quite unique to think that these sounds come off by only two musicians.Among these technical performances there are some softer parts with smooth piano lines and organ passages, sometimes with a hidden Classical charm.Despite being quite virtuosic, all tracks seem to have a tight structure and connected themes, so ''Altair'' sounds far from anything improvisational.

This album deserves some reward.Of course it is not along the lines of Progressive Rock's diversity, as a keyboard/drum duo has certain abilities, but is a very rich-sounding, well-executed and performed and will appeal to all fans of Fusion-esque keyboard-driven adventures.Recommended.