TRYO

I won't deny that I was disappointed with this album but I have nobody to blame but myself. I like to do my homework before buying a cd, and I didn't know that this was an all acoustic record.

I really enjoyed their "Patrimonio" album, especially the heavy, electric passages. I wish they had done as they usually do, and that is mix the acoustic with the electric. I won't describe the music like I usually do because honestly it's pretty much acoustic guitar, cello, vibraphone and percussion throughout. And while these are fine songs that are quite enjoyable, it wears thin after a while for me. Just my taste in music I guess, because if it was all heavy bass, drums and guitar I would be happy. I really like the title track and "Nimios", while the final track is a nice change as it's the only song with actual vocals on it. So there you have it, beautiful acoustic music that really has nothing to do with Jazz like their earlier albums.

It seems to me like Tryo had more potential, but they haven't used it totally, or at least in this album (together with "Dos Mundos", that gives me a similar impression). They are good musicians and reaches great levels in the compositions, but only in certain moments. And songs like 'Vitral' and 'Nueva Época' definitely should last some more minutes.

The first set, live and "plugged", doesn't convince with the two opening tracks, but then, despite the mentioned issue, is a good moment of heavy prog, highlighting the wah solo on 'Nueva Época'

The second set, acoustic, again loose an opportunity of being something better, especially on 'Nocturno', too plane to catch me. 'Nguillatún' and 'Mantra' are pretty good songs, but not the best of the acoustic Tryo.

"Crudo" appears like a good album, a clear reference to what Tryo is, but, at the end of the day, remains a sense like something was missing.

TRYO are a power trio from Chile who blend Jazz, spacey soundscapes, and flat out heavy Rock music on this recording. There is so much variety on this album, and it did take some time for this to grow on me, but now I love this band. This is complex and enjoyable music that is pretty much all instrumental except for one track.

The album opens with a four part suite that is about the Port of Valparaiso. It starts off with "Valparaiso Psicodelico" as we hear different sounds from the sea and the city. 1 1/2 minutes in it we get some music as a spacey atmosphere arrives.The bass is prominant in this spacey tune as cello comes in late. "Juegos" opens with samples of children as strummed acoustic guitar and cello lead the way. "Puerto" is another acoustic song as cello, guitar and drums provide the music as the song opens with the sounds of ships and sea gulls. The final song of the suite is "Marina". It opens with the sounds of someone under water. This is another acoustic track. The acoustic guitar melodies are quite intricate and the cello helps fill out the sound. The song ends as it began.

"Camino" is a short spacey song,while "Contrastes" gives us some energy for the first time on this album. An uptempo song that reminds me of RUSH until it veers off to a jazzy direction. Some great guitar and bass follow. "Requadros" continues the jazzy music until we get a heavy passage 2 1/2 minutes in. Nice. "Estudio" is the first song where I hear KING CRIMSON-like sounds. This is one of my favourites on the album, but it's way too short. "Danza Del Furor" consists of cello, guitar and what sounds like xylophone. "Justicia" is my favourite song on this album. This is also the longest track. It has a nice, heavy and melodic soundscape that picks up speed 3 minutes in. What an amazing song ! "Grieta" is another inspiring song that just rocks ! This one has vocals on it with some ripping guitar melodies. "Epilogo" is a short heavy song.

As I said in the beginning this album has some good variety on it, and these guys can play with the best of them. 4 solid stars.

In "Crudo", their sophomore album, the Chilean ensemble Tryo made an explicit exhibition of their two musical facets, the electric one and the acoustic one, although not integrated yet, but each one filling a different half of the album. The first 6 tracks are played live on a stage of the city of Viña del Mar, with the band sticking to the power trio format. The remaining tracks are conceived in the vein of chamber music with an array of classica lguitar, cello and assorted percussions, featuring vibraphone. It is easy to notice that the band prefers to work on these two sides separately in order to help the mature before they get intertwined as they would be in their excellent two following efforts "Patrimonio" and "Dos Mundos". Mostly, the band uses its electric sources as a medium for extrovertive expressions, while the acoustic stuff is aimed at the creation of introspective ambiences. The opener 'Fuenteovejuna' is a shorter rendition of a track (one of the best) from their eponymous debut album, in this way settling a kind of emotional heat shared with the audience. 'Fuenteovejuna' is pure Tryo trademark: a mixture of Crimsonian prog, heavy rock and jazz-based textures. 'Viento de Otoño' sets an emphasis on the jazz factor: the subtle guiar chord progressions display an evocative nucleus akin to the title's message (translated: 'Autumn Breeze'). The guitar lead that appears somewhere in the middle is constrained enough not to break the track's overall spirit. 'Vitral' and 'Nueva Épca' are more explicitly muscular, with an added touch of sophistication that allows the band to flee the usual hard rock clichés: the use of complex rhythmic shifts and dense nuances is fluidly created by the threesome in constant inner dialogue. I personally regret that 'Vitral' doesn't last longer, since I feel that it's got enough hook to justify a further expansion. but that's how it is, and as it is it's OK. 'Fanfarria' is focused on the band's most explosive side in a display of rocking energy recycled through progressive ornaments. 'Homenaje' closes down the live portion with a powerful Zeppelin-esque array carefully laid over a jazz- rock skeleton: arguably, this track comprises the best performance by the rhythm section in the album. 'Transcurso', which is only a brief sequence of crickets and birds' sounds among dew drops in a forest, kicks off the album's second half. 'Nocturno' is a 3- section piece in which the classical guitar and the cello join forces in a delicate sonic marriage that protrays melancholy and mystery in a most refined way: the percussive input is eerie and subtle, yet quite relevant to fulfill the piece's whole mood. You can tell from this track alone that these guys really have come to master the art of saying much with soft acoustic music. 'Nguillatun' is even mre mysterious, even somber at places: the constraint acoustic guitar chords, the floating cello lines and the evocative solution provided by the hand drums, all together bring a pleasant landscape to the listener's mind. 'Mantra' brings back the melancholy of 'Nocturno' albeit with a slightly higher degree of intensity, a notion that is properly confirmed at the fourht minute, which is when an enthusiastic ethnic motif emerges, showing off tropical colors. 'Danza' occupies the album's last minute, with a nacoustic reprise of one motif from 'Fuenteovejuna'. All in all, "Crudo" is a faithful testimony of Tryo's maturity as an ensemble, and a clea ranticipation of more brilliant things to come. All those who are still in awe with the beauty of the band's 2005 effort "Viajes" will be able to undertand it better if they get acquainted with this album' second half.

Tryo is three-men-band from Valparaiso, Chile and "Viajes" (in English "Travels" - isn't it?) is their fifth album. Usually this band has been electric trio (el. guitar, el. bass/cello + drums) and therefore the music of them has been more usual (not bad) because of the soundspectrum. But this record "Viajes" is surely my personal favourite album released by Tryo - on this record they play mainly acoustic but very beautiful-sounding instruments, for example vibes, marimba, darbukka, also cello and acoustic guitar. The music is very gentle and full of loveliness with pleasant melodic lines - mostly instrumental, the last tune includes vocals in Spanish. My personal favourite "travels" are maybe "Viajes", "Nimios", "Ambientes" and "Exploraciones" I, II, III. Very beautiful listening!

would give it a 3.5 stars... tracks 1 to 6 are LIVE, the other half of the album is acoustic oriented (cello, guitar, marimba and percussions) but recorded on studio. king crimson influenced, 70's jazz fussion, 80's metal... but really the best part is the highly technical classical composition skills over acoustic parts. PATRIMONIO is far better.

This is the third album by the Chilean band Tryo, it's from 1999. The first track sounds tight and dynamic featuring a buzzing bass and phased guitar, good swinging and pleasant guitar-oriented rock. Then three tracks that have a warm, folky atmosphere: acoustic guitar, marimba, percussion and an often wailing cello. The second part of this CD concludes with music in the vein of King Crimson, both the dark and compelling "Red"- climates as the 'Nineties-era' featuring a propulsive and dynamic sound with Fripperian guitar work (some howling and biting soli), strong drum beats and powerful bass play. The interplay from the members is amazing but at some moments the compositions tend too sound a bit similar. Nonetheless, this is an interesting band with good musicians.

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This album is a very good piece of music but not progressive. The image that the music make is very beauty, a mix of sadness, or virtuosisim. The compositions haves this uncomprensible force, and the hability to move the soul (to say it in any way) this really is a travel (viaje) for the world, and the sounds in the time, this travel has images mades only of music, that don't need any word to expres the feelings. By other side, the change of a electric tryo for an acoustic tryo is exellent, and this band could demostrate that can be a good band with or without electric instruments. I must insist, that isn't progressive, but the quality of the compositions makes necesary to listen it, especially the homoniumus theme "viajes". And coud be interesting to listen anything diferent that sound like Valparaiso music (I said Bands of this city like "sala del espejo" or "planeta minimal")

In this album, Tryo continues with its merge of electric and acoustic sounds. There is the group of songs like "Latino" or "Dos Mundos", which shows the power and all the rock the band has. In this case, the line up is with Félix in drums, Francisco in bass, and Ismael in the electric guitar. On the other hand, we have the acoustic set, which is clearly different, as I have seen in live performance. Songs like "Crepúsculo" and "Travesía" unfold with Félix in percussion or xylophone, Francisco in cello, and Ismael in acoustic guitar. The album starts with 'Bloques', which, as an opening, it's a lie about the sound of TRYO. 'Ventana I' is one of the best songs of the album, but it's too short and ends when it's getting even better. Something similar happens in 'Latino'. 'Esperando' is another great moment, in a slow way (but not acoustic), and then 'Travesía' (acoustic) is simply excellent. The album ends with 'Vive', the only song with lyrics in the album, but it isn't a good song. It's just like a "Bonus Track" or a "Hidden Track".

These three guys from Chile are playing a fantastic, very original, versatile and energetic progressive rock influenced by many sources, King Crimson being only one of them. Here on their third release they managed to merge these multiple influences to their very own and refreshing style.

Like their previous works Patriomonio is an all instrumental album apart of one song and some very average mainly spoken vocals on a few tracks. The first four tracks are movements of the conceptual suite Valparaison Patrimonio about the port of Valparaiso, as a soundtrack for its presentation to the UNESCO to consider this city as an architectural patrimony of the humanity. First part starting with some street noise is a quite spacy piece reminding very much to Ozric Tentacles/Djam Karet in a more smooth way. On this album they're adding again a cello to their usual line-up of electric/ acoustic guitar, bass, and drums what they already experienced successfully on their previous album. The suite is dominated by this instrument throughout along with delicate arrangements and atmospheric pieces. Next track Camino serves as a transition to their usual energetic sound which is presented by the following two songs being again a bit Tentacles-reminiscent mixed with some complex fusion rock. After a short piece with Fripp-ish guitar play and an avantgardistic rendition of an excerpt from Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time their sound becomes somewhat harder for the last three tracks which are electric guitar-driven hard fusion rock numbers. This gradual shift towards harder stuff is actually quite enjoyable I have to say.

CONCLUSION

Musicianship on this very well produced album is top notch. Guitar and bass playing are at some points reminiscent of Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson showing at others the spirit of Tony Levin and Robert Fripp. Patrimonio is an absolute esssential album in any good progrock collection and should not be missed especially by all fans of Ozric Tentacles/Djam Karet. 4 very clear stars!