FUSIOON

"Farsa Del Buen Viver" brings that GG vibe to the fore right away. You'd think they were covering one of their songs, but they aren't. Even the vocal style is similar. Catchy stuff though. "Contraste" opens with percussion, piano and vocal melodies as the synths join in. It settles before 2 1/2 minutes then picks back up. A calm 4 minutes in and even here GENTLE GIANT comes to mind. It picks up again. "Tritons" opens with some nice drum work as GG comes to mind again. Impressive keyboards follow. A calm 3 minutes in then the organ comes in as it builds. Vocal melodies 8 minutes in to end it.

"Dialogos" has these intricate sounds with no melody really but that changes when it picks up and the vocals arrive. This is catchy with a GG flavour. "Concerto Grosso" is the almost 10 minute closing track. More GG styled music and the vocals come in after 3 1/2 minutes. A calm follows with fragile vocals. The piano replaces the vocals before 6 minutes but the vocals are back quickly then it picks up. This sounds better 8 minutes in.

Like the debut this is a good album but i'd go for their third record if I were you.

Don't get fooled by the band's name, ironically when the vast majority of 70's catalan prog was jazz-rock/fusion, Fusioon was one of the bands with lesser of it. Well more precisely both their eponymous debut and their last album Minorisa do have some fusion, but this one Fusioon 2 (nicknamed "Crocodile" to differentiate it from the debut) has little if any, instead being a delightful combination of Eclectic, Symphonic and Canterbury.

We can find two main broad styles, the tracks with vocals (sung in spanish) Farsa Del Buen Vivir and Dialogos sound very Gentle Giant, with intriguing harmonies that achieve that delicate balance between orthodox melody-harmony and dissonance. On the other hand the instrumental tracks Contraste and Tritons retain some GG flavour but can also remind of Egg, The Nice or Soft Machine, even King Crimson sometimes.

The 10 min last track Concerto Grosso has a few vocals but is mostly instrumental and combines both broad styles, fusing all the aforementioned influences over a more symphonic, nearly classical song structure as the title suggests.

Instrumentally the focus is on the fantastic keyboards work by Manel Camp, combining classical influences with aggressive soloing, and the drumming of Santi Arisa being also very good, these guys were among the finest musicians of the catalan scene in the 70's. But what I really love is the compositions, they are musically challenging and competent and perfectly reflect that kind of genuine, unadulterated prog inspiration which flourished in the first half of the 70's.

Many consider their third and last album Minorisa their best but although that one is also excellent and probably more technically elaborated, personally I prefer "Crocodile", it is more eclectic and does not have excessively experimental sections as Minorisa does. The best album by one of the best spanish prog bands of the 70's, so you can be sure it's damn good. 4.5 stars but it falls a bit short of the best ever masterpieces so round down to 4.

This 1972 debut consists only of adaptations to jazz-rock-fusion of traditional spanish popular songs (a couple of them actually adaptations from late 19th / early 20th century spanish classical composers, La Danza Del Molinero by Manuel De Falla and Negra Sombra by Xoan Montes). Being catalan I recognize most of the tunes, but the adaptations are so free that they hardly bear any resemblance to the originals except for some phrases here and there bringing up the original melodies and some of the original backing chord progressions transposed onto jazzy rythms on which they play their solos and improvisations.

The album is totally instrumental, very good fusion with classical flavour, with quite a lot of piano (organ, synths and mellotron not lacking either) and great musicianship all around. The songs are all short between 3 and 5 minutes which makes the album flow swiftly. There are saxes and flute too making the music more diverse.

But in this debut they do not use their musicianship for showing off and they are not too adventurous, no pyrotechnics, no agressive nor stunning music. As good as it is, it feels a bit like just "innocent jazz-rock", the songs feel rather simple and it's in the details where you realise their quality.

In their next two albums Fusioon would truly unleash their talent and challenging spirit and venture into top-level eclectic-symphonic-fusion prog (in Fusioon II) and back to fusion- symphonic-experimental but at a vastly more sofisticated level (in their last album Minorisa).

A certainly interesting and nice-to-have album, but only after you have discovered their next two masterpieces.

"Ebusus" is led by keyboards and drums early followed by bass and mellotron after a minute. Amazing stuff ! Mono-toned vocals 2 1/2 minutes in as the wind blows. It's heavier and darker before 4 minutes.This is so good. Prominant drumming after 5 minutes then some brief fast paced vocals. It's catchy with piano before 7 minutes with chunky bass as drums continue. Fast paced vocals are back before 8 1/2 minutes then a change before 9 minutes as it calms right down with mellotron. I'm reminded of AREA 10 minutes in then we get another calm before 12 1/2 minutes with mellotron. It kicks back in before 15 minutes and vocals follow. Mellotron 18 minutes in. Great song !

"Minorisa" opens with spacey synths and atmosphere. Mellotron joins in. Drums and piano take over before a minute then the synths return.The tempo changes often on this one. Church bells after 5 minutes then some heaviness with mellotron takes over. Synths and drums lead late. "Llaves Del Subconsciente" opens with mellotron then these strange and experimental sounds follow. Part II of this tune is very much an electronic soundscape that Klause Schulze would be proud of i'm sure.

No doubt a classic from Spain that the adventerous listener will eat up.

"Danza Del Molinero" is piano, drums and bass led then it picks up quickly, but then again the tempo and sound changes often on this one. Organ before 3 1/2 minutes then it calms right down again. "Ya Se Van Los Pastores" sounds good when it settles in before a minute.The bass stands out but then again like the first track the tempo and mood changes way too often for my tastes. Flute leads after 2 minutes then guitar and organ take over a minute later. Nice. "Ses Porqueres" builds until the guitar and drums start to lead. Piano joins in then flute.This is all over the place though. "Pavana Espanola" is led by bass, piano, guitar and drums after a minute and the tempo continues to shift.

"Negra Sombra" turns pastoral before 2 minutes with what sounds like strings. Not a fan of this.Vocal melodies a minute later. "En El Puerto De Pajares" has some excellent drumming but it's too lightweight of a tune overall. "Rima Infantil" is led by piano and drums early. I like the guitar before 2 minutes. A calm follows then it picks back up with piano, drums and bass. "El Cant Del Ocells" is my favourite track of the lot, I guess they saved the best for last. It opens with sounds that come and go. Flute leads 1 1/2 minutes in.The tempo picks up with organ leading the way 2 minutes in.This is good. The guitar then comes in. Nice.

Barely 3 stars.

Sentimental aspects aside, this is one of those lovely examples of genuine experimental jazz-rock-based prog which one thinks could only happen in the early '70s. Fusioon was influenced by bands like Egg, The Nice and King Crimson and featured some of the most highly regarded musicians of the '70s spanish jazz-rock-prog scene, most notably drummer Santi Arisa and keyboardist Manel Camp. The music is basically instrumental regardless of a few weird vocal fragments in the first track.

The first 2 tracks, accounting for nearly 80% of the album, are really outstanding. The opener Ebusus (the roman name for the island of Ibiza) is a delightful display of originality, mostly jazz-rock based prog featuring some catalan folklore traditional melodies, basically instrumental except for 2 sections, the first one repeating a sentence in catalan which translates as "from the year 1930 we will keep a good memory, let's hope that for many years we can happily recall it" (I'm not sure what does the sentence refer to but it's likely to be the end of the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera which would eventually lead to the autonomous government of Catalunya in 1931). Later on they recite all the different names that the island has had during history. Great stuff with special mention to the outstanding drumming and keys.

The 2nd track Minorisa Suite (Minorisa was the roman name of their hometown Manresa) is also amazing, built up from 3 traditional catalan folklore melodies, arranged in jazz-rock- prog fashion, and although I'm not very fond of folklorical music the result in this case is great, lovely stuff.

The low of the album comes with the last track which is excessively experimental, especially the 2nd movement, it's just the guys playing with their synthesizers oscillators, may have been fun listening to it completely stoned in its day, but not my piece of cake right now, similar as to what happens with Egg's album The Polite Force. Fortunately it's only 8 minutes out of the total 38 so I won't drop the total rating too much because of it.

A lovely album, highly recommended to those who want to dig deeper in the origins of genuine, unadulterated, original, creative, I would even say "innocent", early 70's jazz-rock- based prog.