RIO/AVANT-PROG

Asceta is an ensemble from Chile who would perfectly fit-in in that description. Formed in 2020, they have now released two studio albums where concepts such as avant-garde, chamber music, rock in oposition (RIO) lie, and though yeah, we could label their musical style, what they create is full of freedom.

For this second released entitled 'Erebus, la suite de las sombras', the 7-piece ensemble (and their two guest musicians) developed a 50-minute album where darkness reigns, where a somber and tense atmosphere leads the path to an spiritual realization. The album starts with 'Preludio' and yeah, I can tell they have been influenced by acts such as Art Zoyd or Univers Zero. The music sounds like a nightmare, however, there are moments of tranquility which, in fact, could be confusing, however this musical journey could be a simile to our own life journey.

'Pseudo-fonía del tormento' is an exquisite track where we can appreciate how good the ensemble understand each other, we can hear every of the instruments played in a great way, clean, pure and emotional. Violins, bassoon, cello, piano, drums and much more, all adding their grain of sound and also creating colorful moments, because though we can clearly listen to some obscure grey passages, there are several instants where their diversity of sounds provoke brighter atmospheres and color palettes.

'Concilio de brujas' is a beautiful and surprising track, because I thought it would be another passage where obsurity reigns, but no, here we perceive a shiny, cheerful meeting where calm takes over. Love the wonderful amalgam between strings and winds. But when the next track arrives, darkness and tension are implemented once again. This is an extraordinary epic track divided in two, first 'El hereje y el devoto' brings what RIO is about, music with no boundaries, with high quality and with a considerable amount of difficulty (both, to play and to dig). I love the music changes, so challenging, so full of quality and personality. There is a constant dialogue between the instruments, but I highlight the work of flute and clarinet creating the brighter side, while bassoon and cello defend the darker side. 'Profanos y arcanos' is quite interesting because it is a mixture of colors, nuances and emotions, we can create some images in our heads, I can picture a meeting of gods and ascetics, who are dialoguing in order to live in harmony. This is a great track.

'En lo alto y en el abismo' has a more vertiginous rhythm and sound, the faster the more tense, drums here are wonderful throughout the track, delicate but intense, fabulous. Of course that softer piano moment also caught my attention here, but later where the passages explode, it is exquisite to listen to the strings at unison developing the song's different episodes.

'Por sobre mi cadáver' is a great example of a proggy avant-garde track. I love its short and constant changes in tempo and mood, it can sound a bit chaotic, and maybe its intended, but what I love is their capacity of bringing brief moments of disguised tranquility and then embrace us with the chaos once again. The album finishes with 'La danza de los condenados' in which the rhythm in moments, represent a dance indeed, "dance of the damned", it could perfectly work for a silent film. So after the different passages of the album, where light and darkness where shared, the ascets have nothing left but accepting their fate, and live under Erebus' rules.

A great album from this Chilean ensemble. Applauses!

Blurred. Road, path and work. Enjoying the road. It can be difficult sometimes, but then revitalization and motivation can occur. Hard work and inspiration. Perseverance, courage and hard work, goal setting helps. The main thing is to see what you are doing it for.

Jungle Waltz. Beautiful, mysterious game and playfulness. It seems that tropical animals are walking and playing around. Mystery, tension take place at the end accompanying a final battle the main wild characters participate in.

The Hidden Man of the Heart. Virtue, hope, rise, the path to achieving the goal come up while listening to this composition.

Lavoro D'amore. Relationships can be difficult. If you want to build relationships you need to put a lot of effort. You have to try your best to go through quarrels, misunderstandings, anger, resentment. Then comes relief, revival, a new stage of the relationships.

Forbearing One Another in Love. Seems like this composition reflects the stages of relationships. Fleeting glances, sympathy. Love. Two clarified each other. It started out hard. Misunderstanding. They were spinning in the stream. Everything is great. Very beautiful, fairy tale. Storm, fake and condescend, work on relationships. Relief has come.

Recovery. Vanity and care are replaced by joy and enjoyment of life, improving the internal state and finding peace.

Ascension of hope. It embraces feelings of beauty, love, kindness, lightness, sublimity, flight, hope.

Passing winter. Light sadness, melancholy, fear and mystery change to hope and enlightenment, excitement, with a feeling of peace and awareness that everything is going as usual. Magical and bright feelings, beauty and sadness occur.

Ending. The road and the work, enjoying the result and the experience that was gained.

Mother of all rain. The peace and joy that we experience in good times, in sunny weather, the laconically and unexpectedly change to the charming and immersing. You feel the atmosphere of strength, struggle and work that we experience in difficult times or in rainy weather. You go through difficulties and move on.

Passing over. Boiling and seething change to the peace. Then it changes immediately to the mystery. You continue the path, with new experience.

Now, having not heard any of the band's other material I cannot say if this is similar to what they have been releasing recently or not, but I do know from reading other reviews that this is nothing like their early stuff. Seeing this was on Cuneiform I did expect something more overtly RIO, but this instrumental release has much more in common with classic Canterbury, although it also contains more melodic moments as well. The guests play an incredibly important part as they often take the lead, while the core quartet provide consistently high note density. It is the way they move between different styles which makes this such an interesting release as there are areas where if it was played in isolation then it would not be enjoyed at all, but it is the contrast between loungecore and dramatic inventive and complex prog which makes it all work together. There are only five tracks on here, but there is no lack of material to enjoy given that the opener is more than eighteen minutes in length.

Although this is highly melodic, I found it did take me three or four plays to really start to get inside it as although on the surface it does appear commercial for the most part, there is a lot going on and it certainly takes time to fully ingest. This is an album which will only be enjoyed by those who are prepared to give it the time it deserves as otherwise the masterclass in musicianship will just pass them by. If, like me, you have managed to avoid French TV for the past 40 years then this is certainly an interesting release to start with, but whether or not it is truly representative of where they have come from then that I cannot answer.

This record sinks its roots into their previous album Barbaro (Ma Non Troppo) and then takes off from there in a true progressive spirit.

Music is their usual mixture of chamber rock, avant rock, RIO and zehul, incorporating sharp, urgent guitars, ever present bass which are well supported by myriad of other instruments ranging from woodwinds, violins and acoustic piano etc. From the perspective of rhythm changes, the compositions are very well balanced. We are not hit with a relentless wall of sound; instead, bombastic elements are interrupted with softer sounds of woodwinds and quieter sections.

The musicianship is absolutely top-notch. Although the compositions are complex, everyone plays with accuracy and complete coherence. I especially like the Pierre Chevalier's acoustic piano. His touch on the keyboard reminds me of Glen Gould; such crystal clear, distinct notes from every single key. Incredible!

The two longest tracks in the album "This is Not the End, Parts 1 & 2" are where we notice the advancements in the composition technique they utilized to date. These two tracks use circular structure with instruments exchanging not only the melody lines but also interrupting each other with jagged uncomfortable bursts. To some, the music might seem repetitive, but this is because of the circular structure of the compositions; circularity and repetitiveness should never be confused. Philip Glass's symphonies are circular, not repetitive. This style of composition is expertly implemented by the group where tension, sustainment and release phases are perfectly positioned. Absolute delight!

The progressive element in their music become apparent when this album's compositions are compared to their first two albums which I also love ("Triskaïdékaphobie" and "Le poison qui rend fou"). In comparison this record has clearly laid out musical ideas that are implemented perfectly without the wandering melodies and rhythms as if one is lost in a city but enjoying the experience, which seems to be the case in the first two Present records.

I highly recommend this record.

A seven piece although they include Udi Koomran as the eighth member and for good reason. AHVAK did the same many years earlier and yes drummer Dave Kerman was on that record and on here of course. What a professional this guy is, blows me away. It's actually interesting all the musical connections on here with all of these guys playing together it seems at some point.

In fact ARANIS, 5UU'S and UNIVERS ZERO are well represented here. The chemistry is something. I don't remember ever having this feeling of standing in the middle of a band performing and getting dizzy from the counterpoint, the tempo changes and the interplay all done as one.

So of course Roger is on here playing keyboards and adding spoken words which are gruff and kind of creepy especially the laughing parts. I haven't mentioned Keith Macksoud on bass or Kurt Bude on sax, clarinet and bass clarinet, and finally Liesbeth Lambrecht on violin and she is from ARANIS. Songs are built on rhythm and repetition and are a combo of heavy rock and classical. Read that on the press release I think on the Wayside site.

The opener "Contre" at 8 minutes has some of those spoken words from Roger and laugher. The piano is stark and full of suspense from Chevalier and that will come and go. There is so much going on before that calm after 5 minutes. Kerman is impressive here and we will get hit hard again. "This Is Not The End Part 2" is over 12 minutes and features some killer violin and I love the bass clarinet. Some good contrasts on this one and man it gets almost stifling, suffocating with all that is going on when it gets intense.

The final track is "Part 1" of the title track and is a monster at 26 1/2 minutes. The atmosphere to start makes me nervous. And yes Roger does return speaking and laughing around 3 minutes in. The voice continues for a while the bass clarinet leads then some nasty outbursts before it get dense 9 minutes in, maybe crazy is a better word. Kerman is on fire but then just a quick a calm that lasts a while broken by the violin 12 minutes in. It starts to move after 16 1/2 minutes then a couple of minutes later the tempo speeds up. How long can they keep this up? Violin and drums are nuts late. What a composition!

A top three PRESENT album but I need to have a PRESENT marathon and come up with some kind of an order. They never disappoint. Without question a contender for album of the year for 2024. Beat this!

Not only do the band sound like they've not missed a beat - and in fact, they never did with many of the members having continued to work with each other in Free Salamander Exhibit, perhaps nodded to in the opening track here. Moreover, they began working on much of this material in 2010-2011 (and SQPR, a This Heat cover, hails from as far back as 2004) and have been gently working on it ever since, meaning this album has been brewed, distilled, and refined over the span of a decade. The end result might be the best expression they've ever offered of their creative vision, a keystone which ties their body of work together and which in retrospect it feels like their earlier albums were building towards all along. With many of the band members equally adept at rock and classical instruments, and Nils Frykdahl giving Mike Patton a run for his money in terms of vocal acrobatics, the Museum deploys its full bag of tricks here expertly, everything used purposefully and thoughtfully to best effect.

For a group which started out resembling an avant-prog take on Mr. Bungle, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum have only forged ahead into yet stanger territory; here they make Mr. Bungle's most alienating moments seem outright smooth and approachable by comparison, but never become dryly technical, maintaining an impressive command of atmosphere and emotion for the whole 66 minute running time.

Art and music, two crucial concepts in the life of ordinary people like us, but most important, to iconic people like John Zorn and Bill Laswell, two amazing, crazy and experimental artists who have been exploding their creativity for ages, mostly in the jazz, experimental and prog scene. This time, they decided to release an album in which they could pay hommage to three musicians who have passed away, but whose legacy has prevailed and will prevail for so many years: saxophonists Pharoah Sanders and Wayne Shorter, and percussionist Milford Graves.

Those musicians have left a strong legacy in the jazz scene (mainly), and this album entitled 'Memoria' gives us a clear message: they will forever live in our memory. Zorn and Laswell were lucky enough to collaborate with them, so in fact they were not only colleagues, but also friends, and I believe it is a precious detail this duo decided to release this album in a heartfelt way, knowing the late musicians recently left this planet (Graves 2021, Sanders 2022, Shorter 2023).

In this 3-song album we will find a quite interesting show where Zorn's saxophone and Laswell's bass do the talking. First they delight us with 'Pharoah Sanders', a 15-minute track where both musicians let us know why have they been working together for so many years: their connection is incredible. I love how they understand each other, how each of them produce a diversity of sounds, nuances, textures, how they embrace improvisation and produce countless feelings, because yeah, there is tranquility and peace, but there is also chaos and density, colorful atmospheres with spiritual and spacey touches. I love the bass sound at half the song, it creates dense but gentle atmospheres at the same time, it creates the background while sax produces charming sounds here and there.

'Milford Graves' starts in a chaotic way, Zorn's sax being played loud and endless, producing some tension while Laswell's bass cadency contrasts and later join the chaos. This is a quite interesting track because the two musicians create deep experimental atmospheres, adventurous sounds that both flow and collide, so it is a mixture of colours and emotions, and though there are moments one can feel a bit lost, one is in fact quite involved in that hypnotic chaos, it is great to realize about it, but the two musicians know very well how to produce those mesmerizing effects in the listener.

'Wayne Shorter' is the shortest (pun intended) haha of the album. A great track where we can appreciate once again their improvisaiional skills and the interplay and connection between both instruments and minds. Creativity with no boundaries is something we can relate with the five names here, because though Zorn and Laswell are the magicians, Shorter, Graves and Sanders are/were the inspiration.

A quite nice tribute, another Zorn release not to miss, however, I bet this might not be for everyone's likes, so my final rate will be three stars.

Enjoy it!

This is a collaboration with Australia's JG Thirwell a multi- instrumentalist and fan of Simon's music mentioning "Led Circus" and "Fat Again" he recounts "I admired the dark power in his work and it seemed adjacent to a lot of music that I love and inspires me- groups in the RIO and Zeuhl worlds such as MAGMA, UNIVERS ZERO and PRESENT, as well as 70's era KING CRIMSON and Bartok." This is a true partnership with each composing four tracks but they make it clear in the liner notes that each contributed a considerable amount of composed parts to each others work.

This is a trio and what a trio! Thirwell, Steensland and drummer Morgan Agren and then we get eleven guests adding flavours with wordless vocals, sax, violin, cello, oboe, bass clarinet, trombone and guitars. This is dense and dark without flaws. Each track is a journey itself into a new world that I find quite fascinating. The opener "Catholic Deceit", closer "Redbug" and also "Heresy Flank" are my top three and what an imposing trio of songs that is! Agren on drums is huge here but he does not dominate at all. Such a group effort with their egos put aside to create this almost perfect album when it comes to that dark and classically inspired music they created here. A top five for 2020 without question and I'm bumping this one up to 5 stars.

For those who don't know, Roz Vitalis is a great Russian project led by composer and keyboard player Iván Rozmainsky, who back in the early 00s worked as a one-man-band, however, with the years he has surrounded himself with great and talented musicians who have helped him to release a considerable amount of records, and to offer another great number of concerts.

Now in this 2024 Rozmainsky and co. have released a wonderful live album whose title is "Semi-acoustic at Kuryokhin Center", and when I listened to it for the first time I felt surprised it didn't include any song from their latest studio release, but then I realized this concert was recorded in february 2023, prior to that studio release, which saw the light until october.

This is a wonderful performance where we can appreciate songs played in a unique way, with even some different arrangements, songs taken from Roz Vitalis' extended discography, but in particular from their 'The Hidden Man From The Heart', 'Lavoro D'Amore' and 'Patience of Hope'. The album starts with 'Blurred' and since the first moments we can feel that acoustic essence, with a sound that ranges from folk to prog, made by an amalgam of synths, strings and a wonderful clarinet played by AndRey Stefinoff, who greatly adds colorful sounds with his instrument. It is great to hear audience applauses at the end of the tracks, seem it was an intimate concert.

The clarinet continues to take over in 'Jungle Waltz', however I also love the acoustic guitar and bass, along with the percussion (cajón or box drum) which are clearly not drums, so the sound might be quite different from the studio song, however, it makes it a unique performance. I love its changes and how classical music is also present in Roz Vitalis' music, but also that we can feel embraced by different moods, by dark atmospheres, some tension, but also bright passages and beauty. The clarinet & keyboard combo in the final part is a killer! 'The Hidden Man of The Heart' has also an exquisite performance here, first with delicate sounds and then with a bit more intensity for some seconds. One can easily close the eyes and feel embraced by its sound, I imagine people who attended had a wonderful and peaceful time.

Piano opens the gates to 'Lavoro D'Amore', then strings and winds join with delicacy, and a minute later after a brief change, keyboards mark a new proggy sound which is very colorful and dreamy, clarinet playes the same notes and together create a great synergy. Later a guitar solo appear and makes the song even better, with a disarming and heartfelt sound. 'Forbearing One Another in Love' is a solo performance by Rozmainsky with his piano, I am not sure but I think is an original composition (or improvisation) for this concert, play in a delicate and classical oriented way. This piano piece leads to 'Mother of All Rain', a great song release in 2012. Here I'd like to appreciate the work of long-time collaborator Vladimir Semenov-Tyan-Shansky who does an extraordinary effort with both, acoustic and electric guitar, changing the song's direction and atmospheres with his instruments.

'Recovery' is a very nice song that I believe has not been included in any studio album yet, but was included in a live record. The sound is so gentle, with some folkish and eastern flavors. 'Patience of Hope' is also greatly performed here, the sound is so charming, first with the piano and then when clarinet, bass, guitar and percussion, a longer song that has so many interesting changes in tempo and mood, very proggy. 'Ascension Dream' start is very subtle, first piano, then bass notes and lastly acoustic guitar, then after one minute percussion join and all together change the rhythm and the atmosphere, turning it into a joyful track. The final part is very emotional, though.

'Passing Winter' is another piano track that has not been included in a studio album yet, but it is great to hear these clean and passionate performances, music that touches our soul. 'Ending' has a curcial world and yeah, we might think it would be sensible to finish a concert or album with that title, just as it finishes the studio album it belongs. The performance here is delicate as well, so both old and new Roz Vitalis' fans could appreciate it. And last but not least, the band delight us with 'Passing Over', the longest track here, and a challenging song with some changes in time and mood, a nice example of progressive song with a soft and delicate sound, and with a great work of all musicians, including Yury Khomonenko on percussion and Max Lokosov on bass, who I hadn't mentioned before.

Well, it is an exquisite album, to be honest, and I thank the band for releasing it. Hope one day I could see Roz Vitalis on stage.

Enjoy it!