AÚN ES TIEMPO DE SOÑAR

Despite this being the most unlikely name for a prog band I’ve ever seen, this is a decent symphonic rock album. It’s a little confusing though, coming out of Argentina but having almost no Latin characteristics whatsoever. This could just as easily been an ELP knockoff band or Atlantis Philharmonic or Crucible or any number of b-list, European-influenced symphonic bands of that era. Except that the vocals aren’t in English; but they aren’t in Spanish either even though the group is from Argentina – they are Portuguese.

The other difference from most symphonic bands is that there is a lot more emphasis on electric guitar, and mostly at the expense of keyboards which play a noticeable but somewhat diminished role. There are some nice synthesizer arrangements here and there, like the strings and organ on the “Un Hombre en la Hoguera” trilogy, and some stilting keyboard progressions on “Preguntas al Cielo” that place the music on the eighties side of the decade change that occurred around the time this released.

But the guitar is the preeminent instrument here, played by various musicians throughout but equally featured on almost every track. The vocals are unexceptional, and were it not for the instrumental arrangements this could just have easily been one of those slightly pretentious acts that Don Francisco invites onto Sábado Gigante once and a while to keep the older folks interested.

This is decent music, very professionally played and with enough nods to several British prog acts of the seventies to convince you the members of the band really listened to that kind of music and liked it. “Vispera” is the most obvious example, with keyboard progressions I’ve heard before from Kansas, Jon Lord and even Genesis. But that’s the point I suppose - there is little here that I haven’t heard before in one form or another.

The group and their one album were the project of Argentinean musician Cesar ‘Banana’ Pueyrredon, who has since gone on to a long and fruitful career (unintentional pun there!) making more mainstream music. This one gets barely a mention in his biography today.

A mildly interesting if rather obscure collection of music that is worth a spin or two if you happen across it, but more as a curiosity than something you’d want to go out of your way to add to your collection. Three stars is fair, and recommended to collectors who are always in the market for something a little different, but not very much so.

peace