MINORISA

Fusioon's final effort is their absolute masterpiece; "Minorisa" finds the band expanding their talent all the way up to their maximum intensity and to their most bizarre level of creativity. The three long tracks that fill the 37-minute time span of the album comprise some of the best prog music ever made in Spain's rock history, and generally speaking, it is a real treat for all those who enjoy good, original and exciting prog from any country in the world. The 19- minute monster suite 'Ebusus' kicks off the album with full splendour and immense extravagance: elegance and weirdness fuse into a sole sonic force during this multi-varied musical journey. The wide spectrum comprised in 'Ebusus' includes: jazz-rock, GG-influenced counterpoints and chord progressions, Zappa-esque vocal harmonies, touches of RIO-instilled moods, Arabic nuances, Catalonian folk, some Crimsonian guitar leads, Canterbury, "Mirage"-era Camel, surrealistic mellotron and synth adornments. and after all, the final result turns out to be quite unique. The guys of Fusioon actually managed to sound original beyond the myriad of influences that they evidently absorbed as writers and performers. It is also very odd that this sidelong track's structure feels so flexible and apparently chaotic, yet, if you listen from a deeper level, you will notice a distinct solidness that builds up a powerful cohesion that sustains the sequence of all successive sections and the reprises of some of them. What else can I say? 'Ebusus' is a gem in itself; this one alone makes this album worth the while of any particularly demanding prog aficionado. But let's not overlook the other two numbers, since they are great, too. The 11- minute namesake suite starts with a somber overture of Moog and bass guitar before the grand piano gets in to lay down the basic chords for the more epic "second" overture; the main motifs than come along soon after display an exquisite combination of Baroque-based symph prog and Catalonian prog in a very similar way to their fellow band Atila (and, to a lesser degree, similar to iceberg as well). The interplaying is as solid as it was for the first suite, but this time the bizarreness is a bit less intense: the band's major concern is focused on the melodic development of the main motifs for the 'Minorisa' suite. A special mention has to go to a beautiful pastoral passage that appears somewhere in the middle - a moment of captivating magic in the middle of the overall pompous frame that articulates and outlines the track's structure. The closure is a two-part Fripp & Eno-meets-Schulze electronic exploration: 'Llaves del Subconsciente' is a tour-de-force massively constructed on a foundation of synthesizer and mellotron, with additional processed sounds (guitar, piano, falsetto) soaring around in a most inscrutable manner. Even though it may sound a bit out of place to some, I personally find it very effective: something like an avant-garde manifesto, the announcement of the destruction of music as we know it (after many of its possible facets has been show in the previous two numbers) and a call for its most radical renewal in the present. General conclusion: a masterpiece!