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Témpano - The Agony And The Ecstasy CD (album) cover

THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

Témpano

 

Crossover Prog

3.86 | 75 ratings

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Cesar Inca
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars What a tremendous masterpiece this is!! Designed as a musical homage to Michelangelo Buonarroti's artistic genius, "The Agony and the Ecstasy" is Témpano's finest work so far, and given the fact that they're still on the road (albeit taking things slow), I assume that we're yet to hear more from them in the near future - just like the most exquisite wine, getting better and better with age. But let's focus on this amazing concept-album by now. This concept album is mostly instrumental, but it also contains some sung stuff - guitarist/keyboardist Pedro Castillo is actually a very good singer and his English accent is very smooth, so maybe the band should consider to give more room to the singing department in their next albums. The opener 'Twisted Mind' is an amazing piece of solidly adorned prog rock with a slight jazzy twist and an occasional touch of fusion - regarding the effective appeal of the motifs and the quality of the performances and interplaying, the sensible listener should be pleased by now, getting increasingly curious about what is yet to come as the album goes on (much more ecstasy than agony in this listening experience). Then comes 'Bonfire', an exquisite exercise on orchestrating and counterpoints with clever dissonances and dramatic shifts (somewhat related to early After Crying) that serves as an interlude between 'Twisted Mind' and 'Just in a Second', the first sung track. All sung tracks have a modern symphonic appeal to them, based on not-too-complicated rhythm patterns and clear melodic lines, structured in a modern-sounding frame. 'Just in a Second' includes some jazz-pop hints, while 'Timeless Times' may remind you of Porcupine Tree at their most melancholic (a special mention goes to the soaring synth solo that goes along the middle guitar lead on to the last sung verse). 'Il Duomo' and 'Imaginary Sky' are more closely related to current neo-prog, always with a proper touch of sophistication provided by the weird adornments that are incorporated here and there. But nothing in this album is as weird as the sequence of tracks 7-10: think of a hybrid of Isildur's bane and a less scary Art Zoyd and you will get the picture. On the opposite side of things, 'Gigante' (a beautiful classical guitar solo piece) and 'All Ages Tears' bring moments of sheer serenity. The closing track 'Conspiración' is an amazing 10-minute prog journey that goes places constantly on the wings of a basic jazz-oriented motif: echoes of Happy the Man, Yes, 80s King Crimson and Pat Metheny Group keep on appearing and getting recycled in a modern filter. This is the least 'composed' number in the album, but it never drags around or meanders pointlessly: all four musicians work really hard at their interplaying in order to keep the main musical ideas and its further variations firmly rooted in a fluid unity. The modern essence of this repertoire lies in no small degree on the use of digital keyboard effects and occasional drum loops, which do not replace the warmth of human instrumentation, but help it to increase its expressiveness and develop it to its full potential. It's incredible how such an amount of varied musical sources can be so coherently integrated in an album's full amalgam, but again, this is the stuff that most prog masterpieces are made of - variety and integrality. 4.5 stars for "The Agony and the Ecstasy" and countless blessings for Témpano.
Cesar Inca | 4/5 |

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