THE ALEPH

Without any doubt the best of all Alpha III albums,thanks of an excellent first side of the album.'Part 1' is a little bit influenced by the heavier King Crimson albums 'Red' and 'Larks tongues is aspic',but here's the guitar from Fripp,the bass from Wetton replaced by an army of synthesisers.Also first seven minutes of side 2 is highly interesting,but than starts an incredible boring long classical piano-track.

This is as far as I know ALPHA III's third album, and it is inspired by the book "The Aleph" (Jorge Luis Borges / Argentina). The original LP edition was released in 1989, and the Brazilian label Rock Symphony now reissues it.

- The music is a mix between EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER, Mike OLDFIELD and VANGELIS with influences from the 70's and New Age. "The Aleph" is written as a lengthy piece with each separate part connected to the others. But the track I like the most is the bonus track "Eternal Circle" which is a very beautiful piece.

- Rock Symphony has re-released many progressive masterpieces, but this album isn't worth a re-release in my opinion, but maybe it will attract some fans of Mike OLDFIELD and VANGELIS.

Music and literature are - as Poe once said - linked, his exact words I can't recall, but it was something like this, "music when combined with a pleasurable idea is poetry, music without the idea is simply music".... maybe I won't make my point but I'll try anyway: music here is combined with the idea of being able to see and know absolutely everything, which I find "pleasurable" (though, in The Aleph, Borges shows us the dark side of having access to this kindda pleasure) , so even if music itself ain't excellent, alpha III did a great job mixing both entities (a whole as an entity...?) and I find it an interesting project.

Alpha III is the project of the Brazilian musician Amyr Cantúsio Jr. The Aleph (1989) is his most famous effort and his 6th record. The album was in fact composed in 1986 and it was inspired by the book of the same name by the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges.

Amyr Cantúsio Jr. is sometimes mentioned as the Brazilian Mike Oldfield because of this record. Because here Amyr plays everything, just like Oldfield: electric piano, organ, synthesizers, arp strings, whistles, Steinway grand piano, bells, drums, bass and vocals. But that's the only comparision you can make between both musicians.

The Aleph (1989) is divided into 2 long parts, but in the CD reissued in 1999 by Rock Symphony we got 2 bonus tracks too: 'Eternal Circle' and a track that is not mentioned anywhere else, not even in the booklet.

The Aleph (1989) is in fact a good composition and I can see it with a full band. But unfortunately here we have a very amateurish production and poor instruments sounds all over, also Amyr playing is very poor with the exception of the keyboards, his main instrument.

'Part I' is divided into 4 parts: Overture, Dark Ocean, The Light and Visions. It clocks over 21 minutes. It is mainly based on keyboards and it haves an almost horrible drum play all through it. 'Part II' is also divided into 4 parts: Into The Storm, Windows, Piano Solo and Final Flight. It clocks 16 minutes. Here the drums continues with the bad playing, but now joined by the bass, everything terribly mixed. 'Into The Storm' is completely out of place with the rest. 'Windows' has vocals, good ones. And it starts the good music in the album. 'Piano Solo' is very good with E, L & P influence.

The bonus track 'Eternal Circle' steals APP melodies and the unnamed track was clearly not recorded during the same recording sessions.

The Aleph (1989) isn't a good production, at all. I would give it 2.5 stars if I could for he had recorded everything alone, because of the daring act of releasing this kind of record independently in 1989 in a market like the Brazilian one that was used to consume something completely different.

Key tracks: Part II b) Windows and c) Piano Solo.

Progressive Rock ? 20th century classical music Progressive rock has crossed borders and barriers between the worlds of music, mind and soul. It sought its spice in the roots of antiquity. Direct inspirations from classical, baroque, medieval and ancestral music. A fair fusion with styles such as Hindu ragas, jazz, folk and blues, combined with the classical technique, with great tracks, long and experimental, are the psychedelic request in this style that began in mid-1966. Many people ask me - how did the progressive style come about? Or, who was the first? But there is no first. Progressive rock is the result of an evolution and musical research, post-development of electronic music and jazz. However, the first traces of the mix and evolution of the style we will find with the Beatles mainly, within rock. More exactly from 1966. Obviously, in the 60's we already had a lot of artists breaking out, like Frank Zappa and Pink Floyd's psychedelia, for example. But it wasn't until the end of this decade that metaphysics emerged in music. Existentialism and the constant questions about the worlds beyond Earth, the Cosmic Space and the afterlife were part of it. Of course, I quote here the insertion of variant themes in the literature of Fiction and Oriental Philosophy. Large letters, elaborated, permeated with existentialism ,whether revolutionary or dreamlike. And it was around 1968 that countless bands erupted at once, such as Jethro Tull, Genesis, Yes, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Nice (keyboardist Keith Emerson) Van Der Graaf Generator, Moody Blues, Procol Harum and the last one Beatles' grandiose album: Abbey Road. It was an explosion of feelings in people's heads. Hippies and revolutionary movements were spreading to the four corners of the planet. It was the time of great festivals and concerts. Woodstock,Monterey and the Isle of Wight. A vast ocean of bands emerged that would create everything that could be created in terms of sound: Grateful Dead; King Crimsom; Gentle Giant; ; Tangerine Dream; Aphrodite Child (by keyboardist Vangelis); E, L & P; Electric Light Orchestra, etc... as well as the phenomenal German experimental movement called Kraut Rock. In Europe the scene was on fire. Many think that the English scene was the main producer of progressive musical masterpieces. But it was not. Bands like Premiata Forneria Marconi (known as PFM); Le Orme; Bank; Rosembach Museum; The Trip; Loccanda delle Fate and Maxophone make the Italian cradle one of the most appreciated in the genre to date. In Germany, Grobschnitt; Gila; Novalis; Anyone's Daughter; Electra; Eloy; Cornucopia; Stern Combo Meissen, Can and Embryo performed their theatrical performances. In France, Gong emerged; Ange; Atoll; Edhels; Mona Lisa; Shylock, etc... In Brazil? Yes.wonderful bands like Moto Perpétuo (Guilherme Arantes), Waste Land, Engine Room, The Third, Mutants in the second phase, Module 1000, Spectro and later, Alpha III, Quantum, Sacred Heart of the Earth, etc... did the head of the gang in our country. Remembering that Progressive Rock also flirts with contemporary classical music such as minimalist (Steve Reich and Philip Glass) and Serial Dodecaphonic (Arnold Schoemberg), as well as electronics and concrete by Stockhausen Varèse and Pierre Schaeffer. Everything flowed like a great esoteric current, as in the Baroque, Renaissance or Classical period, giving birth to great musicians and their works. Today, the movement persists in Neo and Progressive Metal with great vigor and intensity. See Dream Theater, Fates Warning, Enchant, Marillion, Pallas, etc. I compare the 1968-1978 period of Rock, with the great Baroque, Renaissance and Classical cycles in Europe. Great works, extremely complex and intricate, creepy things, were built and elaborated in this bizarre and spiritualist decade. The big hint in progressive are literary works and names of philosophers (many underground bands of this style have names of great philosophers) inserted in almost classical music mixed with rock and psychedelia. I believe that Aldous Huxley, Edgar Alan Poe, HPLovecraft, Carlos Castañeda, John Milton and Dante Alighièri were often cited in the works, in addition to the great influence of Indian philosophy with bands immersed in books such as Vedas or the Hare Krishna Movement, among others. The occultism of Madame Blavatsky and Aleister Crowley idem. Finally, despite great moments, the progressive was practically fought and almost eliminated from the history of music and Rock itself, by prejudice, ignorance and total lack of inner vision, by many mindless critics and poorly informed people, with little soul. Today in the heat of the LPS Revival a lot has come to light. And with the CD industry itself in the 90s, many things came out of obscurity. But Progressive Rock is not for many or any mind. , requires a certain commitment from the listener, whether in the intellectual or spiritual area. It is not a simple rock with 3 chords. Best wishes forall!!