FUERA DEL CIELO

From the sound of this album, Litto Nebbia must be from the Canterbury section of Argentina. By that I mean, other than the Spanish lyrics, this album sounds very much like what we know of as the Canterbury style of prog. From the electric piano and organ tones, the jazz fusion tinged arrangements, and even the vocal melodies, this album evokes Caravan, early Soft Machine and the like.

Of course, being from Argentina, there must also be some Spanish guitar, and even accordion (well, actually bandoneon, if you must be technical). And it all works well.

That said, for what this is, there is nothing that leaps out of the music and grabs me. No noticable standout performances or unusually great compositions. So I can only give this three stars.

In 1975 Nebbia moved to the Argentinial label Trova, which opened their collaboration with the archival album ''Cosas que no quieren morir''.At the same time he produced Pastoral's more highly-acclaimed album ''En el hospicio'', while kept writing music for a new album with Mirtha Delfipo providing all lyrics.But this time there were only two members on the instruments, Jorge Gonzalez on bass and Nestor Astaritas on drums, with Nebbia singing, playing all keyboards and guitars.''Fuera del cielo'' was the title of his new album.Juan Jose Mosalini is featured on bandoneon in one piece.

Nebbia's latter works contained strong progressive aspects, but ''Fuera del cielo'' was nothing else than a 100% jazzy Progressive Rock album.If you have any doubts, the 17-min. title track couls give some answers.Nebbia's armour included both electric and acoustic panos, harsichord and Hammond organ and the result was a long, soft progressive opus with great vocal parts, dramatic sections and even some complex instrumental moments, we weren't actually used to such a production by Nebbia.But the Classical washes on the keyboard lines, the omnipresent jazzy spices of the electric piano and the romantic lyricism are the dominant elements of this composition.The rest of the album in not a different fruit.Mostly long tracks (6-8 minutes long) with nice instrumental work, basically drawing influences from Jazz Fusion and Symphonic/Psych Rock to a lesser extent, the sole matter of discussion being Nebbia's sentimental voice placed to the more intricate instrumentals compared to the past.But the music is very good with tight keyboard exercises, some more guitar-based lines compared to the opening epic and a more pronounced organ work.The psychedelic colors now appear only during the softer moments or the vocal parts and there are even some light jamming moods to be found, very solid effort as a whole.

If you are a die-hard Prog fan, who doesn't like his music to be bastardized by dated psychedelic tunes or Pop sensibilities, this is the one album to get from Litto Nebbia's discography.Very good jazzy Prog with some fine instrumental work on keyboards and pianos.Strongly recommended...3.5 stars.