EREBUS, LA SUITE DE LAS SOMBRAS.

Quite familiar and nostalgic, regardless of the latest creation of ASCETA. "Erebus, La Suite De Las Sombras" was released as the second album of a Chilean chamber-rock project ASCETA. Such an impressive debut has been launched by them in the late 2022 (and lots of chamber-rock fans have been immersed in this stuff), and surprisingly they have come back to our mind with a new opus full of creativity only half a year later. Guess their creativity consists of their flexible improvisational appearance and elaborately calculated musical intention in the background. BAsically the melody lines are quite complicated and the rhythmic bases are pretty sarcastic but the instrumental sound combination can cool, stabilize, and relieve us in a mysterious manner. Their colourful musicscape and worldview cannot be caught and digested so easily as you know but wonderful sound construction can be smoothly accepted as an overall flow.

Quirky music complexity is clarified and actualized from the beginning of "Preludio", that is veiled in a depressive realistic atmosphere like the current tough situation all over the world. And a contrast and comparison of darkness and brightness get to be apparent in a huge suite "El Hereje Y El Devoto ~ Profanos Y Arcanos". You can hear melodic, rhythmic complications around this suite, filled with sensitive strings, dry-fruity, a bit objective horn sections, and bitter supportive rhythm sections. On the contrary you can find the suite could express difficulty nowadays and brilliant hope and expectation in the near future. Our life involves ups and downs ... but in "La Danza De Los Condenados" as a dance sometimes crazy and sometimes calm, we, the damned by various issues, should never give up hope and keep dancing under their complex melodic departure. Let's face forward and go ahead together, ASCETA say.

This is instrumental experimental chamber rock with strong modern classical influences; a good variety of classical instruments is used . It is very well played and sophisticated with complex structures, rhythm patterns, and harmonies that often steer outside standard tonality. The complex compositions have calm lyrical parts as well as more dynamical moving rhythmic parts where the drummer has something to do. Occasionally there's some jazz shining through. Due to the nonstandard tonality, the typical listener will not immediately associate this music with specific emotions. The atmosphere on the album is one of explorative openness; one can maybe think of walking through a rich botanical garden, but it's also possible to get a sense of mystery and suspense, even though the music isn't particularly dark and negative (neither is it light or positive). It comes over as mostly relaxed. Some may think this is going nowhere, but repeated listening is rewarding; things start to make sense that at first listening seem rather randomly put together.

Overall a very enjoyable album, even though probably not easily accessible for many. The sound is somewhat pedestrian and it takes time before something becomes memorable. On the other hand, this is very original and unique and the listener can never know what comes next.

In the world of modern progressive rock there definitely seems to be an upward trend to looking back rather than forging ahead whether mining the musical motifs of prog bigwigs such as Yes, Genesis and King Crimson or other lesser known artists that were equally as innovative but didn't enjoy any time in the sun. The rush to pop hook fusion also seems to have caught on with many a band infusing prog ideas with everything from punk rock and dream pop to shoegaze and garage rock but then there are those who vehemently defy the simplification process and staunchly adhere to the work ethic and discipline that yields crazy complex prog that takes the listener into a completely new musical dimension.

These dwellers of the Souther Hemisphere, from Santiago, Chile to be exact have forged a new path that straddles the nebulous line between 20th century classical chamber rock and 1970s avant-prog fueled Rock In Opposition. ASCETA may not have conquered the world with its strange forging of knotty instrumental workouts yet but has hit the ground running as demonstrated on its self-titled 2022 debut that effortlessly juggled Univers Zero and Art Zoyd chamber prog bleakness with the classical experiments of classical masters such as Béla Bartók, Olivier Messiaen or in modern days, the Arditti String Quartet. Less than a year in its wake, ASCETA returns with its sophomore effort titled EREBUS, LA SUITE DE LAS SOMBRAS and takes the listener on another adventure down angularity avenue where sugary pop hooks are completely jettisoned in favor of hairpin turns and excessive time signature escapades fully adrenalized.

Fortified with an army of classically trained musicians, ASCETA led by the eclectic Rodrigo Maccioni tackled the typical chamber music instrumentation of the cello, clarinet, bass clarinet, violin, bassoon, upright bass and drums taken into avant-prog rock territory with the inclusion of the electric guitar, synthesizer, electric bass and drumming styles. The band of seven plus a couple guests features an amazing array of seven densely complex compositions that rocket the listener straight into the heart of the difficult listening music section of the musical universe with the seemingly over-the-top and not-so-easy-on-the-ears tugging of the senses. This is definitely not music for the feint of heart and is one of those albums that requires a few spins just to wrap your head around .

This is prog with pride. Chamber rock that heralds champions. In its 50-minute run the band pummels the senses with incessant time signature changes and lugubrious mood churning tones that cast a dark shadow on the soul but in a most satisfying way for those who love these wild rides into the darkest and most technically challenging recesses of the world of chamber prog. While ASCETA follows in the footsteps of myriad artists ranging from Henry Cow, Rational Diet and of course the mutltiide of Belgian and French artists that have kept the style churning on through the decades, ASCETA still finds a unique little niche in the midst of these fertile grounds with its own rhythmic flow and strange quirks that offer a refreshing new take on the tried and true subgenre in the prog universe.

While Chile is hardly a place where one would expect a band of this calibre, ASCETA has placed this South American nation on the map for some of the most intricately challenging music there is to be heard. A wild ride that wends and winds through the vast fields of tempo changes, time signature workouts and instrumental interplay, ASCETA is a no nonsense go for the gusto type of band that excels on the world stage. Although the knottiness of EREUBUS will surely alienate neophyites, seasoned avant-proggers will rejoice in this album's attention to detail and noncompliance to modern day trends that focus more on copycatism than musical mastery. While this second offering in many ways is a bit more of a bitter pill to swallow than the debut, EREBUS yields its secrets after several attentive listening sessions. I, for one, have been loving this one!

There are times when one comes across an album which is breaking boundaries, attempting to do something quite different which is beautiful and disturbing all at the same time, and that is what we have here with Chilean band Asceta. Formed in 2020, they are already back with their second album, which is both a difficult and also easy album to listen to as here we have a band looking back initially to Gryphon and then to their influences of chamber music, and somehow mixing that with Art Zoyd and RIO. While the music is certainly described in a different way to much within the prog scene this is also due to the fact that in many ways these guys fit somewhat better within modern classical.

They comprise Rodrigo Maccioni (electric guitar, concert wooden flute, synthesizer), Cristián Peralta (cello), Alfonso Vergara (clarinet, bass clarinet), Arianne Guerra (violin), Alejandro Vera (bassoon), Eduardo Rubio (electric bass, upright bass), and Leonardo Saavedra (drums, percussion) along with two guests in Oscar Pizarro (piano) and Pascal Montenegro (oboe and English horn). The oboe is often the lead instrument within this massively complex and layered piece which is much more like an orchestral construct as opposed to something being perfomed by a band from modern popular music. The title translates to 'Erebus, The Suite of Shadows' and one wonders if it has dual meaning as while Erebus has a place in mythology as the offspring of Chaos and is used to describe the darkness of Hades, it is also a name very well known here in New Zealand due to the tragedy in 1979 when an Air New Zealand flight crashed into Mount Erebus in Antarctica, killing all 257 people onboard.

Musically this is definitely taking us on a journey, through multiple time signatures and massively complex and complicated scores, yet somehow it is also an album which can be enjoyed the first time of playing and is not something to be frightened of. This is true progressive music which is pushing boundaries yet is also something to be enjoyed and not endured while never succumbing to modern fashions and styles. It is an album of incredible depth and import which I have enjoyed immensely.

Looking for music with no boundaries?

Asceta is an ensemble from Chile who would perfectly fit-in in that description. Formed in 2020, they have now released two studio albums where concepts such as avant-garde, chamber music, rock in oposition (RIO) lie, and though yeah, we could label their musical style, what they create is full of freedom.

For this second released entitled 'Erebus, la suite de las sombras', the 7-piece ensemble (and their two guest musicians) developed a 50-minute album where darkness reigns, where a somber and tense atmosphere leads the path to an spiritual realization. The album starts with 'Preludio' and yeah, I can tell they have been influenced by acts such as Art Zoyd or Univers Zero. The music sounds like a nightmare, however, there are moments of tranquility which, in fact, could be confusing, however this musical journey could be a simile to our own life journey.

'Pseudo-fonía del tormento' is an exquisite track where we can appreciate how good the ensemble understand each other, we can hear every of the instruments played in a great way, clean, pure and emotional. Violins, bassoon, cello, piano, drums and much more, all adding their grain of sound and also creating colorful moments, because though we can clearly listen to some obscure grey passages, there are several instants where their diversity of sounds provoke brighter atmospheres and color palettes.

'Concilio de brujas' is a beautiful and surprising track, because I thought it would be another passage where obsurity reigns, but no, here we perceive a shiny, cheerful meeting where calm takes over. Love the wonderful amalgam between strings and winds. But when the next track arrives, darkness and tension are implemented once again. This is an extraordinary epic track divided in two, first 'El hereje y el devoto' brings what RIO is about, music with no boundaries, with high quality and with a considerable amount of difficulty (both, to play and to dig). I love the music changes, so challenging, so full of quality and personality. There is a constant dialogue between the instruments, but I highlight the work of flute and clarinet creating the brighter side, while bassoon and cello defend the darker side. 'Profanos y arcanos' is quite interesting because it is a mixture of colors, nuances and emotions, we can create some images in our heads, I can picture a meeting of gods and ascetics, who are dialoguing in order to live in harmony. This is a great track.

'En lo alto y en el abismo' has a more vertiginous rhythm and sound, the faster the more tense, drums here are wonderful throughout the track, delicate but intense, fabulous. Of course that softer piano moment also caught my attention here, but later where the passages explode, it is exquisite to listen to the strings at unison developing the song's different episodes.

'Por sobre mi cadáver' is a great example of a proggy avant-garde track. I love its short and constant changes in tempo and mood, it can sound a bit chaotic, and maybe its intended, but what I love is their capacity of bringing brief moments of disguised tranquility and then embrace us with the chaos once again. The album finishes with 'La danza de los condenados' in which the rhythm in moments, represent a dance indeed, "dance of the damned", it could perfectly work for a silent film. So after the different passages of the album, where light and darkness where shared, the ascets have nothing left but accepting their fate, and live under Erebus' rules.

A great album from this Chilean ensemble. Applauses!