0.720 ALEACION

The Leyenda is the 0.720 Alecion's 2nd, and last album. The first one was, actually, not bad at all. I am not sure what happened to Alecion's creative faculties between 1986 and 1989, but the Leyenda's music feels like it was made by a tired and disappointed in itself band. And, despite its 30' playing time, the Leyenda feels kind of long-ish (a euphemism for dull-ish).

I'd assign 2 stars, but it wouldn't matter much anyway.

The name of the band translates into "0.720 alloy or metal compound." The 0.720 refers to the time when the devastating earthquake struck Mexico City in 1985 and killed over 10,000 individuals. The band actually was formed in order to raise money for the victims of this terrible event which resulted in the recording of two full albums, both of which were a very different sound for Mexico in the 80s.

Unfortunately I tend to agree with other reviewers that although this is good it isn't great. It has a wonderful and pleasant sound but throughout the whole album I want them to take it further. The talent sounds like it's there and the potential is begging for greater things, but on every track they seem to build up to a certain point and just when you want it to go to the next step it ends. It certainly is a very pleasant listen from beginning to end and I would love to hear the further development of this type of prog.

Musically the album explores the territory of Mexican Folk , blended with Rock, Classical and Jazz stylings, and quite reasonably the atmosphere is dreamy, ethereal and moving, trying to speak to the hearts of Mexican people.The overall approach though is not that easy-listening.The tracks are short, but they contain plenty of smooth interplays with a jazzy rhythm section collaborating with the flute and violin leaders of the release, producing nice series of quality music, close to a folky Fusion style.There are of course also lots of acoustic crescendos, offered by the classical guitar of Zamarripa, but he never finds himself alone.There is always a solid support by the violins of Torres and the melodic flutes of Vinas.Notice that the album is almost all instrumental with only one sung track, while a couple of songs contain some choir-type of vocal parts.

The Sol & Deneb CD release contains 9 extremely short bonus tracks, all together not exceeding the 9-min. mark, taken from a 1986 video entitled "Memorias del Olivido".The sound here is more along the lines of pre-Hispanic Folk/Chamber Folk with dominant folk influences.

The CD release of this album makes it available for a mass of listeners worldwide and ''0.720 Aleacion'' is a nice little pearl for all lovers of Progressive Folk or acoustic interplays.Historically though this work goes far beyond any possible rating system due to its humancentric purpose of existence.Recommended.

This is an instrumental album full of very short compositions, most of them only a couple minutes long and some even shorter. While the musicians are all Mexican, the overall sound seems to be based on a native style that predates Spanish influences, hence its common designation as folk music.

There is a heavy presence of flute and violin throughout, and the drums sound almost Caribbean at times. This is not at all the kind of Mexican music one typically expects to hear from the center of that country, but is rather like a celebration of roots and of the people and the culture of that nation.

A few tracks stand out, including the very soft and respectful “Campana del silencio”; the completely percussive “Y retiemble en su centro”; and the curiously Celtic-sounding “Danzante”. I guess any band that marries the flute with violin in a folkish arrangement is bound to be compared to Celtic music.

This isn’t a masterpiece or anything like that, but it is a very peaceful and beautiful collection of short instrumental vignettes that is quite pleasant to listen to. A few extended pieces would have definitely improved the overall package, but one can’t complain with what the artists decided to commit to disc. A three star effort and worth listening to if you have a chance.

peace

Numbers... large numbers .. but numbers all the same. To those of us who sit in our posh homes, with your parents or spouses waiting on you hand and foot.. those are exactly what they are ...just numbers. Imagine... if you can... the erasing in the span of minutes.. 9000 of your friends, your family, your coworkers, your neighbors. The rich and famous, the poor and faceless, the very young, and the very old all taken without any regard to money, status, or age. Reief and assistance poured in from all over Mexico and the world. Most will remember how our nation pulled together after September 11th and gave.. money, blood, our time when tragedy struck here. Imagine that response on a grander scale, in a much less fractured society as ours. While many gave such things as time, shelter, blood to relief efforts the musicans of Mexico also stepped up. To lift spirits, and to honor those who didn't make it.

In 1986 five musicians banded together to offer music to help honor and to help heal. They called themselves 0.720 Aleacion . They released a single album in 1986. The album is an all instrumental album of 8 original tracks plus an additional 9 more bonus tracks from a radio or T.V (my spanish is sadly nonexistant hahah) apperance. The music itself, is a wonderful blend of mood inducing music and a folkish style with wonderful accoustic guitars, flutes and violins. The music of course varies betwen upbeat and sorrowful. Very pleasant to the ears.. but as with prog.. not a sleep inducer. While not loud and abrasive the music is performed at very high standards.

Some highlites for me that bring home a bit of the flavor of the album. The song which led me to the album, Danzante was a sample that I found by accident (like an idiot downloaded the song thinking it was the sample from another group I was researching during one of Ivan's Symphonic death marches hahahha) Later I discovered the mistake and ordered the whole album.. based on this song. The song starts with a sawing violin riff.. that slowly fades into some vocal chanting with the bass chiming along underneath.. suddenly the pace explodes into a frenetic accoustic guitar solo, then followed by a fiery violin solo. The pace slows again with some tasteful guitar playing over top the violin ..then the violin takes another featured spot. The track hooked me. The other song that had really grabbed me is Antes Que Amanezca. A song that sort of hits a sorrowful note.. I love the piano over the repeated accoustic guitar figure in the beginning. Beautiful violin playing on this. Over the course of maybe even a 100 listens since I got this album.. my favorite of the album.

The album is a wonderful album for those who want something with a little less fire but some real feeling to it. To think of the album in the context of it's creation, not just as a prog music album but a statement of loss and recovery, adds greatly to apprecation of the album. The triumph of the human spirit over the worst that can be thrown at us. Music is art. .and art expresses all kinds of feelings.. love, hate , and in the case of Aleacion 0.720 loss and recovery. Take a listen.. I bet you'll hear it in the music as well. It adds greatly to appreciation of the album. For me 4 stars.. for the forum at large.. 3 stars.. a worthy addition to your prog collecion but non-essential

Michael (aka micky)

It was the 1985, the same year when i was born, the exactly date is September 19, i was a baby with only 3 months, so obviously i dont remember anything, but all mexican people have that date in our minds, because a disaster happened, an Earthquake which destroyed lots of buildings and killed so many people, probably the worst natural disaster that has happened here and will live forever in our memory.

Due to that terrible event, mexican people gathered together to help each other (honestly we are a united counrty) and a group of musicians called 0.760 Aleacion decided to create an album with great music, with folk and mexican music but in the progressive side, in order to collect money to help people devastated by the earthquake. Sadly the album had not so much success, but actually as i said i wasn`t looking for success, it was looking for some good way to help, this self titled album was released in 1986 under Sol & Deneb records, and was their only album.

Now let`s talk about the music: (thanks to Micky for it`s addition) The band is here under Prog Folk, and im sure that it`s the correct genre, where they really belong so you can have a little idea about the music. The album has 8 original tracks with a lenght of 35 minutes , plus 9 short extra tracks which complete only 5 minutes more.

Let me tell you that you will listen to an album without vocals, completely instrumental, which starst with a short song which is something like an intro and since we can appreciate the first notes, we will know what kind of music do they play, an excellent flute work along with great percussions and a very talented guitarist, "Tarahumara" is the second song, actually the name of the songs here have much to do with mexican roots and history, taking us to the prehispanic period when different cultures as Mayas or Mexicas existed, nowadays when we visit the ruins and pyramids, we could listen to this kind of music and feel like the past has taken us to a trip over all mexican cultures, here flute sound is what makes the music sooo folkish, but also the sound of violin is an extra point here reminding me like some parts of Veracruz and the frontier with Guatemala. The music here is very soft and calmed, we can relax easily while listening to it and also feel like we are listening to beautiful music, but im pretty sure that if you do not follow folk music and different styles from different countries this album will be boring for you. "Danzante" is a song with a faster and proggier sound, it also contains some people`s whispers again reminding me to the classic and antique mexican culture, the violin has a principal role in this song which accompanied with the great acoustic guitar and drums make it a great song.

"Templo Mayor" is another excellent song, if someday you come to Mexico City, you must visit the Templo Mayor, one of the principal structures and "towns" that the past has left to us, this song has the traditional sound of flute and percussion which sound like a dance, a mexican dance i mean with mexicas.

All the extra or bonus tracks whatever you call them are little pieces with their history in the mexican culture.

Honestly i think that te album is great but not so complex in terms of prog rock, it could be so enjoyable to any prog fan for sure, and also you can know and appreciate a bit of our culture and music from the past, but this is not the best album that a mexican prog band has offered at all, i repeat, the music is great but i feel like something is missing there, so for me this album deserves 3 stars! Anyway i recommend it to you all!