The new album from Claro de Luna, the post/prog rock project by Jose Acuna, is La Voz Quebrada ( The Cracking Voice), and follows on from their debut release in 2011, Lo Que Ha Sido Y Lo Que Sera (What Has Been and What Will
Be). This new release is a concept album dealing with everyday
communication and the gaps, voids and misunderstandings that can appear
with simple errors in communication. La Vox Quebrada is a mainly instrumental album with, according to Jose, only a few “ooohs” and “aaahs.”
Apart from multi-instrumentalist, Jose Acuna, there are some guest musicians on La Voz Quebrada, and they are, Maf Saenz (vocals), Natalia Oddi (flute), Pedro Guttierrez (saxophone) and Tatania Ravazzolli (cello).
La Voz Quebrada
is a 7 track album with a total playing time of around 49 minutes, with
track 6, “El Mascarero” (The Mask Maker), the longest at 13:20 minutes
and the shortest, track 1, “Signato” (Sign) at 2:14 minutes.
I
always feel that an opening track to an album needs something to draw
the listener into the music and make them want to hear what follows.
“Signato” (2:15) has some nice fuzz guitar which then introduces a piano
theme over the basic track. There are also a lot of “aaahs” from the
guest vocalist, Maf, but it is a very low key start to the album.
“Refraccion”
(5:11),” Entre Lineus” (6:35) and “La Otre Verdad” (8:29) follow on
from the short opening track and are varied in their structure with some
vocalizations reminiscent of Pink Floyd (a la Great Gig In The Sky),
excellent guitar passages, flutes and percussion passages. While each
track was initially engaging and atmospheric, they all seemed to outstay
their welcome and the level of interest was dropping as they ultimately
made their exits.
The
second part of the album was the more interesting, starting as it did,
with the short track, “Desfase” (3:09), which painted an aural
soundscape of desolation. This scenario was obtained with a plucked echo
guitar and a “faraway” keyboard theme in the distance, and all wrapped
up in a short period of time. The long track, “El Mascarero” (13:20) was
made up of little sections which flowed into one another and hinted at
Mike Oldfield at points, but it did possess that “je ne sais quoi” that
made the track memorable.
The
title track, “La Voz Quebrada” (9:03), which ends the album is the most
successful track as it effortlessly sets another soundscape with simple
keyboards and more wonderful vocalizations which literally “hit the
nail on the head.” The superb guitar carries this track along and there
is a sense of being “inside” the music. The final track, “La Voz
Quebrada” encompasses in miniature all that a good instrumental concept
album should.
A
concept album, especially an instrumental one, needs everything to be
firing on all cylinders to shout out “listen to me!” and get the
listener immersed in the storyline, carried along on a wave of evocative
music. La Voz Quebrada unfortunately comes up a little short in
this area, with some individual tracks very good and interesting, but in
too many cases, the tracks seem to lack direction and are overlong,
losing the listener along the way .This, may of course be a deliberately
designed part of the album, bearing in mind the concept is dealing with
communication problems? Good in many areas and with nods towards Pink Floyd, Mike Oldfield and Jon Anderson (Olias of Sunhillow style) La Voz Quebrada is certainly worth listening to and being only the second album, there are signs suggesting much more still to come from Claro de Luna.
4/5 STARS
Key Tracks: Desfase: El Mascarero: La Voz Quebrada
Jim “The Ancient One” Lawson-MuzikReviews.com Staff
October 29, 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment