AMAROK mujer luna
		Format CD Country Spain Recorded 2001-2002 Issued 2001 Label Luna Negra Cat no. CDLN-20 Playing time 51:49 Reviewer Sven Eriksen

Amarok is the multi- (and then we do mean really a lot – counting 24 pcs) instrumentalist Robert Santamaria plus eleven other singers and musicians playing anything from electric guitar to didjeridoo. Together they create an interesting sound with influences from oriental music as well as ELP. This particular variation in the musical expression does shake your normal idea of how progressive rock is supposed to sound. On this record, mellotron-dripping parts are mixed with intense oriental dance rhythms as the most natural thing. The nine minute long "Arabesca en 4 mov" takes us to Turkey or thereabout, but we are flabbergasted at how close to "prog rock" it anyway sounds. Manuel Mayol’s didjeridoo sounds almost like bass pedals, we find 12-string guitar strumming, exciting flute playing and complex interplay. Even with a completely different outset, the common denominators are many.

In "Sueno Suenos" we start in Western "traditional" prog rock with intense organ and electric guitars bordering on Keith Emerson and Al DiMeola. Later, the track crosses oriental music, jazz-rock and Crimsonic tendencies. A folk ballad even finds room here, the short, beautiful "Nana Del Hijo De La Tierra". "Donde Estas Mi Amor" amalgamates Eastern and Western influences, while the closing track – the almost ten minute long "Tierra Austral" – comprises elements of both "Lizard"-period Crimson, Jethro Tull, Camel, ELP and Magma, all the time possessing something "strange" which draws the music out of the big, black "prog" sack.

If I should wish for something, it would have been a bit less urgent production and better resources in the vocal department. That aside, the CD is a pleasant travel into an exciting and unexplored musical landscape.

© 2003 Tarkus Magazine

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