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Thread: FEATURED CD: Gaulberto - Vericuetos

  1. #1
    Moderator Poisoned Youth's Avatar
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    FEATURED CD: Gaulberto - Vericuetos



    A Spanish Guitar classico..

    Review from ProgArchives (Trane)
    Gualberto is the name of the guitarist-sitarist that achieved success in the early 70's with hard-rock group Smash, whose first two albums serves as reference in the Hispanic world! During the recording of the latter (where Gualberto Garcia Perez played on sitar, guitar and fused Smash into weird psych rock), he started to work on a solo album that was not to see the day until the late 70's, but after he split away from Smash, he changed directions dramatically turning more towards Indian music and more adventuresome progressive rock. His group took on his name but from the writing credits on this album it seems a fairly democratic affair.

    This totally instrumental second album (actually the third if you count the one recorded during Smash) is actually a very symphonic affair where the Indian influences are sometimes felt but well integrated as not to shock the mostly ultra-symphonic nature of the music. The opening track (winter Light in English) is a weird cross between western classical music, Arabic influences and sitar-laced themes that escapes further description, but it must be heard to be understood. Continuing Dialogue (English title) fuses romantic classical into rock rythms full of synths layers and can fit the term ultra symphonic, so much so that it is a bit awkward/corny to my ears. The third track rounding up side 1 is more energetic and can be considered as one of the highlights as the middle sections allows for good musical interplay.

    Side 2 picks-up on the ultra-symphonic rock prog of the first side but clearly from the second track's first moments, the latter is the main attraction with a good droning violin and a slowly evolving moody crescendo.

    Although a good symphonic album dating from Spain's liberation of its ugly dictatorship, this album is of a correct level but has failed to raise my excitement more than on a few minutes at a time.





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    Member Joe F.'s Avatar
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    Cozy, you sure have a knack for pulling out stuff in my collection that I haven't played in years.

  3. #3
    Ah, I absolutely love this one! Among the first true "chamber rock/folk" releases, I reckon - although very different from what was going on in the UK, France and Belgium at the time. And I find it fascinating that this work was made by what was essentially a rock'n'roll guitarist (ex-Smash, right?) with admitted flamenco and jazz-axe aspirations. I must spin this soon!
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
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  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Joe F. View Post
    Cozy, you sure have a knack for pulling out stuff in my collection that I haven't played in years.
    +1... I did not give the album high marks then....but it was few years back...

  5. #5
    That's Mr. to you, Sir!! Trane's Avatar
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    Note to self: I must re-write (or at least fix) that embarassing drivel whenever I can...
    my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.

  6. #6
    I'm here for the moosic NogbadTheBad's Avatar
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    Sounds interesting, need to check this out.
    Ian

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    Traversing The Dream 100423's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by NogbadTheBad View Post
    Sounds interesting, need to check this out.

    Me too. I've never heard of it, but it sounds interesting.

  8. #8
    Casanova TCC's Avatar
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    Good call!.
    Excellent album!!.
    Pura Vida!.

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    Duke Ellington.

  9. #9
    Member Zalmoxe's Avatar
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    Cool, never heard of this before. I see there are other albums by Gualberto, besides "Vericuetos". How do they compare to this one?

  10. #10
    Casanova TCC's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zalmoxe View Post
    I see there are other albums by Gualberto, besides "Vericuetos". How do they compare to this one?
    Taken from TSPRE:
    http://www.dlsi.ua.es/~inesta/Prog/SPE/gualberto.html

    "Gualberto was born in 1945 in Sevilla, Spain. At 17 he formed the rock group "Los Murcielagos", followed in 1967 by Smash, a standard and pioneering group in Spanish and Andalusian Rock history. After disbanding the group Gualberto leaves for the US to study music. He starts as a composer. His first work was the rock opera "Behind stars"; in cooperation with the "Good Vibrations Studio" and the "Yoga Symphony Orchestra", he formed a group for it with the famous Hindu sitarplayer Diwan Mothihar.

    This first solo recording has not been published yet. Returning to Spain he published there two solo works : "A la vida al dolor" ("To life and pain") and "Vericuetos". In 1976 he remains several months in France and Holland, composing camera music leading to his next record "Otros dias". Between 1976 and 1979 he arranged and contributed on several projects, rock and flamenco copositions all brought together on "Inquietudes a compas" (in 1997). In 1979 he records an album of fusion between jondo songs and sitar called "Gualberto y Agujetas" (included on that disc from 1997 too). In the eighties he makes mostly orchestration arrangements, in which he arranges the flamenco instrumentations and the classical part. From this time he arranged "Casta" for Lole and Manuel and "Cuaderno de Coplas" (" Notebook of Songs") and "A través del olvido" de Carlos Cano at and the song "Rimas de Bécquer" for Carlos Cano and "Rimas de Bécquer" for Benito Moreno. He recorded also the album "Puentes", and compositions for a Trio of clarinetes called "Quartet Biennial", a work for the Banda Municipal de Sevilla and "Turrunuelo" for an inaugural concert of the second Biennial. He also directs the Choir Rociero de Triana, with will record in ten years of collaboration several albums.

    In 1983 after some memoriable concerts with Ricardo Mino he was asked to do a record once more (which was the very spontaneous "Puente Mágico"). From 1987 he is introduced in the world of comnputer music, creating his own study, publishing music for cinema and television. In 1990 he returns to the scene as an interpreter, with several concerts emphasizing his participation in the 1st Cycle of the New Music at the University of Seville, from which the disc "Sin Comentario" will come forth (only published later by Lost Vinyl in 1996), and at the International Festival of the Guitar in Cordova, a Festival in Italy, where he played with Nacho Duato, Encuentos de Nueva together with Wim Mertens. In 1995 he initiates a new cycle of concerts, in which he plays different instruments on prerecorded bases, combining different styles and tendencies. In 1998 he records "Resistances" with Ricardo Mino. In 2000 he records one more disc with him and with the cooperation of a lot of artists. (From a lost web page: www.sevillacultural.com)"


    Regards,
    Tomás.
    Last edited by TCC; 02-13-2013 at 10:02 AM.
    Pura Vida!.

    There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind. ∞
    Duke Ellington.

  11. #11
    Member Sputnik's Avatar
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    Good album. I enjoy it when I spin it, but I'm having difficulty calling any of the music up in my head just now. Probably need to soon this one again soon.

    Bill

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    Quote Originally Posted by Zalmoxe View Post
    Cool, never heard of this before. I see there are other albums by Gualberto, besides "Vericuetos". How do they compare to this one?
    "A la vida, al dolor" is basically as good as Vericuetos, IMO. IIRC there's a hippy-dippy American singer on a couple of tracks with some goofy lyrics like "honeysuckle, magic butterfly" that probably puts some people off, but the rest of the album is still pretty good. Gnosis raters might disagree with that assessment, but Rateyourmusic people seem to agree.

  13. #13
    It starts off with analog synth, violin and sitar bliss, so I was sold on this album almost immediately. The shortcoming here is the long closing track, which just gets too repetitive after a while, but the rest of the disc is rock solid. Pity it’s so short.

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  14. #14
    Moderator Poisoned Youth's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Joe F. View Post
    Cozy, you sure have a knack for pulling out stuff in my collection that I haven't played in years.
    LOL, I'll keep working on that.
    WANTED: Sig-worthy quote.

  15. #15
    Member Joe F.'s Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Poisoned Youth View Post
    LOL, I'll keep working on that.
    I did put in a pile of discs to listen to over the holiday weekend.

    Keep up the good work!

  16. #16
    The eons are closing
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    I dont yet have this for my spanish collection; added to the list! Thanks Cozy
    Death inspires me like a dog inspires a rabbit

  17. #17
    (not his real name) no.nine's Avatar
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    Lovely album.


    Quote Originally Posted by Progbear View Post
    The shortcoming here is the long closing track, which just gets too repetitive after a while, but the rest of the disc is rock solid.
    I disagree. I find the closing track to be mesmerizing in the same way that other similarly repetitive tracks such as Gentle Giant's "Three Friends" or PFM's "Traveler" (from Jet Lag) are.
    "I tah dah nur!" - Ike

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