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by Lagos, Venosta, Mariani.
ReR MEGACORP, Surrey, UK.
ref#: ReR LVM1/LC-02677

Reviewed by Mike Mosher, E-mail: mikemosh@well.com


This personnel of this project consists of Alfredo Lagos on Spanish guitar and palmas (castanets), Giovanni Venosta applying digital treatments and Massimo Mariani doing both treatments and engineering. Compostions are credited to Lagos/Venosta/Mariani, except the improvisations which are credited as "traditional", which probably mean untreated rather than anonymous in authorship. The "Metamorphoses" were recorded at FX Studio in Milan, July 1997 and mixed that autumn and following summer.

"Night Improvisation" is a seemingly untreated interlude of traditional flamenco guitar. In contrast, "Study About Rhythm" conveys an insectoid fluttering, mothwings upon a microphone builds up percussively with an electronic rhythm. "Study About Liquidness" begins elegantly, rich multitracked film music where some guitar notes are made to sound like a B3 organ until the composition's five-and-a-half minutes convey circa-1970 English progressive rock of King Crimson or similar prodigious guitar-heavy bands of that time and place. "Improvisation #6--About Resistance" is essentially solo guitar.

Despite its title the "Suite About Depth" does not seem to be the album's deepest composition. In its first movement "Seguiriyas" the treatments add architectonic space constructed in the listener's mind with its echo and digitally-clipped rapid strumming. The second, "Alegrias", features guitar notes stretched and again lowered in pitch electronically like a cathedral's pipe organ. Yet subsequent movements "Fandangos", "Solea" and "Bulerias" are tentative and light, fragmentary hesitant, without the expected momentum and drive of traditional flamenco.

"Improvisation #4 for Two Guitars--About Liquidness" picks up the pace with a boldness that all appreciate in the Spanish country guitar. "About Acceleration" pops percussively and echoes itself, a mathematical hall-of-mirrors. This may be the most powerful track on the CD, where the guitar doesn't lose its identity yet the treatments shape it into something new and satisfying. "Improvisation #7 for Two Guitars" seems most like a traditional flamenco moment.

"Improvisation #1 About Rhythm" clicks rapidly as if played nervously not on guitar but with fingers upon on tiny bongo drums. "Study About Distortion" is amusing in its fuzz and feedback--think of Jimi Hendrix playing the "Star-Spangled Banner" at Woodstock--and occasional moments of deep-pipe bellowing like the cry of some hollow-headed dinosaur. Yet what gets lost in such a masquerade is the flamenco glory. Perhaps this is why, like a 1960s rock album, the innersleeve contains an exhortation to the listener to play some pieces "particularly loud".

The final track "Study with castanets & voice" adds Marco "Bill" Vecchi's live electronics to Lagos' guitar and voice and Venosta's palmas, the latter of which are looped to create a clattering garden. This is a listenable and subtle track, reminscent of Brian Eno.

This collection of treated guitar tracks offers a provocative concept, yet too often the flamenco guitar that underpins it is unfocused and evasive (or lost in the mix) and in such cases the electronic treatments fail to enhance it. Other times Lagos' guitar holds its own powerfully, often against the strongest electronic distortions his collaborators have to offer. Like a very distinct wine or spice, perhaps flamenco can't always be "cooked" to sound like anything other than flamenco.