Short Reviews [Alfa Serenar - 2020 - "Via"]

This is the second album I have heard from Alfa Serenar, the pseudonym of Rafael Senra, a professor at Federal University of Amapa (Brazil). I really enjoyed ‘The Mood Machine (And Other Furnitures)’, and while this album is related, it is also quite different in some ways. Here we are being taken on a journey with a client of the Voyage Imagination Agency, taking us to faraway places of which we can only dream. While the vocals are still the weakest point, they are much better on this album than the last, and also contains long instrumental passages and songs. Rafael comes to music from a guitar viewpoint, but it is far more like Steve Hillage and Gong than more modern prog rockers, while he also has a huge amount of influence from the likes of Brian Eno and the result is an album where guitars and keyboards combine to take the listener toa different world. The cover art may be fairly basic, but is really good representation of the album, as it is a journey through space and time but on a railway track as opposed to hyperspace, so we have time to sit back and relax. Songs such as the instrumental “Tea On A Gravestone” are totally reflective, while “Pagan Shadow” is quite different, with strummed acoustic and a concentration on vocals. I would be interested in hearing a complete album comprised of material more of the former, as that would be quite stunning, but even with that being said this is a crossover progressive album which many will find inviting.