Short Reviews [Asceta - 2023 - Erebus. "La Suite de las Sombras"]

There are times when one comes across an album which is breaking boundaries, attempting to do something quite different which is beautiful and disturbing all at the same time, and that is what we have here with Chilean band Asceta. Formed in 2020, they are already back with their second album, which is both a difficult and also easy album to listen to as here we have a band looking back initially to Gryphon and then to their influences of chamber music, and somehow mixing that with Art Zoyd and RIO. While the music is certainly described in a different way to much within the prog scene this is also due to the fact that in many ways these guys fit somewhat better within modern classical. They comprise Rodrigo Maccioni (electric guitar, concert wooden flute, synthesizer), Cristian Peralta (cello), Alfonso Vergara (clarinet, bass clarinet), Arianne Guerra (violin), Alejandro Vera (bassoon), Eduardo Rubio (electric bass, upright bass), and Leonardo Saavedra (drums, percussion) along with two guests in Oscar Pizarro (piano) and Pascal Montenegro (oboe and English horn). The oboe is often the lead instrument within this massively complex and layered piece which is much more like an orchestral construct as opposed to something being perfomed by a band from modern popular music. The title translates to ‘Erebus, The Suite of Shadows’ and one wonders if it has dual meaning as while Erebus has a place in mythology as the offspring of Chaos and is used to describe the darkness of Hades, it is also a name very well known here in New Zealand due to the tragedy in 1979 when an Air New Zealand flight crashed into Mount Erebus in Antarctica, killing all 257 people onboard. Musically this is definitely taking us on a journey, through multiple time signatures and massively complex and complicated scores, yet somehow it is also an album which can be enjoyed the first time of playing and is not something to be frightened of. This is true progressive music which is pushing boundaries yet is also something to be enjoyed and not endured while never succumbing to modern fashions and styles. It is an album of incredible depth and import which I have enjoyed immensely.