Detailed Reviews [Canturbe - 1980/2003 - "El Vuelo de los Olvidados"]

Canturbe (Argentina) - 2003 - "El Vuelo de los Olvidados"
(41 min, Viajero Inmovil)

Prolusion. "El Vuelo de los Olvidados" is the only album by the Argentinean quartet Canturbe. Originally released on LP at the end of 1980, it enjoyed three re-releases during the first half of the eighties, all of which, though, are already unavailable. Finally, Viajero Inmovil Records has issued it on CD.

Synopsis. The album contains nine tracks, all of which are songs where the quantity of vocal-based and purely instrumental arrangements is approximately equal. With the exception of that on Medidas de Sol (6), to which I'll return below, the music is a distinctive guitar Art-Rock, which doesn't have any analogs in the world of music. In pure form, this style is present on Leccion de Sangre, Suenos de Ayer, En Virtuo del Obsecado, and the album's title track (1, 3, 4, & 9), and with elements of symphonic Art-Rock on Amurado en tu Puerta, De Toros los Inventos, Los Perros de Villa Gesell, and Linyera de Alcoba (2, 5, 7, & 8). All four of the latter songs, with solos and passages of synthesizer interwoven with basic textures, are especially rich in sound and, along with En Virtuo del Obsecado (4), are the most diverse tracks on the album - both compositionally and structurally. While the vocals are melodious and romantic in character throughout, the instrumental parts on each of the five best tracks here, and also on Leccion de Sangre (1), are, amazingly, simultaneously soft and harsh. Intensive, up-tempo interplay between solos of electric guitar and those of bass, which, by the way, are highly virtuosi as well, are always accompanied by calm and beautiful passages of either (and mostly) acoustic or semi-acoustic guitar. The remaining two songs that follow the album's prevailing stylistics: Suenos de Ayer and El Vuelo de los Olvidados (3 & 9) are rather calm in their entirety. But then, the solos and passages of acoustic guitar here are just amazingly inventive and play a prominent role throughout each of them. Back to Medidas de Sol, I must say this is an excellent composition, even though there is nothing but the classically influenced passages of piano performed with and without vocals.

Conclusion. The music on Canturbe's "El Vuelo de los Olvidados" isn't that complex, and the album is probably inferior to any of the other releases of Viajero Inmovil Records. Which, at least partly, is due to the fact that most of them are superb masterpieces. Nevertheless, this is in many ways a remarkable album, and originality isn't the only hallmark of it. Romantic guitar Art-Rock lovers will find here just what they like.

VM: February 10, 2004