AMOEBA SPLIT – Quiet Euphoria
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Half a year ago, I reviewed with lots of excitement the second album from Spanish fusion prog rockers Amoeba Split. Originally released in 2016, this happened to be a re-release, finally, seven years later, followed by Quiet Euphoria, an album that sounds like a logical successor. I compared the Galicians back then to early to mid-seventies Canterbury bands like Soft Machine, Nucleus and National Health, and while the Canterbury sound is still undeniable, it also has to be said that Amoeba Split don’t really sound like anybody else on their new effort. Quiet Euphoria starts with the title track, a seven-minute-long piece whose first part is synth driven fusion jazz rock with wind instruments adding the backing, but two and a half minutes into the song, the vibraphone takes over, making this an unexpected and highly skilful pleasure. The following Shaping Shadows begins with a far east Asian sounding violin before flute and trumpet take over, giving this mellow piece a dreamily pastoral feeling. The Inner Driving Force is once again a more dynamic song where keyboards and guitar parts alternate with more wind instrument driven moments. Divide And Conquer is at three minutes a shorter track, and although it has a definite fusion atmosphere, it also flirts with an eighties sounding sound and seems to be the only track without wind instruments on the album. Thrown To The Lions is at seven and a half minutes again a longer track, and sounds like symphonic big band jazz, maybe something like Weather Report would have done back in the day. The album ends with the eleven minute long No Time For Lullabies, and this is a track that gave me a hard time at first. It has a more experimental approach that I decided to call ambient jazz. It’s a song that finally convinced me after repeated listening, as it takes patience from the listener to let this piece burrow its way into your brain. There’s piano and alto clarinet, all at a very sedate pace, later joined by jazzy saxophone improvisation and ending in a drone-like dream state. It’s a perfect ending to a truly inspired and inspiring album. According to the Amoeba Split’s Bandcamp page, they are currently eight musicians, playing a whole plethora of instruments: electric bass, guitars, keyboards, Piano, electric piano, Hammond organ, Moog, drums, percussion, tenor and soprano saxophone, alto clarinet, flute, trumpet, flugelhorn and vibraphone. The music is composed by guitarist Alberto Villarroya López and arranged by keyboard player Ricardo Castro Varela, and both take care to give each musician the necessary space so that we are treated with a lush and mesmerising take of progressive fusion jazz rock. My only complaint is that after a seven-year pause, we only get forty minutes of new music. We can only hope that the fourth album will come sooner. |
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6 songs |
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40:10 minutes |
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***** **** |
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Genre: progressive fusion jazz rock Label: áMARXE |
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