Musica Urbana / Joan Albert / Felui Gasul - Historia 3 x CD box with 52 page booklet (due to weight, this price for the USA only. Outside of the USA, the price will be adjusted as needed)
SKU
21-ReR MUFG1
Three GREAT albums (one never before heard or even known to have existed!) plus an amazing book that sets the scene for the Catalonian progressive scene just after Franco. Chris / ReR have really done a great job on this. Hugely recommended, even if you have two of the CDs already, because the unreleased disc and the booklet are both amazing!
“This box collects and restores two legendary and totally great mid-70s releases, met at the time with extravagant critical acclaim but few sales outside of Spain – and presents for the first time a previously unknown studio recording by the otherwise undocumented Trio Altisent – which featured members of both other projects, alongside a substantial and comprehensive book of background materials, newly conducted interviews, rare unpublished photographs and a general overview of the Barcelona music scene in the mid 1970s.
CD1: Musica Urbana - one of the most impressive albums of its time: uniquely infuses the languages of rock, jazz and formal composition with the Spanish folk tradition of flamenco and the sensibility of nat'l composers (e.g. Manuel de Falla and Isaac Albéniz). It weaves all these elements into a uniquely Spanish iteration of experimental rock. A work of luminous brilliance.
CD2: Joan Albert I Felui Gasul, released a year later by Musica Urbana's keyboardist Joan Albert Amargos and flamenco virtuoso Feliu Gasul, a seamless fusion of styles..intensity and high degree of musical intelligence..edge-of-the-seat playing & mixture of compositional and improvisational flexibility, with a lightness and sense that conceal the compositions' fiendish complexity. Joan Albert plays acoustic piano, fender electric and clavinet, Jaume Cortadellus adds some perfectly judged flute on one of the tracks. All of Musica Urbana appear on another. Beautifully recorded and mixed, with unusually clear, strong sound and exquisite separation, together capturing an explosive cultural moment.
CD3: Trio Altisent, unreleased recordings by Amargos, Gasul and Cortadellus made in 1984, in a project that grew from their previous work together. Amargos and Gasul went on to become highly respected contemporary composers, later working w/ Paco de Lucia, Chick Corea, Miles Davis, & Maria del Mar Bonet.
This box restores and expands an important moment in music, which rapidly faded as music industry values regained control.”