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Amarok — Canciones para un Planeta Herido
(Azafrán Media AP-2450, 2024, 2CD)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2024-11-18

Canciones para un Planeta Herido Cover art

After the release of their seventh album Sol de Medianoche in 2007 and a spellbinding performance at Baja Prog, the news went out that Amarok was calling it quits. A document of their performance at the 2005 Gouveia festival appeared in 2011, and then finally in 2015 the band released a reunion album Hayat Yolunda (Path of Life) with a second disc of archival material spanning the years 2009-2015, material they were working up at the time of the split but never released, as well as some cover tunes. Another six years passed and in 2021 we got another studio album El Ojo del Mundo, one that strongly reflects bandleader and composer Robert Santamaria’s newfound interest in Middle Eastern instruments like santoor, saz, tar, kanun, and more, while retaining much of the sound that the band had developed previously, with Santamaria and singer Marta Segura at the center of it all. With a few more years on, they have created the latest album Canciones para un Planeta Herido, or Songs for a Wounded Planet, a double-CD set of no less than fourteen pieces, some reflecting the folk and proggy aspects of the group’s earlier sound, while others have more of a world music vibe reflecting the sound of their previous album, with a few reworkings of tunes like “Bosques Silenciosos” and “Mujer Luna” from their earlier years. The first thing one should know is that this is a really long album, over 100 minutes total playing time, though I’m sure most listeners (and especially those familiar with the band’s earlier work) will find it to be enthralling and very worthwhile. Marta Segura’s vocals are most definitely a high point, as is all of the varied instrumentation — Santamaria plays keyboards, 12-string guitars, kanun, saz, santoor, glockenspiel, kalimba, and more; Manel Mayol plays flute, tin whistle, and recorders; Pau Zañartu plays drums on some of the tracks, Renato di Prinzio on others, plus zarb, riq, and daf on the beautiful Indonesian-flavored “Gunung Padang,” with other players joining on Greek bouzouki, tablas, oud, violin, trumpet, Theremin, and more, track depending. The beautiful “Madre Agua” that closes disc two is a full sixteen minutes long, with 12-string, keys, flute, and tabla making it slightly reminiscent of early 70s Trespass era Genesis. Other standouts include the instrumental “Permafrost,” with its lengthy piano and flute intro leading into a main theme on keyboards, glockenspiel and kalimba. “Erizos” serves as a lengthy piano intro to the gorgeous “Los Secretos del Rio,“ where Segura offers an enchanting vocal performance, joined by 12-string, flute, keys, and no drums. “M’Gouin” that closes disc one has a strong Arabic feel, and is in fact a reworking of a piece from the band’s 1999 album Tierra de Especias. A gentle but powerful piece, “Solastalgia” is a multi-part instrumental piece with pulls the listener into its world. So many great tunes across these two discs, and it’s one of those albums that juat keeps getting more interesting and engaging with each subsequent listen.

Filed under: New releases, 2024 releases

Related artist(s): Amarok

More info
http://taplink.cc/cancionesparaunplanetaherido

 

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