Témpano - The Agony And The Ecstasy (2002)

Artista: Témpano
Álbum: The Agony And The Ecstasy
Año: 2002
Género: Rock progresivo
Duración: 70:35
Nacionalidad: Venezuela

Lista de Temas:
1. Twisted Mind
2. Bonfire
3. Just in a Second
4. Gigante
5. Piet?
6. Timeless Time
7. Attimo Infinito
8. Intermezzo
9. La Porta di Santo Spirito
10. Giudizio Universale
11. Il Duomo
12. Final Agony
13. All Ages Tears
14. Imaginary Sky
15. Conspiracy

Alineación:
- Gerardo Ubieda / drums
- Pedro Castillo / guitars, vocals
- Miguel Angel Echevarreneta / bass
- Giuglio Cesare Della Noce / keyboards
Músicos invitados:
Huascar Barradas / flautas
Marcella Mosca / voz

Esta es, a mi entender, una de las mejores bandas progresivas latinoamericanas, y antes de pasar a la reseña del disco, vamos con la informacion sacada del sitio oficial del grupo:

El grupo venezolano Témpano ha sobrepasado con sus dos producciones 'Atabal Yemal' (1979) y 'El fin de la Infancia' , la barrera del conformismo. La sorprendente e inspirada banda quiso posicionarse con ambos discos mucho mas allá del nivel sinfónico establecido del Rock Progresivo.
Su nuevo álbum 'The Agony and the Ecstasy' me produjo una primera impresión de no estar en el nivel de calidad de sus dos producciones anteriores. Sin embargo, mientras mas detenidamente escucho sus 15 canciones, y me sumerjo más profundo en su onda musical, estas se van haciendo cada vez más perfectas, y es que comprenderá Témpano es al mismo tiempo que sofisticado, totalmente exigente.
El grupo no retrocede ante los giros 'inarmónicos', las ideas abstractas o los ataques musicales oblícuos, si ello conduce a la elevación melódica.
Las primeras estrofas revelan un álbum que nos suena sorprendentemente fresco, románticamente pop, y extremadamente simple, sin embargo, ninguna de estas tres calificaciones se le puede aplicar (o, no sería posible etiquetarlo dentro de ninguna de estas tres categorías). La seducción de los temas se arrastra por encima de complejos motivos progresivos tras lánguidas armonías sinfónicas .
'The Agony and the Ecstasy' luego de llevarnos tras auténticos motivos folklóricos, capaces de romper algunos moldes estereotipados del Rock, nos regresa nuevamente a una deliciosa sensación de lánguido abandono. Refinación y Perplejidad! Las nuevas canciones, difíciles, con sus múltiples y complejas facetas, que parecen regodearse o casi detenerse un poco en una fuerte e indirecta intención de retorno, aunque sin duda mas líricas, mas apacibles y sutiles, mas frías, presentan trozos que por momentos nos parecen apropiados para radioescuchas comunes, sin embargo demasiado lejos de sonar a engaño o nimiedad.
Pasión sinfónica entonada con devoción, como canciones de amor embellecidas o adornadas con toda clase de motivos, que no dejan sospechas del lugar hacia donde se dirige la salvaje banda sonora. En ocasiones, cuando alguno de estos trozos llega a un final que se desliza en una arriesgada nota imprevista, apasionadamente violenta y severa, el grupo abandona el espacio armónico y se inserta en el abstraccionismo del Jazzrock. Sin puntos ni comas, como si no pudiera ser de otra forma.
A pesar de un siempre presente aliento acústico regresivo, sorprenden junto al contenido sinfónico, las mezclas juguetonas de las composiciones Jazzrock. Una aventura prodigiosa, saturada de las mas ilusorias fantasías, sorprendentes cambios y sobrecogedores impactos.
Los músicos de hoy están bastante alejados de sentimientos juveniles, por lo cual sus proposiciones musicales ya no son tan vehementes. Aclarada esta excepción, Témpano se mantiene como una de las más sólidas bandas sudamericanas de rock progresivo, mientras la mayoría de las bandas sinfónicas del continente suramericano se hunden entre altisonantes exageraciones y lirismos.
Quizás un álbum para satisfacer el gusto de ambas corrientes, para los Neo Progresivos, la belleza y la armonía, y para la "Old School Freaks", los motivos abstractos verdaderamente progresivos. En definitiva, un álbum apasionado, lleno de ingenio y de ironía, de melancolía y nostalgia. Quienes sienten un genuino interés musical en el rock sinfónico, ciertamente no pueden dejar de lado esta obra maestra.

Este disco tiene pasajes bastante combinados en estilos, algo de progresivo a la italiana, algo de Crimson en sus dos primeros temas y pasajes acusticos con temas muy bien logrados. "The Agony & The Ecstasy" es una obra que declara la madurez del grupo, efectivamente Tempano ha desarrollado un concepto y sello musical personal y de altos vuelos. La composicion es mas melodica que su anterior trabajo "Childhood's End - El Fin De La Infancia" (1999), con la continuidad de la inclusion de las influencias latinas, el Jazz-Rock progresivo y los pasajes instrumentales clasicos y orquestados.

Que sorpresa (y de las agradables) resultó este el tercer disco “progresivo” de la banda venezolana Témpano, “The Agony and the Ecstasy”.
Dignísimo sucesor del anterior trabajo sinfónico clásico “El Fin de La Infancia”, y muy distinto al, de igual forma que distinto a su ópera prima de los setenta de corte más jazz rock “Atabal Yemal”.
Pues bien esta obra conceptual, lleva la música de nuestros buenos amigos venezolanos a un nuevo sitio, con un mayor aprovechamiento de la estupenda voz de Pedro Castillo (“Bonfire”, “Timeless Time” o la soberbia interpretación de “Imaginary Sky”) además de la consabida estupenda performance técnica – musical del grupo; un aggiornado sonido que impera en todo el disco, pero asimismo partes sumamente “clásicas” en el medio de la obra (“Intermezzo”, “Giudizio Universale”, el exquisito “All Ages Tears”), constituyen una acabada obra, que es completada con un gran arte y gráfica inspirado en el renacimiento italiano, y un estupendo sonido digital.
En síntesis, un trabajo sumamente destacado, que sin dudas conquistará al público progresivo y deja abierta la puerta a lo masivo por su calidad, (este disco fue pre seleccionado para los Grammy), a ver si de una buena vez la buena música recoge el crédito que se merece.

Gustavo Bolasini

What a tremendous masterpiece this is!! Designed as a musical homage to Michelangelo Buonarroti's artistic genius, "The Agony and the Ecstasy" is Témpano's finest work so far, and given the fact that they're still on the road (albeit taking things slow), I assume that we're yet to hear more from them in the near future - just like the most exquisite wine, getting better and better with age. But let's focus on this amazing concept-album by now. This concept album is mostly instrumental, but it also contains some sung stuff - guitarist/keyboardist Pedro Castillo is actually a very good singer and his English accent is very smooth, so maybe the band should consider to give more room to the singing department in their next albums. The opener 'Twisted Mind' is an amazing piece of solidly adorned prog rock with a slight jazzy twist and an occasional touch of fusion - regarding the effective appeal of the motifs and the quality of the performances and interplaying, the sensible listener should be pleased by now, getting increasingly curious about what is yet to come as the album goes on (much more ecstasy than agony in this listening experience). Then comes 'Bonfire', an exquisite exercise on orchestrating and counterpoints with clever dissonances and dramatic shifts (somewhat related to early After Crying) that serves as an interlude between 'Twisted Mind' and 'Just in a Second', the first sung track. All sung tracks have a modern symphonic appeal to them, based on not-too-complicated rhythm patterns and clear melodic lines, structured in a modern-sounding frame. 'Just in a Second' includes some jazz-pop hints, while 'Timeless Times' may remind you of Porcupine Tree at their most melancholic (a special mention goes to the soaring synth solo that goes along the middle guitar lead on to the last sung verse). 'Il Duomo' and 'Imaginary Sky' are more closely related to current neo-prog, always with a proper touch of sophistication provided by the weird adornments that are incorporated here and there. But nothing in this album is as weird as the sequence of tracks 7-10: think of a hybrid of Isildur's bane and a less scary Art Zoyd and you will get the picture. On the opposite side of things, 'Gigante' (a beautiful classical guitar solo piece) and 'All Ages Tears' bring moments of sheer serenity. The closing track 'Conspiración' is an amazing 10-minute prog journey that goes places constantly on the wings of a basic jazz-oriented motif: echoes of Happy the Man, Yes, 80s King Crimson and Pat Metheny Group keep on appearing and getting recycled in a modern filter. This is the least 'composed' number in the album, but it never drags around or meanders pointlessly: all four musicians work really hard at their interplaying in order to keep the main musical ideas and its further variations firmly rooted in a fluid unity. The modern essence of this repertoire lies in no small degree on the use of digital keyboard effects and occasional drum loops, which do not replace the warmth of human instrumentation, but help it to increase its expressiveness and develop it to its full potential. It's incredible how such an amount of varied musical sources can be so coherently integrated in an album's full amalgam, but again, this is the stuff that most prog masterpieces are made of - variety and integrality. 4.5 stars for "The Agony and the Ecstasy" and countless blessings for Témpano.

César Inca

Most of you dear readers know that "The Agony & the Ecstasy" is the third album by veterans of the Progressive Rock movement and undoubtedly the best Venezuelan band of all time, Tempano. To read the review of their second album, "Childhood's End", and see the band's discography, click >here.
The Album. There are only five songs among the fifteen tracks that are presented on the new Tempano album and four of them are in English. These are Just In a Second, Timeless Time, In Duomo, and Final Agony (3, 6, 11, & 12), the latter of which is an amazing ballad sung to the accompaniment of outstandingly diverse and tasteful interplay between passages of semi-acoustic guitar, solos of bass, and those of synthesizer. Although Attimo Infinito (7) was narrated rather than sung (in Spanish), most of all, it reminds me of a wonderful, truly magical, musical fairy tale. Just In a Second, Timeless Time, and In Duomo are the Classic Art-Rock songs with elements of Jazz-Fusion and of a highest progressive quality. In fact, though, this album in its entirety consists of really inspired, highly original and profound arrangements that, most often, develop with the use of truly innovative and unique rhythmic measures and are, moreover, marked with signs of such a musical magic that even Titans would be proud of. There is also only one ballad (a classical guitar-based ballad, to be precise) among the instrumental pieces on the album. This is Gigante (8), while all the other instrumental compositions are still about a marvelously unique and impressive Classic Symphonic Art-Rock with elements of Jazz-Fusion, Prog-Metal, and a few of those of the Baroque music. All five of the songs and all ten of the instrumental compositions that are presented on "The Agony and the Ecstasy" album are complete masterpieces and are filled with the arrangements that are definitely about a lofty progressive ecstasy. To appreciate and comprehend all the wonderful contents of this pearl, you should yourselves to hear it, as it is impossible to describe all this magic (honest!), as well as express with words what I feel now - while listening to the CD for the tenth time or so. In my honest opinion, none of the real connoisseurs of the genre should be deprived of having such a wonderful festive. So try to get this album at any cost! As a last resort, ask your friend(s) to record the CD-R copy of it for you.
Summary. Tempano's "The Agony and the Ecstasy" is probably the only contemporary Classic Symphonic Art-Rock album (and I've already listened to it about a dozen of times running!) that currently impress me as much as the works of Titans of the genre. Is there a necessity to add any other words here? I think not.

Progressor

En este álbum, Témpano se las arregló para generar un trabajo donde conviven armoniosamente tanto el disonante jazz-rock, un retroprog basado en el teclado, el Hammond y el Moog, oscuras melodías, y al mismo tiempo un fresco y creativo rock progresivo moderno orientado a la vanguardia, esto hace que sitúe a Témpano entre las bandas del género que transmiten algo especial, con el talento suficiente como para ofrecer cosas completamente nuevas a través de un retroprog polvoriento.
Además, es evidente la influencia que ha tenido Témpano en otras grandes bandas venezolanas como RC2 (donde incluso tienen como invitados a músicos de Témpano en sus discos) y muchos otros.

El álbum es de caracter conceptual, variado y bien instrumentado, con multitud de detalles sonoros. Hay temas muy de fusión, mientras otros temas con mucho sabor melódico a Sting y Steely Dan, otros temas que suenan al reagge/rockpop de The Police, mechado con todo eso también están los largos desarrollos instrumentales y orquestados clásicos a lo After Criyng (en algun momento me recuerda a XII Alfonso) y temas algo funkys con fondo jazz piano. Todo ello con una produccion muy elaborada con multitud de detalles instrumentales y sonoros.
La verdad es que tendríamos que completar la discografía de esta banda en el blog, estamos en uns deuda muy grande... escuchen a la banda y verán porqué se los digo.

Even with the advent of the enigmatic Hugo Chavez, not everything coming out of Venezuela is bad. At least on this one occasion, some very interesting progressive rock music has emanated from across the Caribbean - the formerly friendly confines of Venezuela
There's a reason that Tempano's, Agony and the Ecstasy, has tended to garner solid five star reviews. The reason is simple, it is a solid five star album.
I bought The Agony and the Ecstasy on a lark. I had never heard a note by Tempano but the reviews sounded good, so I put them on my wish list, where it must have sat for a good year or so. It finally made it from my wish list to my cart, when after the last Xmas I received a large gift certificate from my daughter. When placing my order, I ran out of items I wanted but I didn't want to leave a credit balance.
When I received The Agony and the Ecstasy I played it on my computer while I was doing some typing upon it. I didn't expect much, but it didn't take long before I was paying more attention to Tempano's music then my typing. Within an hour I had pulled up Tempano on a website and ordered their other two available releases.
What kind of music does Tempano play? Though, they are from Venezuela, there seems to be very little Latin influences. I noticed a little in only one song, Il Duomo and it is fabulous. The Agony and the Ecstasy contains fifteen highly varied songs running from 56 seconds to ten minutes. Overall the album is sixty-five plus minutes. There are some vocals but the album is more instrumental. The songs range from symphonic prog rock, to movie score sounding contemporary music, to something just short of jazz, while the tempos run the gamut from easy going to medium fast, yet everything they play is smooth . smooth as Venezuelan Oil.
Conclusion: I really believe that if you like progressive rock music, this album specifically and Tempano in general, is for you. The variety of the music is really astounding, as is the variety of instruments. Now, I'm no musician but even I can appreciate unusual instruments being used. Look for bongos, xylophones, flutes, trumpets, sound effects and various synthesized instruments. In a nutshell this is one of the most diversified and original bands I've heard in a while.

Duane Daum

Better than the previous album "Childhood's End" but I still prefer their seventies debut. Some excellent instrumental sections on this one but I find this record a little inconsistant.
"Twisted Mind" is a top two with the impressive instrumental work including the bass, guitar and drums all of which are top notch here. "Bonfire" turns heavy 30 seconds in then settles back as contrasts continue. "Just In A Second" opens with acoustic guitar and reserved vocals. A fuller sound follows then a calm before 3 minutes before it kicks back in. Not a fan of this one. It ends with the sounds of thunder. "Gigante" is a short acoustic guitar piece. "Pieta" featues sounds that come and go before the guitar leads late. "Timeless Time" is led by strummed guitar, a beat and reserved vocals eventually. It does get fuller. "Attimo Infinito" opens with spoken words and samples. Piano after 1 1/2 minutes then a heavy pulsating sound comes in as the song keeps changing. It blends into "Intermezio" which has more of the same really.
"La Porta Di Santo Spirito" kicks in at 30 seconds then settles back before 1 1/2 minutes with string-like sounds and pinao. It blends into "Giudizio Universale" as sounds again come and go with tempo shifts. "Il Duomo" has some nice bass in it when it picks up. Vocals join in too.Good sound here.Vocals stop before 3 minutes and an excellent instrumental section takes over. Contrasts continue. "Final Agony" is ballad-like. Not a fan. "All Ages Tears" opens with piano and flute and a classical vibe. "Imaginary Sky" is mellow as reserved vocals join in. Some nice guitar 4 minutes in then the vocals and earlier sound return. "Conspiracion" is the other top two. So yes it starts and ends really well for me. Atmosphere early as a beat with bass and guitar take over. Excellent track.
I really prefer it when he's not singing and the band let's loose. A good album that fails to impress me overall.

John Davie

Utter and complete disappointment. I am familiar with only their later stuff (Selective Memory), but basing my estimation that there was early era, then commercial era and much later "this" era of goodness, I was expecting something as good as SM. Guess again I suppose. Too much spoken word here, too many experimentation parts (that works only half of the time), not enough melody (remember Selective Memory), mostly reverting to Avantgarde. That may work with Univers Zero (quite similar at times), but not here with the Venezuelans. But to be honest, it's not a bad album per se, it's just not what I've expected, not what I usually like, but there are qualities that I don't dare to bury under too low rating, hence 3 stars.

Marty McFly

THIS IS JUST FANTASTIC!!! I know these guys since very young. They was neighbours. Pedro was Luisiana´s boy friend then Carmen´s, Miguel Angel was Clara´s, Gerardo lived in Macaracuay and had this huge chevy Malibu. And I can tell u guys .... they all very tallented. Pedro is one of the best radio jingle maker and locutor in country. Gerardo played with almost every best band in country and best of bars. He alternated with every great band that visited Venezuela, (including Van Halen at they best times) with my friend Pocho Serra . Edward Van Halen came to backstage and told Pocho how good guitarist he was. Miguel Angel is one of the best bassits I´ve heard in my place, saludos Miguel!, yo vivia en la Carupano. I can see all their influences, Crimson, Zeppelin, Floyd, Toto,Happy the man, PT, Gary Moore, Police, Le Orme; Gentle Giant, Yes, genesis, sui generis...... AND I can tell YOU : they all admired those guys like I do since 9 years old now and we talked lots about prog issue, I really liked that. FELICITACIONES A LOS PANAS!! ESTA BUENIIIIIIISSSSSIIIIIIMMOOOOOO!!!! IS ONE OF THE BEST PROG ALBUMS EVER, SO PLEASE BUY IT (through progarchives.com) AND HELP THE BAND BECAUSE VENEZUELA IS THE PARADISE OF PIRACY!!

Diego Sandylane

Great album, is amazing, im venezuelan and i feel so proud that these guys made this great album, they are legends in my country, they had a bad moment (some pop songs that i dont like too much), but they'r back to their roots, making this super album ultra prog, with some lyrics in italian, english, some times reminds me king crimson john wetton era, but with their own style that makle this band a great band that every fan of 70s prog will love.

Leonardo Iommy

If Atabal Yemal and Childhood's End are PHENOMENAL this one is really something BIG. The sound clarity, the production, the design, everything from begining to end is simply great, one of the best albums I have ever heard in prog rock, and with over 30 years listening to prog rock this is a solid and honest opinion.
The voice of the singer is probably the best voice in prog. nowdays and the performance and composition level are as high as they can be, every one of them stands out in their instrument, don't die without listening to this album.
Now , be carefull, ONLY this 3 are real prog, the others are more pop rock oriented, with some similarities to Asia and Saga.

lmqsam

Témpano es una de las mejores bandas progresivas de Venezuela. La banda es buenisima, sus composiciones son de primer nivel y la ejecución es destacada. Lástima que ene este álbum cantan en inglés, sin embargo su música es declaradamente latinoamericana hasta el tuétano (incluso no faltan pasajes folck)... pero bueno, más allá de todo eso, esta banda no tiene álbums como para dejar pasar por alto. Muy recomendado!

www.tempano.com