Arco Iris - Suite N°1 (1972)

Otro disco de Arco Iris, otro gran aporte de Facundo y otro compilado que aparece en este humilde espacio para alegría de varios. La banda estaba experimentando y buscando su estilo definitivo, y eso se nota en los temas, con algunos bastante largos como la suite, y otros que rozan diferentes estilos pero sin ser demasiado homogéneo. Yo no creo que nos tengamos que parar demasiado sobre esto y queda como materia para aquellos fanáticos que desean obtener todos los materiales que haya sacado determinada banda, y como siempre decimos, mejor que sobre y no que falte... sobretodo en un fin de semana largo.


Artista: Arco Iris
Álbum: Suite N°1
Año: 1972
Género: Folk Rock
Duración: 35:12
Nacionalidad: Argentina

Una "rara avis" discográfica de Arco Iris que contiene temas que no entraron en el primer LP del grupo, mas algunas versiones en inglés grabadas en la sesión del 25 de marzo de 1969.
Personalmente agrego como bonus el track "Mujer" (Women), que si bien no figura en la edición original de este recopilatorio, pertenece a la misma sesión de grabación.
El siguiente comentario salió en Progarchives, de un mexicano amante del rock argento:

Rainbow? No, Arco Iris!
Lately i´ve been digging more and more the exquisite music that comes from Argentina, which happens to be my favourite SouthAmerican country talking about progressive rock of course, the 70s especially was a decade that brough a lot of wonderful bands and the birht of promising musicians, some of those bands released one or two albums and dismembered, some others changed their musical style, in this case Arco Iris kept a similar line in that decade, a Jazz/Fusion style with a folkish touch, if im not wrong their self-titled album (first) was released in 1969, so we can say that Arco iris was one of the pioneers of progressive rock in Argentina, which is a relevant note in my opinion.
When i discovered the band i was surprised because i found that a man called Gustavo Santaolalla was a member of the band, in my country (México) he is a very known musician because he has done music for soundtracks of popular (and unpopular) movies, actually i think he has been nominated for the Oscar, yes do you recognize him? is the same guy who did the music of Babel last year, so that was actually something that caugh more my attention and wanted to listen to this band more.
This album Suite No 1 was the first of Arco Iris i listened and was released in 1971, they later released in 1974 their most succesful album in Argentina called Agitor Lucens V whch is highly recommendable, bu now i will talk about Suite No. 1, a rock fusion album which features 4 songs and a total time of 35 minutes of very nice music.
It kicks off with Suite No. 1 the longest song of the album and starts with a very soft sound of acoustic guitar and later on a delicate flute sound appears, after a short pause, the music begins again but this time with spoken words (in English), then the song presents some time changes but all in a nice soft line accompanied with vocals, the same Gustavo Santaolalla is the man who sings, at the final minutes of the song it becomes just a little bit stronger, but then it returns to the nice and soft flute - acoustic guitar music, in my opinion the song may have been shorter and the result would have been the same, you may get bored after 6 or 7 minutes.
Solo Tengo Amor shows a different face of the music, i dont know you but like in Italian prog scene, in the Argentinian in specific the 70s i find the vocals pretty alike with a characteristic style, you will hear it in this song, which may be considered as a poppish song due to the lyrics, but in the middle you will find a good guitar solo and nice harmonization, the song is kind of happy and the shorter of them all.
Una Tarde Mas continues with the style of the previous song, for me its a nice listening but actually i believe you may be bored with it, it is very calm and i think in the beginning it lacks of something, maybe lacks of strenght but then after a couple of minutes the show their jazzy influence and orientation that is very enjoyable, you will notice it when the drumming appears.
Y Yo Quiero is the last song of this album and the stronger, first of all you will hear a kind of dramatic starting, then the song itself becomes more and more interesting, keeping the jazz influences but in the lightier side of it (to give it a label), in the middle of the song the vocals appear again but stronger, then a sax and percussion along with bass appear and its what make this song different to the previous ones (and more interesting), then a killer guitar solo puts a different taste to the song
This album is by no means their best, it is just a regular album that i can enjoy if i listen to it once in a while, not that recommendable, but not bad either, i will give it 2 stars but i assure you that in this case a 2-star rating doesn´t mean the album is bad, i just think that fans and people who like to discover new bands may like it. 

memowakeman

...otro que aparece antes del fin de semana largo...

Cuando Arco Iris firma contrato con Music Hall, el sello al que pertenecían anteriormente (RCA), decide lanzar un LP con material anteriormente no conocido que pertenecía a las sesiones de grabación del primer álbum "Arco Iris" y un par de versiones en inglés de temas anteriormente conocidos. Estos temas habían sido grabados posteriormente al registro del primer álbum con motivo de un viaje de Santaolalla a Estados Unidos durante el cuál trataría de establecer contactos allí. Realizado de esta manera se trata evidentemente de un álbum desparejo, inferior a lo que podía brindar esta banda en el momento que fué publicado. Sin embargo cuenta con el atractivo de largas sesiones instrumentales que lo hace apetecible para coleccionistas y completistas. En su momento Santaolalla calificó de inescrupulosa la actitud del sello al publicar estos temas, particularmente por el hecho de ser en parte cantado en inglés.

pacocamorra

Y lo pueden escuchar desde el video que acompaña al post.

 

 

 

Lista de Temas:
1.Blues de Dana
2.La lluvia
3.Volar
4.Para vos
5.Una tarde más
6.Es nuestra libertad
7.Canción para una mujer
8.Lo veo en tus ojos
9.Sólo tengo amor
10.Y ahora soy
11 - Quien es la chica
12- Luisito cortate el pelo
13- Abre tu mente

Alineación:
- Gustavo Santaolalla / Guitar and vocals
- Guillermo Bodarampe / Bass
- Ara Tokatlian / Flutes
- Horacio Gianello / Drums and percussion