Metamorphoses

This album wears the subtitle "Electronic Adventures in Flamenco." The flamenco portion is provided by Alfredo Lagos, guitar virtuoso. His music is treated electronically by Giovani Venosta and Massimo Mariani. Lagos improvised a series of pieces following directions provided by the other two. These pieces are included on the CD. Some are solos, others for two guitars (overdubbed by Lagos). The "studies" and the "suite" showcase the guitar work treated by various electronic means made obvious by the track titles — "Study About Distortion," for instance. That one and "Study About Rhythm" (which keeps only the percussive attack) contain interesting electro-acoustic transformations, but the other pieces are surprisingly one-track minded and simple. "Suite About Depth" has Lagos demonstrating five traditional forms (like the fandango and the buleria), while his sound is displaced, filtered, and echoed. In the end it seems quite pointless. Much better is the concluding piece "Study With Handclaps & Voice" — just that. The way the handclaps have been multiplied and the guitar completely warped is exquisite and should have served as the basis of the album. That track apart, the best moments are found in the unaltered guitar performances. The work of Venosta and Mariani is surprisingly thin here when compared to earlier projects, especially their trio album Losing the Orthodox Path with Roberto Musci. ~ François Couture, Rovi