"From this album's earliest jittery unison lines and rocked up beats, this Spanish post fusion band sets the genre clock back to the 70's. Funny thing is, with its ensemble moxie and personal peculiarities, Planeta Imaginario wins expressive points in a style we might have given up for dead or irrelevant. The charm is in the details and the quirks.... It reminds us of what was lacking in much fusion of old: a sense of humour on the cultural playground. Could it be that fusion is ripe for a renaissance? Maybe musical models such as this one-from unexpected corners, globally and stylistically, will hasten a reconsideration of fusion's early demise."
– Josef Woodard, Jazziz, July/August 2008
Planeta Imaginario are a terrific 8 piece jazz/rock band who have been in existance since 1999. This is their second album and the first to be released outside of their native Spain.
They would do one more after this one, the Canterbury-styled classic 'Optical Delusions'.
cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/optical-delusions-2
The band features keyboards (Fender Rhodes, Hammond organ, piano and synthesizer), trombone, two saxists on alto and tenor, trumpet, guitar, fretless bass and drums.
This is a band who know how to write a great tune and how to arrange that tune in a way to bring out all it has to offer and how to leave room for the individual musicians to contribute to it, both in terms of ensemble work and in their solos!
They have a distinctive and attractive Mediterranean sound; you certainly can hear echoes of other jazz/rock bands in their work (Chick Corea's Spanish-tinged fusion works, Gilgamesh, Hatfield and the North and Musica Urbana come easiest to mind), but they really don't sound like anyone else and this is a very exciting release from a great band that we think will be receiving a lot of attention as soon as people hear this album!
released February 12, 2008
The-Hien Trinh : Trombone
Rafa Gómez López : Tenor Saxophone
Hermann ("Mehl") Bauerecker : Alto Saxophone
Guillermo Villa Valdés : Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Eneko Alberdi Laskurian : Guitar
Josep Manresa ("Manre") Zafra : Bass [Fretless Bass]
Marc Capel Nadal : Organ [Hammond L100], Piano [Fender Rhodes], Synthesizer [Korg N5, Korg Delta]
Vasco Miguel Trilla Gomes Dos Santos : Drums