01	Sephiroth						04:17
	02	Hermits						10:46
	03	Xiongmao						01:13
	04	Wendigo						07:11
	05	Hang Y Bajo						02:09
	06	Mama Todorka						02:02
	07	Ishak The Fisherman						12:04
	08	Las Ocho Ranas						03:03
	09	Sol De Medianoche						13:34
	10	Xiongmao 2						00:41
	11	Abaddon's Bolero						08:06

Line-up / Musicians

- Renato Di Prinzio / drums, tabla, Bosphorus and Wuhan cymbals and derbouka
- Mireia Sisquella / soprano and alto saxophone, and keyboards
- Robert Santamaria / keyboards, accordion, 12-string guitar, Turkish saz, Iranian santur, kanun, dulcimer, autoharp, xylophone, glockenspiel, hang and percussions
- Marta Segura / vocals, percussion
- Alan Chehab / bass guitar and oud
- Manel Mayol / flute, tin whistle, vocals, percussion, didjeridoo

Guest musicians:
- Pablo Tato / electric guitar (8,9)
- Andres Oleagui / elctric guitar (2, not 3 as mentioned in the booklet)
- Victor Estradda / Spanish guitar (9), Theremin effects (4)
- Branislav Grbic / violin (3,6-8,11)
- Pepe Andreu / trumpet (4,7-9), flugelhorn (7,9,11), piccolo (11)
- Marta Riba / backing vocals (6)
- Moi Perez / Tibetian chant (4), harmonica (1,7)
- Luis Blanco / vibraslap (7)




Amarok: Sol de Medianoche

This latest studio release from the Spanish ensemble Amarok, their seventh, features some English lyrics for the first time along with the usual Spanish and Catalan. Thematically they continue with their trademark blend of world music, folk and mythology with an even broader array of instruments than their past efforts. Anyone who has seen a live performance with its mummery and art-rock mixture will be sure to have been impressed by the way they blend their Mediterranean and world music themes in with a rock sensibility.

The short introductory piece, "Sephiroth" (presumably from the Jewish Kabbala rather than the sci-fi game) has a distinctly Middle Eastern feel to it whilst the more complex "Hermits" (sung in English) comes in 3 movements, describing rather more romantically than it ever was, Noah John Rondeau, an American Hermit's life and death. Flutes and metal harp give the main flavor to the song which moves from a very gentle intro through a dance theme to a foot tapping jig on exit (he did indeed play the violin).

The scene moves to China for the brief "XiangMao" before a bass vocal growl takes us back to North America and the mythical "Wendigo" of that continent's indigenous peoples. Robert Santamaria's Hammond initially suggests a Western European idiom until that is dispelled by the voice of the wonderful Marta Segura. Sax and organ swing the music back to the West again between verses. An excellent blend of old and new America.

A Swiss hang (like a steel drum although it looks more like something you'd put roast beef in and shove in the oven) is the visitor in "Theme for Hang and Bass" and another short percussive song precedes the next major composition, "Ishak the Fisherman", based on a story from the Arabian Nights. In five parts this song is also the most wordy of the album. Violin accompaniment initially takes Marta's warbling song, gypsy-like, through its paces. The sax which creeps in becomes quite wild in the central theme whilst the tempo falls back for the slow movements, "Far away" and the "Great Secret" which gradually builds to a fine whirling exit in "Tornado a la LLar".

A strange little instrumental with violin, synths and muted trumpet provides an interlude before the last major suite and title piece. " Midnight Sun" is in 6 parts, a mournful, pleading vocal, lightly accompanied opens the work. The tempo moves up for the "Dance of the Automatons" section, Marta's singing here reminding me a little of the singer from Chile's Matraz. A nostalgic section, "Far Away", leads into "The Great Deceit", the most vibrant part of the suite. Some tasty guitar and keyboard work here spinning intertwining melodies over a chugging rhythm. "Taiga" has a Celtic identity with its low whistle intro but Spanish guitar takes over and moves the section into a rather aggressive theme with barking dogs and an urgent lyric powered by brass accompaniment. A gentle reprise of the opening movement's theme closes the track.

The album is completed, after another little foray to China, with a reworking of Keith Emerson's "Abaddon's Bolero", using traditional ethnic percussive instruments, flutes, flugelhorn, jaws harp and accordion instead of the modern keyboards of the original. Intriguingly effective although the grating vocal chants and wailing near the end rather spoil it for me.

Nicely packaged, all the songs have translations and backgrounds included in the artwork. Overall I have to say it isn't quite up to the standard of Quentadharken which is possibly their best work to date but its still a winner and there aren't many bands making this kind of crossover music.



Review
I saw this band live at BajaProg in 2006 and I was very, very impressed with them. Hell, truth be told, I fell in love with them. Where most prog outfits just stand there and play their instruments, Amarok puts on a show. As far as live performance goes, they are the most entertaining, most romantic (Guys? If your wife or girlfriend doesn't appreciate prog, let her hear Amarok. She'll change her tune. Amarok first, then Lark's Tongues In Aspic later. Trust me on this), most fun band I've seen in a good long time. Why I put off getting any of their discs, I don't really know, but I finally got one and am I ever glad that I did.

Sol De Medianoche is the latest offering from the Spanish folk-prog band. I'll use that moniker because to string together a name that actually fits the music of Amarok (symphonic-world-ethnic-jazz-rock-Mediterranean folk-prog) would just be too unwieldy. It is one of those discs that I can just play over and over again, listening to its beautiful music all day long. Most of the time I concentrate on a band's music and sometimes I overlook the vocals, but in this case that would be impossible. Amarok vocalist Marta Segura is way too good to ignore, even for me. That is not to say that band leader Robert Santamaria hasn't come through again with a fine new batch of tunes, but .. wow, Marta sounds good to me. This disc has been in the works for a long, long time. Recording started in April 2004 and was finished in February 2006 in a studio powered solely by solar panels. We all know that most prog recordings are self-financed and, as such, we sometimes have to wait a long time between albums, but I hope we don't have to wait three years before the next Amarok disc. This new stuff is great and I already want more of the same.

Ok, with that all settled now we can talk a bit about the music on this disc. As in most of the music that I've heard by Amarok, a lot of these songs feature themes that are composed using the Arabic scale. Now, that is just a variant of the Phrygian dominant scale (called by some the Flamenco scale) and it is the scale Led Zep used to great effect in "Kashmir" and it is the scale you hear snake charmers playing on the flute to mesmerize their cobras, got it? As the band is from Spain, this fondness for the more exotic sounding scales makes perfect sense. They could have gotten that same sense of mystery by using the harmonic minor mode, but we're glad that they didn't take that route, right? Let the metal heads have the harmonic minor mode, we can do without it!

Luckily for us, Amarok blends the sounds of jazz and symphonic prog with their ethnic folk influences and produces one of the most spell binding releases of 2007 in the effort. With the flute work of Manel Mayol and the increased use of traditional progressive keyboard voices like Hammond organ and Mellotron by Santamaria, the band often reminds me of the style of classic Italian prog, sometimes very similar to Cantina Sociale or Maxaphone. As in previous releases, Amarok uses a plethora of ethnic and acoustic instruments on this disc. There are too many to mention here, but Robert Santamaria alone plays accordion, Turkish saz, the Iranian santur, kanun, dulcimer, autoharp and glockenspiel and a bevy of guest musicians provide a number of stringed and brass instruments to boot.

I hope this won't put anyone off, but my wife loves one of the current hotties, Shakira, and I can't help noticing that some of Amarok's music sounds a bit like this pop diva. This is mainly because the pop princess and Marta Segura have very similar voices and of course the music of Shakira doesn't hold a candle to the stuff that Amarok does, but I surely can't be the only one to notice this similarity. --progressiveworld
Product Description
Amarok (wolf in Eskimo) came into being at the beginning of 1990 as a product of the creative efforts of Robert Santamaria and Lidia Ceron. Robert, who holds a PhD in Paleontology and who is the main composer of the group, has a long history of multimedia compositions on electronic keyboards and piano, centred on themes involving nature and scientific subjects. Lidia, the vocalist, had a classical background and training in singing, and was a member of the Independent Univesity of Barcelona Chorus, among others.

In the summer of 2002, the group's fifth album "Mujer Luna" (Moon Woman) was released on the Tecnosaga label in Spain and the Luna Negra label in Latin America. "Moon Woman" is a work in which progressive rock and Mediterranean influences are more readily apparent than in previous albums. Between autumn of 2002 and spring 2003, the band has presented the music of "Mujer Luna" on tour. As of now they have performed in Barcelona, Madrid (Suristan and Lamala), and at the well-known international rock festival BajaProg in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico.

Now in 2007 the band is back with a brand new album, "Sol de Medianoche" that is once again breaking new ground.

Sol de Medianoche (Midnight sun) is the seventh Amarok album. In it the band continues advancing and maturing in its blending of progressive rock with the Mediterranean music and a few touches of Celtic music. The songs are sung principally in Spanish, but there are some songs in Catalan and even in English, for the first time in the history of the group. The variety of instruments used on this release exceeds anything attempted before by the band, however the arrangements are very precise so there is no sense of overkill. The lyrics speak about the Kabala (Sephiroth), the hermits (Hermits), the book of 1001 nights (Ishak the fisherman), the creatures of the myth of Chulthu (Wendigo) and, in the song that gives name to the disc, about the history of an imprisoned poet through the fault of his ideas. As a treat, an ethnic version of ELP's theme Abaddon's Bolero.