Kant Freud Kafka - No Tengas Miedo - 2014
“... music for the open minded music lover ...”
intro
A few weeks ago I wrote a review about the “Onirico” album of Kant Freud Kafka, the progressive rock project of Javi Herrera. He is one of the few artist who combines the classical and progressive rock worlds into a beautiful contemporary music style. We will now have a look at his first Kant Freud Kafka album entitled “No Tengas Miedo”. The album is about light and darkness, fear and anger. You can find this independent release on the BandCamp portal. The booklet of the album is completely in the Spanish language but if you buy the album you can download a PDF file with the English translation. I wrote about “Onirico” that it is an emotional album with beautiful and passionate music that comes straight from the heart. So I was very curious about the predecessor, an album called “No Tengas Miedo”.
line-up
Kant Freud Kafka is:
Javi Herrera - drums, percussion, keyboard programming, voices
With collaboration of:
Lluís Cabal - viola (2,4); Esteve Cardús - flute (2,3,4,5); Gora Casado - 12 string guitar (2); Jordi Frontons - Moon synthesizer (3); Alia Herrera - violin (2); Andrea Herrera - flute (3,4); Gemma Llorens - cello (2,3,4); Pep Mendoza - Guitars (1); Xavi Padillo - clarinet (2); Alejandro Pérez - Spanish guitar (2,4); Xavi Piñol - oboe, cor anglais (2,3,4,5); Jordi Porcar - bass (3,4); Ewa Pyrek - violin (2,4); Pol Sánchez - electric guitar (1,2,3,4,5), acoustic guitars (2,5); Toni Sánchez - bass (1,2); Dick Them - bass (5)
review
The album includes the following five compositions; “Principio”, “Dama”, “Viajes”, “Antitesis” and “Hombre”.
In the booklet you can find the story of the supreme being Dama and her daughter Adah, who lived in a colorless world on a hill called Principio. Both of them separately are finding a mysterious box. A box with huge power. When Dama opened a black box, the darkness of the box turned the whole world into black. When her daughter Adah opened a white box her clothes and her body were changing into white. Once everything was white, millions of drops of different colors started to come out of the box. A huge infinite rain of colors flooded the world and gave everything the color it has today. The rainbow reminds us of that moment. It is a story about light and darkness, fear and anger.
“Principio” opens with a dark and mysterious synth part before a classical piano plays a beautiful melody. After this intro the music develops into a piece of progressive rock with nice drum, guitar and synth parts. Later on the atmosphere of the piece has more jazz influences. The soaring guitar part in the end is wonderful. “Dama” is one of the longer pieces (12:36) of this album. It start with a jazzy piano but soon the atmosphere becomes classical and the string and wood instruments are playing the most beautiful melodies. This is pure and blissful contemporary music. There is also room for the acoustic guitars in this piece of great diversity. Once again I am impressed by the wonderful melodies of Javi Herrera. The next progressive rock part of this composition has a soaring electric guitar solo and complex drum work. After this the classical atmosphere is returning. Only for this composition I would buy the album.
“Viajes” is starting with a short theme played by the cello. Then it is accompanied by synths before the piano starts another melody and is later joined by the flute. After this beautiful classical opening the music becomes more uptempo with synths and a jazzy guitar. This diverse piece of music develops into a kind of jazz fusion meets progressive rock composition.
Then it is time for the longest track (16:04) of the album, “Antitetis”. Like “Dama” this is for me one of the highlights of this remarkable album. Mysterious synth parts, beautiful piano melodies accompanied by a beautiful classical instrumentation. Lovely flute and synth melodies combined with jazzy bass and electric guitar parts. Personally I like the contemporary and classical parts most. You can find an extended instrumentation on this piece with instruments like viola, flute, cello, oboe, violin. Love the oboe and synth melodies in this track. The classical ending of “Antitesis” with Spanish guitar and flute is very nice.
The last piece of the album is called “Hombre”. It starts with a beautiful piano theme on a bed of keyboard strings. This is followed by flute and oboe melodies. The middle section is first progressive and then jazz oriented. The drumming on this piece is excellent and the tension of the music is nicely building up towards a kind of climax.
Listening to this album, I think that you can find more jazz influences on “No Tengas Miedo” than on the successor “Onirico”. The feeling of the later is more classical and contemporary.
conclusion
Both albums of the Kant Freud Kafka project are excellent. If you like a melting pot of progressive rock, jazz fusion and contemporary classical music you have to check out these albums from the progressive project of Javi Herrera. You won't be disappointed. This said, you have to take your time to reveal all of the real beauty of these remarkable albums. Progressive music for the open minded music lover. And therefore recommended by progVisions. Both albums have their own atmosphere but on the other hand they are musically also linked together. Wonderful project of Javi Herrera.