Equilibrio Vital (Tribute To Marcos Chacon)

Venezuelan progressive rock band Equilibrio Vital has been around since the 1980’s and the album Equilibrio Vital was originally released back in 1983.  Sadly, guitarist Marcos Chacon who had suffered with stomach problems on and off for many years, phoned for an ambulance on 29^th December 2001 but died on the journey to hospital.  In way of acknowledging Marcos Chacon’s contribution to music, Musea has just re-released Equilibrio Vital with all but one of the original tracks (I believe Tras El Sol was on the original but it’s not on here) plus three new songs added.

The album is guitar based with some powerful music but it is also full of contrasts.  Guerre for example is largely hard traditional rock with prog style arrangements and heavy undertones.  Aliento Y Esperanza has a Camel feel about it with considered Latimer style guitar and flute.  Armonias Con El Infinito is a mix of delicate early Genesis and Camel with a touch of Tull flute and worth the purchase price of the album alone in my opinion.  Madre is an altogether folksier track featuring beautiful acoustic guitar and vocals.

Vocals are in Spanish (or do I mean Portuguese?), predominately male but with female backing vocal yet this should not be detrimental to non-Spanish speakers.  The comprehensive accompanying CD booklet provides lyrics in the native language with a translation in English plus the band history and comments by the late Marcus Chacon and other members of the band.

The final track, A Mis Amigos, is a bright instrumental with the reign given over to saxophone and keyboards to an extent, again inviting a comparison to the Camel sound of the mid-eighties.

One of the biggest audiences today can be found in South America and the continent has spouted many good bands that have been influenced by their European contemporaries.  Equilibrio Vital are different to most in that they have developed their own sound and style and on the basis of this album, could never be considered a clone.  If you only buy it for Armonias Con El Infinito, you certainly will not be disappointed with the rest of the album.

Jem Jedrzejewski

Musea

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