Information
THE WAY
One more time, in October 2008, we got back to the studios to record a new album. We were sure that it wouldn’t be easy; Cuba is strange place able to make you give up in the smartest adventure, believe me. So, we recovered patience and by means of non stop work; here is, our new musical quest: “The Way”.
This album is placed in the land of the pure symphonic-prog rock although its frontier is not close enough to Jagannath Orbit. Why? Just because “The Way” is a more lyrical, solemn and dramatic album, dressed of plentiful and constant melodies but also with slow changes of breathing and unexpected soundscapes, but it doesn’t resemble the traditional kaleidoscopic performances or lively arranges appearing in Jagannath Orbit; it is rather an album that takes time to allow us to paint different structures in a tempo, most of times, leisurely and meditative.
I have to say that this album was conceived on the idea that it were recorded and arranged pretty close to the real live performance achieving a sound as natural as possible, so entering in the production process, we were all the time very focused in do not cross this line toward a super studio or lab album. It was made with selected material written between 2005 and 2008 and conceived as a whole piece, although the song featuring as independent pieces, where the massage of the human soul ascension into and beyond this world, is the main idea throughout.
The Way is an album where the band and the sonority of a symphonic orchestra travel together from the beginning to the end. Because we can’t record with a real symphonic orchestra, the band achieve the orchestral colours thanks to the use of synth and samples sounds, the appearance of guest musicians Mónica Acosta on bassoon, Yailín Martínez on flute and the Anima Mundi family member, Javier Mauri on percussion, united to the use of the concert hall ambient and first of all the purely symphonic of its compositions. Echoes of Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Debussy, Holst, Tchaikovsky, Falla, Bach will be found throughout the album linked to the influence of YES, GENESIS, E.L.P, PINK FLOYD, RICK WAKEMAN, the late BEATLES and the classic sonorities of colourful Mellotron, Hammond organ, modern synthesizers and more. The listener will taste also a cocktail of classical, folk 12 stringed and electric guitars joined to driving bass lines that quite matched with the effectiveness on drums and percussion together with touching melodic and lyrical vocal parts.
Although with no doubt “The Way” is an album of our times, it was created so that it could bring back the spirit of the seventies to our days, not only to recall the inheritance of the golden age of symphonic-prog bands, but also to conceive the visionary atmosphere and the artistic aura of those times in which, music, in a general sense, evoked bigger resonance with Cosmos, Nature and Human spirituality. With this purpose, it is accompanied with an art work and booklet into the pure 70´vibe full of evocative landscapes and characters that including the lyrics plus the epic tale-suite “Spring Knocks on the Door of Men” and more.
After several line-up changes in the Anima Mundi history, this album shows the potential that the present line-up can offer after more than 4 years of playing together and standing faithfully for the cause of progressive rock.
"The Way” will be released and distributed by Musea. Now, while we are waiting for its release we send our best wishes and greetings to all the people that have helped the Art Rock flag blow freely in the past, present and future skies.
All the best,
Roberto Díaz
September 14th 2010
Jagannath Orbit ... A brief story ...
by Roberto Díaz.
Our first CD Septentrión was released by the Italian label Mellow Records in June 2002 obtaining good and excellent reviews of the specialized critic. By August of that year, we were ready to record the drums and some percussion of the Jagannath Orbit. We were in a hurry due to the leaving of Ariel Valdés (one of the drummers and pioneers of the band), who would abandon Anima Mundi to travel to Canada, where he would live afterwards. Ariel recorded almost all the tracks of the new album.
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After Ariel left the country, we were a pretty long time, beyond imagination, looking for a drummer able to play our music and work with us. It is important to keep in mind that this is a land of son, mulatas, tobacco and guaguancó, and with lack of culture regarding progressive rock. Ariel Ángel, our bass guitar player for more than three years, also left the band to play Cuban traditional music. We were, by that time, almost running out of musicians.
After a while, we finished the record of the demo of Jagannath Orbit, with a final result that we did not like at all. However, it meant an idea of what could become a great production. I recorded the vocals in Spanish although we had some of the lyrics in English, which would wait until finishing the album. I also recorded the acoustic, electric and bass guitars. At the beginning, the idea was to show the new songs on broadcastings or TV, waiting for the opportunity to remake Jagannath Orbit better.
We had to wait three years to retake the work. We bought some necessary equipment so that we could record and mix the album by our own at home, with many details that we will tell later.
By that time, the band acquired new musicians, Yaroski Corredera on the bass guitar, Carlos Sosa as lead vocal and Osvaldo Vieites (Osvi) on the drums. With them, the Jagannath Orbit got completed; all the guitars were recorded again, as well as some drums, bass, overdubs of keys, the vocals in English, new arrangements and finally we ended the mix in May 2007!!!
All the recordings and mixes were made at home by Virginia during our little free time for more than two years. It is important to highlight that Anaisy Gómez, our bagpipe player, left for Spain, and with the new mix we decided to leave the bagpipe sound out. Similarly to Septentrión, I produced the album. Probably, Jagannath Orbit is the album that has taken more time to be made in history, do we have the Guinness? I can say for sure that our desires were others because we have got plenty of music to be recorded and the band is actually playing nowadays. There is a big dichotomy between our artistic world and the material reality that surrounds us here; however, this is not part of this chapter.
About Septentrión ...
by Roberto Díaz
Septentrión means the magnetic north, the guide, the light, the way. The album was completely conceived with the idea of showing that attempt of search of the ultimate truth, unmovable an eternal. It was a concept album from beginning to end. Every song talked about an attitude towards us indispensable on that path called Life.
As I told before, our history has redounded in the fact of seeing too much musical material accumulated without the possibility of recording it. Septentrión fused the folk and epic repertory. Since late 1997, we already had a big amount of the album music, and in 1999, we did need the sound of the bagpipes which we obtained through two outstanding players: Regis Rodríguez and Anaisy Gómez. They accompanied us in the emblematic song- Las praderas del corazón.
After giving several concerts, the public that followed our music liked so much the resulting sound that we decided to leave the bagpipes, tin whistle and recorder, as well as some clarinet interventions in the classical sonority of the band. All the songs were arranged with that sonorous hybrid, and it wasn’t possible to start recording ‘till late 2000. We finished the record in June 2001.
Many people wouldn’t believe the way in which we dealt with the recording sessions. Cuba is a poor country; besides rock music is not supported here and the public that go to the shows is quite limited. Though it could seem impossible, we didn’t have access to the required equipment and technology, that’s why we had to make this CD in a small room, with the help of an old Pentium 2, except for the drums that were recorded in an antique radio studio to get a stereo mix. Nevertheless, we felt very happy with the product. It was an album of love and hope.
The songs
Horizonte. Longing for what transcends and embraces us; stare at the horizon, freedom, plenitude…
Por Siempre. Epic, like the determination of humankind to conquer their highest dreams, to find their place in this universe.
Centinela. Supreme glance; lighthouse in the mind night; a singing to the inner voice.
Caleidoscopio. The mind is the creating kaleidoscope of everything that we see, if turned properly, we’ll be witnesses of a world of love and peace. We can choose how to turn it.
Peregrino del Tiempo. Pilgrimage of human soul through alternate events, struggles and questionings.
Más allá. The site beyond the phenomenal world; home.
La Montaña del Vigía. From the highness of love, there is always an elevated place to see, understand and live the world.
Las Praderas del Corazón. The divine dwell inside our hearts, in the center of every being and form of life.
Tierra Invisible. Merry, inaccesible. Far beyond our senses, faith makes us travel to places unreachable for the skeptical.
El Hallazgo (mystical). The meeting of the human soul with the universal being.
El Umbral. The gate at the end of the road, the encounter between the searcher and the searched.
Septentrión...
RECORDED DEMOS
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Eterno Cauce (1997)
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Tierra Invisible (1998 - live)
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Mas Allá (1999)
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NIMBO
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CD "Sobre las Brumas" (2006)
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Anaisy Gómez: Galician bagpipe, recorders, tin whistle, clarinet
Virginia Peraza: keyboards, programming, accordion
Roberto Díaz: electric and acoustic guitars
NIMBO
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by Cecil Canetti
Nimbo project came to reality as soon as Anima Mundi quit the sonority of bagpipes, flutes and the Celtic air in order to return to its sonic roots.
Then, Virginia suggested her to make some arrangements, principally regarding the percussion sequence.
Afterwards, the new arrangements were taken into consideration, and they certainly had influence of the symphonic, the New Age, and some elements of rock and Cuban rhythms, always maintaining their Celtic airs.
Later, Roberto Díaz joined the band and offered his unmistakable sonority.
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In this way Nimbo appeared, as a project of instrumental music that quickly called the attention of plenty of people.The band had the support and promotion of the Fantastic Art and Literature Project: Onírica and they were also helped by Baya de Oro club.Both clubs were associated to the University of Havana and were mostly made up of students from this center.
During its short period of life, Nimbo was able to give a lot of concerts in several provinces of the country, principally here in the capital.The broadcast on radio and TV was also wide and of a great spread.Even though the band life was ephemeral due to the director’s travel to Spain, where she lives nowadays, the project left a Standard Play called “Sobre las Brumas”.
It was a project deeply loved by its three integrants, and every single time that Anaisy comes to visit Cuba, Nimbo gets back to stage in one or two shows.
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