Jorge Strunz and Ardeshir Farah’s first album, Mosaico was released in 1980 independently then again in ’82 and ’97 by Selva, their own independent label. They hail from opposite ends of the Earth, Strunz from Costa Rica and Farah from Iran. Guests on this record include Dr. L. Subramaniam on violin, Omaya al’Ghanim on guitar, Greg Lee on bass, Luis Conte on percussion and Ron Wagner on drums. This album sounds like it may have been an insanely great undertaking through all the harmonies and blisteringly fast passages but because both Strunz and Farah are improvisational guitarists, I am led to believe a large part of this album is improve. Not to say the album is never-ending aimless jams because it’s not. This album has some of the most exquisitely arranged guitars I have ever heard. The way it all blends together in your ear is something like an audio orgasm. Each track is a standout and each track could be listened to many times by a fan of any style of music.
The number of ethnic musics I could list would be so long and jumbled I won’t even try and it will have to suffice to say that this is just a whirlwind of classical guitar styles mish-mashed into the most beautiful mess I have ever heard. They mix so many different styles that the only way to classify them is as ethnojazz or acoustic fusion or something so terribly vague I feel like I’m hardly describing it at all. They have been mislabeled as flamenco but because of certain changes in playing style (picking style, improvised parts vs. improvised order of parts) this is wrong. The accuracy of these guitarists is ridiculous. The best part is that it doesn’t have that tone of constant wanking one might find on other classical guitar albums. There is heart and soul poured in on each song juxtaposed nicely with fretboard fireworks.
The reaction factor on this album is also huge. I can see myself up dancing around with a beautiful woman, but I can also see myself sitting back relaxing, baked as I’ve ever been. There is nothing jarring here that could upset someone but it never sounds sterile or prefabricated by some wonderman pop producer.
My largest complaint here is the use of the fade-out ending. I hate it and always will but it is used on 4/7 tracks. Because this is their first album I will not take away points for lack of growth album to album but it is true that they don’t really expand very far after this sound. Of course, each song is different and amazing, but each album could be played consecutively as one. They don’t get docked though because, like I said, this is album number 1.
I’m going to go ahead and recommend every song. Because there are only 7 of them, it’s not like this is a huge stretch. Tangle of Dreams is the only song under 5:30 and so I will recommend which songs not to listen to when given the choice between them and the rest of the album. OK, just kidding, I can’t do that. They all need to be heard.
