(Progressive rock, Avant-prog, Chamber rock, RIO) Jose Luis Fernandez Ledesma - 5 альбомов (включая совместные с M. Botello) - 1996-2006, MP3, 320 kbps

- José Luis Fernández Ledesma / keyboards, acoustic & electric guitars, bass, percussion, mandolin, ocarinas, vocals
Guest musicians:
- Alquimia / vocals
- Julio Sandoval / bass, acoustic & electric guitars
- Germán Bringas / soprano sax
- Josué Melender / soprano & alto saxes
- Francisco Delahay / electric & acoustic guitars

4.5 stars.I consider this album to be a gift from above,but please let me explain.I deal with several vendors for my prog music,but one of them also sells music from every genre imaginable.They have never made a mistake in all the years i've dealt with them until now.They sent me this cd that i did not order,and to be honest i've never heard of Fernandez Ledesma.So i'm thinking i have to phone them and send it back,i'm not too happy.I mean for all i know this guy plays polka music.Then i noticed on the back of the cd cover the Musea label,and i was suddenly interested.So i looked him up to see if he was on our site,and there he was! No rating for this one yet,but on another site this was his highest rated record,so i decided to keep it.As soon as i started to listen to it i had to smile and give a thankyou to he who is overall.This is freaking amazing! I still can't believe it,yet i can believe it if you know what i mean.Haha. "El Acueducto" is my favourite track one here.It's so dreamy,it's absolutely gorgeous.Synths and acoustic guitar lead the way early.Just beautiful.It changes 2 1/2 minutes in when piano and flute take over.This is different but so heavenly.Another change 2 minutes later as the piano becomes more prominant,as mandolin and flute join in.Synths come and go.It ends with the second theme returning. "La Montana De Los Enchentros" opens with a pulsating rhythm as sax,flute and piano come in.Synths lead the way for a while.Sounds come and go until we get a calm 3 minutes in to the end. "Ottla" opens with acoustic guitar and synths.Beautifully pastoral.Some angular guitar 1 1/2 minutes in as drums come in and the tempo picks up.Synths and organ lead the way until a calm 3 minutes in.Angular guitar is back before 4 minutes. "La Ciudad Di Las Mil Columnas" is ethnic sounding and it becomes uptempo quickly. "La Espiral" opens with male chanting with female chants joining in.Cool hypnotic sound.Again this has an ethnic flavour to it. "Remanso" is a one minute pastoral interlude. "El Arbol De Indigo" is the longest song at almost 11 minutes.It continues to be pastoral from the previous track.It changes 1 1/2 minutes in as vibes- like sounds come in with synths and bass also standing out.Pulsating synths also make an appearance on this one.A calm 6 minutes in.It slowly builds to a full sound 8 1/2 minutes in with synths leading the way.It's spacey to end it. "La Huida" opens with sounds that build.Lots of intricate sounds that come and go until a full sound with sax and organ 2 minutes in.Some nice drumming and bass as well. "Relatos Del Agua" means "Tale of the water" so we get some water sounds and background synths to open.Percussion and those vibes-like sounds take over.Very otherworldly sounding.Great atmosphere.The intensity builds after 4 1/2 minutes.It calms back down and ends as it began. "Motivos Para Perderse" is of course the title track,it means "Motifs to go astray".This is the almost 9 minute closing track.Piano to open as percussion joins in and then female vocals.Lots of intricate sounds early.It changes after a minute with lots of synths.She's back 2 minutes in.A great sound follows.Sax comes in and it's dissonant as she sings away.Check out the guitar and percussion 5 minutes in!Themes are repeated.This is amazing!She's back 6 minutes in right to the end with more dissonant sax. I will be checking out more of Fernandez Ledesma's music,but i will order it on purpose this time.A must have.Cool cover art as well. P.S. I went back to the company that sent me this,and they don't even have this cd listed in their catalogue! Just his three latest ones.

- José Luis Fernández Ledesma / keyboards, acoustic & electric guitars, bass, percussion, flute, ocarinas, vocals
Guest musicians:
- Ma. Elena Durán / vocals
- Beatriz Luna / vocals
- Julio Sandoval / bass, acoustic guitar
- Francisco Lelo de Larrea / electric guitars
- Germán Bringas / saxes
- Ramón Nakash / violin
- Laura Herrera / bongos
- Alejandro Schmidt / electric guitar
- Francisco Delahay / acoustic guitar
- Sergio de Regules / synthesizer

- José Luis Fernández Ledesma / keyboards, strings, kalimba, ocarinas
- Margarita Botello / vocals, Fender piano, percussion
- Raúl Flores / percussion
Guest Musicians:
- Marcela Alvear / oboe on 2 & 9
- Germán Bringas / trumpet on 8 & 10, sax on 1
- Roberto Carretero / acoustic & electric guitars on 7
- Alberto Nerr / drums on 10
- Vera Koulkova / violin on 5
- Carlos Peña / acoustic guitar on 3
- Cezar Ramirez / bagpipe
- Vitali Roumanov / cello on 9,10,11
- Hugo Santos / Stick & fretless bass on 4 & 5
- Alejandro Vásquez / flute on 7 & 9

- Josי Luis Fernבndez Ledesma / electric, acoustic & 12-string guitars, keyboards, bass, lute, vihuela, autoharp, kalimba, autoharp, djembe, flutes, ocarina ,cymbals, vocals, electronic processes
- Margarita Botello / vocals, santur, huehuetl, ayoyotl, synthesizer, bells, cymbals, maraccas
Guest Musicians
- Germבn Bringas / soprano sax
- Raתl Flores / ethnic percussion

4.0 stars.This album and "Sol Central" are, in my opinion, the two pillars of JLFL's discography: almost any other recording by him should be evaluated and reviewed regarding its proximity to one of the two aforesaid albums. "Al Filo" has to be his most disturbing album ever, really scary, yet, in a strange way, it is not oppressive or overwhelming. There is a certain dreamy aura to the instrumental deliveries comprised in this album that makes it sound magical in a recurrent fashion. But as I said before, this is not the magic of a Disney animated movie soundtrack: this is a very gloomy album, at times sinister. The terrifying beauty of the album cover - a round dance of female infant ghosts in the mist of the night - is an extension of the most disturbing sonorities that the listener will find here. In fact, the 10 minute opener 'Las Siete Columnas' is a well accomplished exercise on enchanting minimalism built with mysterious keyboard-based soundscapes upon which percussive ornaments and choral washes go drifting by. This soft grayness bears a very appealing feel, indeed. Things turn into a more serene realm with 'Presence', a candid piece on acoustic guitar. This is just a momentary rest, since the disturbing moods return in an enhanced manner with 'Oniromante' - this is really a portrait of limbo turned into sounds of keyboard, guitar, flute and female singing, all of them confluent in a weird dynamics. The last 90 seconds bring a shade of light with a beautiful duet of acoustic guitar and vihuela. 'Espejismo' is pure thanatos, a sinister journey into the catacombs of the heart: not unlike the preceding track, the last minute provides an unexpected relaxing twist to the theme's development. 'El Triángulo,' on the other hand, goes to dark places in full swing, albeit with a proper touch of subtlety that makes it comfortably coherent together with the remaining tracks in the album. This sequence of tracks 3 - 5 serves as a continuing highlight. 'Ojo de Venado' changes things quite a bit with those gracious percussive arrangements and those elegant flourishes on treated guitar. The suite 'Las Cuatro Imágenes' is the most ambitious item in this repertoire. This one pretty much sounds like a compendium of what the album is all about: 'La Noria' is a bit more colorful than most racks in the album; 'Día Interior' is full of shades; 'Mirándome Mirarme' states a hypnotic frenzy; and finally, 'Una Larga Agonía' displays a twilight atmosphere than at times becomes almost silent, but the last 30 seconds are filled with an impressive, spectral crescendo. This suite is a masterful example of genius texture managing. The closer 'El Enyerbao' bears influences from the musique concrete tradition and the tribal side of experimental prog, with a strong emphasis on percussive instruments from the Mexican deserts' folk music. All in all, "Al Filo" is an excellent opus by JLFL. The reason why I don't give it the same rating that I gave to "Sol Central" or "Designios" is that I am particularly more impressed by the colorful side of JLFL's music, but if your avant-prog tastes give preferential room to the minimalist trend, you might as well find this album a masterpiece, pure and simple. 4 or 5 stars for this album, I cannot imagine how it could get a lower rating.

- Josי Luis Fernבndez Ledesma / electric, acoustic & 12-string guitars, synthesizers, grand & electric pianos, bass, lute, vihuela, harmonium, flute, melodica, xylophone, darbuka, ethnic woodwinds and percussion, vocals, electronic processes
- Margarita Botello / vocals, piano, santur, harmonium, percussion, ocarinas, synthesizer
Guest musicians:
- Gustavo Albarrבn / French horn
- Juan Carlos Ruiz / bassoon
- David Ball / bassoon
- Alejandro Sבnchez / violin
- Ramףn Nakash / violin
- Vitali Roumanov / cello
- Ediardo Melיndez / baritone sax
- Carlos Bonequi / drums

4.65 stars.I regard this album as one tremendous JLFL masterpiece: "La Paciencia de Job" is a catalogue of spectral textures and ethereal ambiences, all of them craftily delivered through splendid instrumental settings. The album's overall vibe stands somewhere between the mysterious elaborations of "Al Filo" and the colorful weirdness of "Sol Central", but clearly leaning more toward the former. The use of Precolombine, North African and Eastern percussions and woodwinds helps to build up nameless sonorities through the keyboard layers, guitar adornments and console adjustments helps to build up exotic sonorities - this repertoire stand on the boundaries of wake and sleep, like something partially surreal that makes its way into the grey margins of reality. The subtle, absorbing colors displayed in 'Leyenda' seem to announce the arrival of dawn for our conscience: this piece portrays a strange mixture of somber and candid atmospheres. A very good entry whose spirit is perpetuated and enhanced by 'Naufragio' during its first 5 minutes and its last 2: in between these sections, a piano interlude brings a moment of sheer serenity. 'Jardín de los Senderos' and 'Palabras como Astros' still go on exploring the spirit of limbo that had been so effectively introduced by the first 2 tracks. The latter includes the beautiful chanting by Botello, singing a poem by Vicente Huidobro - in this way, the track acquires an extra touch of solemnity. 'No Te Pude Contestar' sees the first appearance of the drum kit, which bring a pulsational drive to the overall scheme based on exotic cadences - this is not too far away from the implacable standard set by classic Can ("Ege Bamyasi" and "Future Days"). 'Los Jueces del Mundo', the album's first epic, also includes drum kit, but this time things become more explicit, more pompous if you will. This track clearly bears a sinister aura, with the guest violin and soprano sax taking center stage at the track's dramatic peaks. Botello also delivers pertinent vocal lines through the viscerally articulated instrumentation, very much in the vein of Dagmar-era Henry Cow and Art bears. The apocalyptical lyrics are inspired by the Irak war, so it's no wonder that the track's spirit is so full of doom. The dual track 'Vidas Atrás / Noche' is the other epic. It gets started with a series of layer set on tribal mood, with soliloquy sounds and guitar adornments bizarrely processed in a lunatic climate. When the climax arrives, things get really oppressive, and when the aforesaid climax is over, an air of mysterious solemnity arrives incarnated by the combination of keyboard layers, guitar soundscapes and cello washes. The piano emerges to create a special dialogue with the cello, in this way making the solemnity more appalling. 'Donde Nadie' is the shortest track, with a noticeable Arabic inspiration. The dueling violin, sax and female chanting is a main feature in this track. Ultimately, 'Paciencia Infinita' retakes the aura of crepuscular, dreamy ambiences that had been so prominent in the first four tracks. The piano takes center stage at times, occasionally joined by the bassoon, guitar and Botellas' singing. This is not an easy listening album, this is a musical work firmly loyal to the ideals of experimentalism, yet it remains captivating as a creation of magic touch. "La Paciencia de Job" is a jewel ready to be appreciated by true avant-garde music lovers.