Fantasia

MR BONGO SUPERTARJOUS

The next album in our Cuban Classics series is a hard one to pigeonhole. It’s a real oddity, unique and not in keeping with the majority of Cuban albums we know, but it’s all the better for this. Coming courtesy of Juan Almeida, the Fantasia LP is an eclectic and epic, instrumental ride through Latin jazz-funk, trippy electronics and orchestrated classical music. Sounding at points like a full-blown orchestrated score to a dusty animated film extravaganza, with phrases and passages repeating like the appearance of ghostly spectres throughout the recording. At others, it busts into exotic funk, psychedelic-trippiness and Afro-Cuban percussion.

Produced, orchestrated and conducted by Rafael Somavilla, who worked on a vast array of Cuban recordings including Raúl Gómez’s ’Instrumental’ which we also reissued on Mr Bongo, the feel of Fantasia is big, luscious, grand and pop-classical. It has become a highly sought-after, cult Cuban rarity amongst collectors and like many great albums, every repeat listen brings with it new elements previously unnoticed. Such is its richness and depth. A truly mesmerising, off-the-beaten-track instrumental record.

A1 Preludio 0:21
A2 Este Camino Largo 7:45
A3 Decide Tu 9:12
B1 Interludio 0:21
B2 El Arriero 0:48
B3 Te Canta Mi Tambor 9:41
B4 Ritmo Abierto 5:15
B5 Postludio 4:46
B6 Final 0:42