Search - Inti-Illimani :: Fragments Of A Dream

An easily accessible and elegant portal to the complex folkl

C. Scanlon | among us humans | 01/08/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Much of this involves complex classical guitar pieces, including beautful work from classical guitarist John Williams of John Williams - The Seville Concert / John Williams, Paco Pena, Andres Segovia and Together Again/ Julian Bream & John Williams and the particiaption of Paco Pena of the aforementioned disk, who presents here his own composition La Calahorra.



Even with this strong European and Spanish influence of the highest, most classical and gentle variety, Inti Illimani never leaves the blessed earth of their birth, with the continual gentle and soothing and challenging presence of the Andean folklore instruments such as the zamponas, the quena and the charango. One song in particular presents in a beautiful soft context the pain of their Chilean nation after the Nixon-Kissinger overthrow of their democratically elected president Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973 and the subsequent decades of terrorism under the brutal military dictatorship of Pinochet, which produced the massacre, murder, torture, disappearance and exile of hundreds of thousands of Chileans, including Inti Illimani itself, warned by the brutal torture, dismemberment and death of fellow musician Victor Jara by the bloody Pinochet police.



We have here therefore a plaintiff and very elaborate music of great gentility and depth, complexity and immense prodigious talent, mainly composed by band member Horacio Slainas, with the participation of the other musicians mentioned above. This is the best stepping stone into the beautiful music of Inti Illimani, and indeed to the music of all of the Andes, although we do not find here such other Inti pieaces like the famous folk piece Senora Chichera, which I used to play fiercely with a rousing Peruvian group.



Try this music and feel very much at home here, whether from EUropean classical background or Latin American. This music is brilliant and bright and healing and a good place to be, with much more to hear once more again one more time as you'll miss it the first one hundred times. Leave it playing quietly all the long night long and awake informed and refreshed."

Beautiful music

borrachin | Melbourne, Australia | 01/30/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a brilliant album - Inti-Illimani, John WIlliams, Paco Peña? C'mon! This is music that will reward patient listeners. This is deeply soulful, social protest music. Non-Spanish speakers should try to track down the lyrics and find a way of translating them, to appreciate the meaning and the sentiment.

As for the reviewer who copies and pastes the same review for all his reviews of Inti-Illimani's discs... "...the use of this review section as a political venue to praise Allende..." - I don't think one line in a review makes it a political venue, but you have just made it into one with your few paragraphs praising Pinochet."