Sagrado Coracao Da Terra, shortly Sagrado, is the most legendary Brazilian progrock formation founded in 1979. In 2009, the band celebrated their 30th anniversary. Sagrado has released seven studio albums and a live album, but finally here’s their first DVD entitled Una Historia Parte 1. This release contains two concerts each with an additional interview in both the Portuguese and the English language. It also contains a documentary about Sagrado and in addition photos, a gallery, a bonus track and the discography. The first concert, lasting approximately one hour, is from 1989 and was recorded in the new Brazilian city Belo Horizonte. The video quality has been upgraded pretty well, way better than Rush did on Replay X3! In a warm and enthusiastic atmosphere, we can enjoy seas of blue light with all members in the spotlight. Sagrado’s sound is wonderful, very melodic and harmonic 24-carat symphonic rock with obvious classical undertones. The musicians are very skilful looking very happy on stage. First track Abertura De Ícaro is a fine piece with lush keyboards. Asas delivers passionate vocals and moving guitar runs. In the second part, Marcus Viana showcases his excellent violin play dominating the other seven pieces of the concert in a very pleasant way. He performs a spectacular solo after a church organ sound in Cosmos X Caos and beautiful interplay with his brother Andersen Viana on flute in O Futuro Da Terra that also features Hackett- like guitar work with the volume pedal. In Sagrado Viana plays an extensive solo in the vein of Jean Luc Ponty including a sensational bass solo and a tight rhythm with strong interplay between violin and electric guitar in Farol Da Liberdade. What a classy band and what a convincing performance. In my opinion this is a piece of Latin-American progrock history! The second concert was recorded during the annual Rio Art Rock festival in 1996. The video quality is acceptable, no more no less, but the musical value is very interesting, especially during the first composition Gypsy Rhapsody. I’m delighted about this great tribute to the Balkan folk music of which I’m a huge fan. The highlight is the duet between Marcus Viana’s swirling violin and the acoustic guitar player. Goose bumps! So in the end the many fans of Latin-American prog rock can enjoy this exciting Sagrado DVD. Let’s look forward to Una Historia Parte 2 ! 1989 **** 1996 *** Erik Neuteboom (edited by Peter Willemsen) Where to buy? |
