2022 restock. Mental Experience present an expanded reissue of Ildefonso Aguilar's Erosión, originally released in 1985. Spooky, meditative soundscapes inspired by the desolate volcanic environment of Lanzarote (Canary Islands), created using Minimoog, Polymoog, vocal loops, and field recordings. Originally recorded in Germany in 1978 by Spanish painter/sound artist Ildefonso Aguilar, only a selection of the original recordings were released a few years later on a very rare limited edition cassette and LP. Erosión is a masterpiece of proto-ambient, isolationism, and minimal synth music. For the first time ever, Erosión is reissued here on double LP, featuring the complete recordings, as Ildefonso conceived it at the time. Master tape sound; Liner notes in English/Spanish by Frankie Pizá (TIU Mag); Includes download code. RIYL: Edgar Froese, Conrad Schnitzler, Cluster, Klaus Schulze, Michael Stearns, Steve Roach, Brian Eno, Cozmic Corridors, Pina.
"Canary Islander Ildefonso Aguilar is best known for his paintings and surreal photography of the desolate volcanic wastelands of his homeland. He was also organizer of concerts at the Jameos del Agua in Lanzarote, a regular event which has featured the likes of Michael Brook, Roedelius, Steve Roach, and numerous other luminaries of ambient and atmospheric music. But, for his own music Ildefonso has never gained the mass recognition he really deserves. Erosión, recorded in 1978, is certainly one of the most fascinating of synth albums I've heard. And, it's remarkable really, if you consider all the technological advances that have happened since, what with digital synthesizers and samplers, that this music created entirely on analogue synthesizers still sounds so fresh and original... Beautiful yet strange, unnerving yet calming. Even more so, at 1¼ hours, Erosión reveals itself as a grand conceived suite, as themes recur in an almost ghostly fashion, as tension builds upon tension, and threatens to explode, which it never quite does! Extraordinary all the way through." --Alan Freeman (Audion Magazine)