Wara - Realidad [1973 Progressive Rock / Hard Rock Bolivia]

Album: El Inca
Get this comp here: https://aftersabbath.blogspot.com/2023/10/151-Bolivia-60s-70s-Hard-Rock-Psych.html
This is taken from Wara's first LP "El Inca", which comprised a combination of heavier brooding prog tracks like the inclusion here "Realidid", "Wara Estrella" (which musically reminds me of a latin take on Child In Time) and introspective, mellow tracks with some symphonic touches. The core band members to play on this album were Nataniel Gonzales on lead vocals, Omar León on bass, Carlos Daza on guitar and backing vocals, Jorge Cronembold on percussion and Pedro Sanjinés on synthesizers. Many other support musicians contributed with backing vocals and extra instrumentation such as bassoon, flute, oboe and violin, for a rich varied sound.

What made this album stand out at the time was Wara's concerted efforts to forge a new, uniquely Bolivian progressive rock style, with lyrical themes of Andean philosophy. Subsequent albums, starting with 1975's "Maya Hichhanigua Hikjatata", dropped the heavier rock aspects, while their compositions became far more subtle and complex, going for a total folk sound with even more acoustic and wind instrumentation. More albums of new material have followed regularly, initially on established labels like Lyra, MCB and Inbofon. The most recent documented album in Discogs is 2015's self-released "Kimsaqallqu 8". As of 2023, the modern incarnation of Wara is still going strong and playing live, with updates and recent performances on facebook (link) and instagram (link).

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