In November 2017 Japanese psychedelic-noise rock Acid Mothers Temple band and French guitar hero Richard Pinhas, known as the leader of the legendary Heldon band, visited Lima, Peru, for the first time and participated in the experimentalIntegraciones festival. Luis Alvarado, the director of Buh Records and curator of the festival, summoned the Japanese and the French musicians to percussionist Manongo Mujica’s studio and invited multi-instrumentalist Juan Luis Pereira (El Polen) to join them for a recording session.

«Alturas» is the meeting point between the psychedelic-hallucinogenic sonic world of Acid Mothers Temple guitarist Makoto Kawabata and synth player Hiroshi Higashi plus the atmospheric prog-rock guitar of Pinhas and the local Peruvian musicians – Mujica and Luis Pereira – with their traditional Andean instruments. «Alturas» is enhanced by the meticulous mixing and post-production work by the Peruvian artist Ale Hop.

The 35-minutes «Alturas» is an atmospheric-cosmic kind of dreamscape. The space-rock of Kawabata, Pinhas, and Higashi with its Roland synth, takes a magical mystery tour deep inside the rain forests of Peru. The abstract, melodic textures flow leisurely, without disturbing the local atmosphere. Slowly the five musicians evoke a mysterious, shamanic ritual that reaches its climax on the brief «Andina» and the extended «Super Andina». It sounds like an updated, still wild trip of Gong’s flying teapot pixies after eating some powerful Andean magic mushrooms. The concluding piece «Charango» marks the gentle awakening from this invigorating trip, still dancing the ancient, local dances but with an expanded, shiny mind.

Eyal Hareuveni  

Makoto Kawabata (el.g, eff), Richard Pinhas (el.g, eff), Manongo Mujica (dr, Indian perc, seeds), Juan Luis Pereira (pututo, moceño, toyo, violindo, charango), Hiroshi Higashi (synth)