Pep Laguarda, Tapineria, Brossa D’ahir

Like ancient ruins buried about the Mediterranean, the archeological dig of records long forgotten can unearth treasures unheard for decades — whispered about perhaps, sometimes going for vast sums among knowledgeable collectors, but generally unavailable for us mere mortals.

. Brossa d'Ahir is such a disc. First released in 1977, it is a seemingly unassuming acoustic Spanish folk album whose provenance includes songs produced by Gong's Daevid Allen and recorded by a group named Tapineria, headed by Pep Laguarda. Pep hailed from the Mediterranean port city of Valencia, Spain, and thus was well-placed to partake of all the musical streams that this great sea had to offer. In the late 1960s, a Laietara movement centered in Barcelona, slightly north of Valencia, fused traditional Catalan folk with elements of progressive rock and jazz, and when a participant in this, Pau Riba, a writer and singer, joined forces with Pep, Tapineria was born.

It is an organic sound, with softly strumming acoustic guitars, breathing instruments like flutes, and hand drums, yet the cadences and melody lines, despite the soft Catalan vowels, are very much western. It's as if Nick Drake sat in to play, and Vashti Bunyan sang along. "Una Paura", especially, has a pronounced Pink Floyd atmosphere. The feel is very much as if one is sitting on a late-night porch, jamming with friends, listening to where the music wants to go, rather than the other way around. It is this quality that Daevid Allen must have recognized, for he brought Pep to Banana Moon Observatory in Mallorca to finish the album, not far from the monastery where Chopin retreated in 1838 to write his beautiful Prelude in C minor, as well as the following letter: "At night, for long hours, I can hear songs and music of guitars…" Perhaps Frederic was hearing Pep, in "Alceu-Vos, Xe, Que Ja Es De Dia/Sent," mingling his voice with the birds and the brushings of the wind.