Magdalena - Lanean Sartzen. 1981 Spain

From my perspective, Magdalena's sole release is the Basque region's most progressive rock album in the traditional sense. As many of us came to find out in the late 1980s and early 90s, the region had dozens of rock albums, mostly sung in the native tongue. The majority of these Basque albums are folk based, and because of that, many fell out of my personal interest area. However a few were exactly what I was seeking, for example Haizea's second album, Lisker, and Sakre. But the best of them all is this little obscurity I picked up in the mid 90s. While the melodies have a traditional folklore feel to them, the compositions are clearly rooted in complex progressive rock. Wonderful fuzz guitar and flute take on the lead instrument chores, whereas the rhythm section keeps the whole thing hopping from one place to another. Often times I was reminded of the Catalan group Gotic as well. A very fine album.

One interesting tidbit here: The album's title on the front cover is Lanean Sartzen, which is Basque for "Work Included". However the title track and the way it is listed on the label is Lanera Sartzen, which translates to "Getting Into Work". Not sure why this is - guessing a miscommunication with the art director...

Ownership: LP: 1981 IZ. Single sleeve. Comes with a nice fold out lyric insert. Mail order acquisition (1995).

No legit CD or LP reissues as of 11/22/24.

1995 (first listen); 2/4/11 (review); 7/7/18 (update / new entry)