Jorge Reyes - 1982 - Ek Tunkul

Quality: 3.5 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 3.5 out of 5

Jorge Reyes logged in with an early melding of Mexican folk and electronic elements with 1982's El Tunkul. It's a pleasant album, but still shows Reyes perfecting his mixture and experimenting.

A few years after this album Reyes would show himself a master of painting images with sound, but this disc is not quite that evocative. Much of it is extremely chilled out, but to a degree where the ethnic instrumentation and chanting becomes window dressing rather than a major part of the tapestry that they'd later become.

On Ek Tunkul, the songs tend to highlight melody or texture, but rarely both. "Agua Quemada" starts the albums with some floating sequences and tones that almost recalls Philip Glass. "Nadie Supo De Donde Venia" and the title track relies on some somewhat out-of-place guitar leads that Reyes would drop on subsequent recordings.

I compare some songs on Compala as building off the basic sounds of some of Bowie and Eno's instrumental compilations. The same shows true here, but these tracks tend to emulate more than break new ground.

Ek Tunkul is not a bad album and gives the listener important insight into Reyes evolution as an artist. Still, it comes across as a work in progress and does not display Reyes at the height of his abilities. Ek Tunkul does not quite break out of the early electronic/new age mold.

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Jorge Reyes - 1982 - Ek Tunkul