Akenathon – Crónicas Intrascendentes (Viajero Inmóvil, 2025)
Argentine progressive rock outfit Akenathon returns with Crónicas Intrascendentes, a third album that refuses spectacle in favor of finely observed detail. The band leans into its signature mix, classic prog-rock foundations threaded with tango inflections and nuanced hard-rock muscle, and pairs it with literate, inward-looking lyrics. The result feels like a quiet defiance of the news cycle, an album that turns small errands and side streets into epic terrain.
A sense of theater opens the record. “Queja De Un Bufón” (A Jester’s Complaint) channels the jester’s double edge, wit and melancholy, through Camel-like guitar phrasing, ELP-style synth lines, and rhythms that lurch just enough to keep the floor moving beneath your feet. The interplay shows a group with firm historical footing and a taste for mischief. “Irresistible Tic” tightens the screws with a brisk, jazz-leaning pulse where organ and guitar parry rather than merely shadow each other; momentum never flags, because the rhythm section refuses to coast.
“Emma Va Al Kiosco” (Emma Goes to the Newsstand) features elegant drumming that gives the song its spine while a bluesy guitar voice sketches the scene before the arrangement hardens into a proggier final act, with a faint King Crimson glare peeking through.
“El Increíble Mundo Oculto De Los Hermanos Morosky”(The Incredible Hidden World of the Morosky Brothers) pivots to a leaner groove: fretless bass carves the path, melodic piano plants hooks, and a touch of funk keeps the tune buoyant without slickness.
The album’s darker current surfaces on “Vicente Y Los Cuervos” (Vicente and the Crows), where organ swells and jagged guitars evoke a Van Der Graaf Generator moodiness. A bandoneon slips into the frame, folding tango language into progressive rock architecture with confident ease.
Ambition crests on “La Muerte Del Zapatero (Nostalgia De Una Mediasuela)” [The Shoemaker’s Death (Nostalgia for a Half Sole)]. The track moves through chapters: a dramatic instrumental prologue; a hush of bass and keyboards; a burst of distorted guitar; a jazz-lit corridor; and an epic gallop that pairs electric guitar with Canterbury-leaning keyboards. The piece’s cryptic storyline, Emma at the newsstand, a shoemaker’s death, footprints that vanish or incriminate, mirrors the album’s fixation on daily rites that feel trivial until you look twice. Its Gardel Award nomination for Best Rock Song only underlines how sharply the band calibrates lyrics and music.
Scope reaches its widest on closer “Huellas” (Tracks). The longest cut begins with global percussion and spacious string synths, allows a psychedelic guitar to wander the edges, then snaps into a heavy beat with pitch-bent guitar figures and surging synths. A finale of dueling guitars and keyboards lands as culmination.
Recorded at Picciola Studios in La Plata between December 2023 and December 2024, the album benefits from Fernando Chávez González’s clear-eyed production and Matías Paya González’s mix and master at Estudios Argot. Laura Boassi’s cover art extends the theme of hidden worlds, and Viajero Inmóvil’s 2025 digital release places the band’s evolving story alongside earlier chapters, Peregrino (2009) and Como Hormigas (2020).
Musicians: Guillermo Rocca on drums and vocals; Fernando Chávez González on bass, synthesizer; Marcela Crusat on keyboards and vocals; and Aníbal Acuaro on guitar and vocals.
Hello Ángel, thank you so much for your review. You captured the message very accurately and, as is often the case with art, you’ve also offered us a different, broader perspective. It’s wonderful to feel that our work can generate this. Thank you so much from everyone, Akenathon.