Alturas (Heights) is an improvisation session of unusual players and rare quality. When French prog legend Richard Pinhas (of Heldon) and his longtime associates Acid Mothers Temple were in Peru for the festival Integraciones, Buh records label boss Luis Alvarado put together this session. The longtime AMT core duo of Kawabata (lead guitar) and Higashi (synth) joined Pinhas (guitar) and 70s Peruvian legend and multi-instrumentalist Juan Luis Pereira of El Polen at percussionist Manongo Mujica’s studio. Five musicians, three countries, strings and woodwinds and synth and percussion make for one of the finest albums the excellent Buh records have put out.

Musically it’s rich, textural and harmonic. The tracks are rhythmic but not very repetitive, at least not in a minimalist way. The folk/dance rhymes Pereira and Mujicas playing bring a lot of life to a fairly avantgarde album (though the two Buh Records Mainstays are responsible for some of the records most experimental moments as well.) Makoto, a student of many worldly folk traditions, blends his lightning fast melodies seamlessly into their grooves. Meanwhile some of the most delicate and essential playing I’ve ever heard from Higashi and Pinhas anchor the more cosmic abstractions and textural excursions that all of the players, but especially Pereira, explore across this record.

This is a gorgeous session that’s definitely pretty abstract. If the chemistry of the players and their raw talent doesn’t draw you in then the electro-acoustic folk-prog sounds certainly make an interesting and engaging listen. At times I’m reminded of the projects of each member but more than that Alturas recalls early avant-prog group Henry Cow, the electro-acoustic full improv of Supersilent, and the fuzzed out maximalism of Guru Guru. This is an all-star session with a pristine mix (shout out blog favorite Ale Hop for that) that deserves to be hard by any fans of improvisation.