Chau

Jorge ‘Flaco’ Barral’s solo album was an unfinished affair, by his own account, recorded just before he left Uruguay for Europe. A member of two formative Uruguayan rock groups – Opus Alfa and Días De Blues – on Chau, Barral sounds like he’s going for broke, with a clutch of intimate acoustic songs that have all the heavyweight, oppressive downer spirit of the likes of Skip Spence or Dino Valente. There are still trace elements of the blues in here, on the murky guitar soloing through the likes of “Esto Sigue Igual” and “No Dejes de Reir Niño,” which is nice enough, but the most compelling moments on Chau are where Barral is beaming in from somewhere seemingly unknown – see the clairvoyant’s shiver of the opener, “Hoy el Sol Acaricia,” and the strung-out, John Martyn-esque visions of “Te Veo en Visiones.” Unreleased when recorded in 1973, long unavailable in its entirety, the album was finally released in 2017.