Artist description Powerfull yet swinged progressive rock with a lot of synphonic moods and classical inspirations . Complex musical structures , mostly instrumental , where all singing plays a role in the story or the spirit of the musical theme .Mistic musicality with a toutch of anger and a deep lucidity that leads to a positive criticism .

Music Style Progressive Synphonic Rock

Artist History The first formation of the band recorded "Misterios & Maravilhas", their first album ,in 1978 . Being a gerat success one year latter they recorded "Holocausto" that turned out to be even a greater success .After their third album "Humanoid Flesh" the band stoped all activities untill year 2000 , when rehearsals for the actual cd "TERRA" started .The cd is released the 25th January 2003 .

Group Members The actual 6 piece formation is : Manuel Cardoso in lead guitar ,vocals , lyrics & production . Bruno Silva in rythm guitar , harmonies and ocasional solos Guilherme da Luz as synthezist Pedro Condinho in the bass (5 strings) B�b� playing the drums Luis Ramos in the keyboards Pedro Sales is a collaborator in the composing and also played some ocasional late hour keyboard lines in some tracks of "TERRA" Patricia Almeida sung some solo vocal lines

Instruments Bass , Drums , Keyboards , Synthezist , Lead guitar & Vocals , Rythm guitar

Press Reviews From Expos� #15 http://www.expose.org Tantra - “Misterios e Maravilhas” (Musea FGBG 4224.AR, 1978/1998, CD) The 1978 debut by this four-piece from Portugal offers a moody and lively classic progressive rock sound, laced with color and complexity, no doubt influenced by early Yes, early Genesis, and to some extent other Iberian bands of the day - the latter most notably on the eleven minute opener “A Beira Do Fim”. Compositionally rich and full, they move easily between fluid spacy passages and bright rhythmic-based workouts, from difficult into more accessible moments. Each of the album’s three longer tracks go through a full series of developments, through numerous instrumental sections. Vocal duties are shared between the band’s two primary composers, keyboardist Amando Gama and guitarist Manuel Cardoso, with lyrics in Portuguese, but to be fair the vocals play a fairly minimal role in the band’s largely instrumental sound. While Amerigo Luis does a commendable job getting that Squire ‘Rickenbacker’ sound on his fender bass, it’s drummer To Ze Almeida who is the official hotshot of the rhythm section, approaching the Furio Chirico school at times. In all this is a very welcome reissue that should be of interest to all fans of the melodic classic progressive rock sound. - Peter Thelen Ripaille - “La Vielle Que L'On Brula” From Expos� #25: Tantra - “Holocausto” (Musea FGBG 42989.AR, 1979/2002, CD) There may not be mass quantities of Portuguese prog, but this disc helps fill a big void of quantity with muito quality. It’s a minor milestone of symphonic rock that smacks of the best the genre has to offer: solid musicianship, composition, and production, combining the Floydian space and multi-key attack of Eela Craig with the chops and lyrical panache of the better Italian bands. As befitting the band’s name and philosophy, beautiful spacial atmospheres often lull the listener into states of peaceful serenity, occasionally interrupted by jarring technical workouts, and most always set free by melodic heights of grandeur. You say you want keyboards? How about Steinway, Clavinet, Fender Rhodes, Mellotron, and most importantly, polymoog and minimoog with knob twirling to the hilt - moog fans: this is heaven! It may be that keyboards are most upfront in general, but plenty of thought is dedicated to Manuel Cardoso’s generous selections of guitars and styles as well, featuring fuzzy rock leads, Hackett-swells, and acoustic shading. To-Ze Almeida drums with power and finesse, throwing in fills galore with a broad palette of percussion. The band is ably rounded out with bass and a second guitarist/vocalist. It’s hard to believe that such a disc could win such high honors in the mainstream Portuguese press (and relatively little recognition in the prog scene), but that it did, winning album of the year! This is a masterwork that grows ever so familiar with multiple listens, and it belongs in any serious symphonic fan’s collection. - Mac Beaulieu Peter Thelen "Exploring The Boundaries of Rock" Expos� ************************************************** http://www.Silverdb.com/MUSIC_DBCDInfo.asp?txtCDID=3859 Tantra Holocausto -Portugal 1978 Progressive Rock Prognosis Selected Discography 1977 - Mist�rios e Maravilhas 1978 - Holocausto Nuno: 12/19/2002 Recently released in CD format by Musea, this 1978 album by Tantra is a real page out of Progressive Rock history. Like so many things in Portugal during the 70’s, the innovative ideas tended to take some time until completely being absorbed by a country just in a transition phase to democracy after a long period of dictatorship. Even if until the date of this release there were already some edited Progressive albums here, it was Holocausto that finally captured the whole soul of this most established musical art form. After a well succeeded first album - Mist�rios e Maravilhas, the band Tantra, driven by a growing fan bases and a steadily (at least at this time) cult prog scene, presented the fans with a mature and representative album. One that featured all the teachings and overgrown pretentious savvy (in the usual progressive good sense) of several years developing their own style while not disregarding the Monster bands of the genre. Tantra was also noticed by this time for their exclusive Live acts, where a fantastic scenic show was designed and unfolded to better serve the complex theatrical music they were playing. This, taking advantage of the success that both Genesis and Nektar have had in their mythical concerts in Portugal, some years before. The music in Holocausto show us a band with a specific own style, while sipping allusions from Genesis, early King Crimson and Yes and even Ange. To that learned base, they added an extra load of complexity, hard arrangements, odd-time rhythm changes and a very peculiar and innovative (for that time) sense of melody. By all this I mean that Holocausto is a feast in bizarre, even for the 70’s, Symphonic Prog. Apparently the band wasn’t trying to be melodic or generous to the fans ears, as they kept challenging the usual structures with tons of Keyboard mayhem aiming jazzy textures imprisoned inside a Sympho capsule. Also the guitar/bass duels were adding wicked turns and changes in the “normal” procedures and the bizarre vocals were almost off-topic. Listening to this music now, more than 20 years later, a kind of nostalgic feeling (for the time has been cruel on this record, making it sound dated) is mixed with the perplexity of finding so much common yet tangent and even perpendicular sounds to the mainstream 70’s Sympho. This was kind of a challenging effort by the band, exploring new venues while maintaining basic traces of their masters. What is most defying here is the curious melodic lines that completely disregard calmness and obvious harmony while substituting it with complex and dark/hard toned structures. All in all, this is a very difficult album to understand and to like at first listen. It is courageous, bold and everything but short-minded. And it can be a real challenge even for the experienced progger. Later, the band, driven by a complete change in scenery, abandoned this (so hard to construct) style, selling out to new paths that lead them nowhere (I’m talking about the third chapter - Humanoid Flesh). This meant the end of the line for Manuel Cardoso’s Tantra. Now, maybe driven by the “progressive rebirth” phenomenon that the Internet has provided, a second chance has been set and Tantra has taken the risk of this new challenge, as they prepare to release a new, back to the Sympho Prog roots, album. If you understand that in Portugal, Tantra is the synonym for Symphonic Prog, you can obviously guess my euphoria while I wait to get my hands (and ears) in their 2003 chapter. Prognosis - Progressive Rock & Fusion ************************************************* http://www.distribee.com/albums/t/tantra/tantra.htm The first real Progressive band in Portugal was a landmark for the European Progressive scene, due to the originality of its music. Despite a standard line-up (Keyboards, guitar-vocals, bass & drums-percussions), TANTRA played elaborated and beautifully built and arranged Progressive songs in Portuguese, which figured at the same creative level as the best English composers (YES, GENTLE GIANT, CAMEL...) but with a distinct character. The vocals contain an astonishing lyricism, the musical constructions and combinations are complex and inventive, the sounds are originals and the melodies beautifully made. Apart from being placed in the same category as YES, GENTLE GIANT, PREMIATA FORNERIA MARCONI or KING CRIMSON, this group was in itself a reference. A must in Progressive rock.

Location Lisbon, Lisboa - Portugal

Copyright notice. All material on MP3.com is protected by copyright law and by international treaties. You may download this material and make reasonable number of copies of this material only for your own personal use. You may not otherwise reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, or create derivative works of this material, unless authorized by the appropriate copyright owner(s).