AMG Review of Comala

Jim Brenholts
All Music Guide

Comala is one of Jorge Reyes' most important CDs. It is, as usual, deep shamanic Mexican Native American music. He augments his ethnic acoustics with synthesizers, processors, and other electronic accoutrements. Those modern implements enhance the spirituality and deepen it. They also give the ancient ritualistic music a contemporary feel and aura that invite and allow more listeners to participate. Overall, the extras enhance the total experience. There are some dark overtones to these proceedings. Reyes uses a deep drone to accentuate those textures. The eerie field recordings and samples take it over the edge. This hard to find classic will appeal to fans of Harald Grosskopf, Robert Rich, Steve Roach, and Suso Saiz. For serious collectors, it is essential.