In Romantic Warriors II, Zeitgeist Media's documentary film about the avant-prog Rock in Opposition movement, a concertgoer at the 2011 RIO festival in Carmaux, France, comments enthusiastically about Yugen's ability to reproduce their complex music on the festival stage, as the film's brief excerpt of the Italian band's performance seems to verify. For those who couldn't travel to Carmaux and witness the show first-hand, in late 2012 the AltrOck label released Mirrors, an hourlong CD documenting Yugen's concert. It is, as they say, the next best thing to being there -- or maybe it's better, because it can be experienced repeatedly, an absolute necessity for full appreciation of the group's stunning set. Aside from a powerful version of "Industry" from Henry Cow's Western Culture, Mirrors consists exclusively of compositions by guitarist Francesco Zago previously heard on Labirinto d'Acqua (2006) and Iridule (2010) as studio concoctions featuring nearly every organic/acoustic and synthetic/electric timbre imaginable in a disorienting amalgam of sounds. As Sid Smith writes in Mirrors' liner notes, a studio-recorded Yugen piece might feature as many as 18 musicians, but Yugen played as a septet (guitar, keyboards, piano, reeds, bass, marimba/vibes, drums) at Carmaux, requiring the band to modify its approach significantly. And in those same liner notes, Zago himself says Yugen could have used roughly tenfold the rehearsal time "to get it all perfect."

1		On the Brink
2		Brachilongia
3		Catacresi
4		La Mosca Stregata
5		Overmurmur
6		Industry
7		Cloudscape
8		Ice
9		Becchime
10		Corale Metallurgico

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