Almendra

Almendra was an Argentine blues-rock/psych band from Buenos Aires that released a self-titled album on RCA Vik in 1969, followed by an eponymous double album in 1970. Guitarist, singer, and songwriter Luis Alberto Spinetta recorded a subsequent solo album, also titled Almendra, then fronted the popular Argentine bands Pescado Rabioso, Invisible, and Spinetta Jade. In 1979, Almendra reformed for a series of live shows and a 1980 third album, El Valle Interior.

Guitarist/singer Edelmiro Molinari went on to lead Color Humano. Bassist Emilio Del Güercio and drummer Rodolfo García later teamed in Aquelarre.

Members: Luis Alberto Spinetta (guitar, vocals), Edelmiro Molinari (guitar, vocals), Emilio Del Güercio (bass, vocals, flute), Rodolfo García (drums, vocals)

Background

Almendra formed in 1967 in the Núñez district of Buenos Aires when members of two local garage bands, Los Sbirros and Los Larkins, merged their talents. Guitarist Luis Alberto Spinetta and bassist Emilio Del Güercio first bonded at San Román high school over surrealism, music, and underground satire, self-publishing a zine titled La costra degenerada. Del Güercio and guitarist Edelmiro Molinari had played together in Los Sbirros, performing covers of the Beatles, Stones, and Los Teen Tops alongside Ángel Del Güercio, Ricardo Miró, and keyboardist Santiago “Chago” Novoa. Spinetta and drummer Rodolfo García both played in Los Larkins and later in Los Masters, a revolving-door group that briefly operated as Los Beadniks and Los Mods.

In late 1967, these factions united under the name Almendra (Spanish for “almond”). Early rehearsals featured Spinetta on rhythm guitar, Molinari on lead, Del Güercio on bass and flute, Novoa on organ, and García on drums. When García was called for military service, the group paused for a year and re-emerged in 1968 as a four-piece with no keyboardist. During this period, Spinetta began writing original material, including early versions of “Plegaria para un niño dormido” and “Zamba” (later retitled “Barro tal vez”).

Amid rising cultural tensions in late-1960s Argentina—under a military regime that censored youth culture—the band absorbed global and local influences, from the Beatles and Nietzsche to Astor Piazzolla and French New Wave cinema.

They signed with RCA Vik and debuted in November 1968 with the single “Tema de Pototo (Para Saber Lo Que Es la Soledad)” / “El Mundo Entre las Manos”, a psych-pop ballad backed with a compact group composition written by Spinetta and García. A second single followed in July 1969: “Hoy Todo el Hielo en la Ciudad” / “Campos Verdes,” coupling Spinetta’s stark, image-heavy poetry with a more pastoral joint composition by Del Güercio and Spinetta.

Their increasing popularity on the Argentine underground scene—bolstered by appearances on radio and at student festivals—culminated in the recording of their first album.

Almendra

Almendra released their debut album on November 29, 1969, on RCA Vik.

The album presents a tightly arranged, lyrically inward suite of short pieces and extended passages, shaped around Luis Alberto Spinetta’s detailed guitar lines and soft, elliptical vocal phrasing. Guitarist Edelmiro Molinari alternates between bright counter-leads and shadowy figures, while Santiago Giacobbe contributes layered organ textures on two tracks. Emilio Del Güercio provides an elastic underpin on bass and flute, with Rodolfo García grounding the arrangements through light snare patterns and sharp accent placement on drums, percussion, and occasional bells and piano.

“Muchacha (ojos de papel)” centers the album with a soft-arched progression and delicate phrasings that stretch across a narrow tonal range, anchored by a steady acoustic figure that never breaks cadence. “Color humano” overturns that restraint with a sharp tempo pivot into electric rupture, sandwiching a five-minute guitar solo between clipped vocal refrains. On “Figuración,” a recorder weaves through staggered rhythms and chorus interruptions that distort the arc into something more grotesque than gentle. “Ana no duerme” cuts faster, driven by clipped percussion and distorted guitars that pull back just before overloading the structure.

“Fermín” carries a quieter pulse but pulls inward, voicing its subject in fragmentary phrases that trail the acoustic frame. “Plegaria para un niño dormido” holds longest on sustained intervals and chordal spacing, stretched with restrained instrumentation that sharpens the contrast between the softness of the arrangement and the bluntness of the plea. “A estos hombres tristes” moves through abrupt sectional pivots, breaking between sung refrains and extended guitar interludes that move laterally without rhythmic pressure, underscoring its thematic drift. “Que el viento borró tus manos” compresses its ideas into a short span, leaning on jazz-styled runs and off-pattern backing vocals. Almendra closes on “Laura va,” stretched over suspended motion—no timekeeping element marks its passage—allowing Spinetta’s voice and the string ensemble to drift together in elastic cadence.

A1. “Muchacha (Ojos De Papel)” [Girl (Paper Eyes)] (3:04) – Spinetta
A2. “Color Humano” [Human Color] (9:09) – Molinari
A3. “Figuración” [Figuration] (3:32) – Spinetta
A4. “Ana No Duerme” [Ana Doesn’t Sleep] (2:42) – Spinetta

B1. “Fermín” (3:16) – Spinetta
B2. “Plegaria Para Un Niño Dormido” [Prayer for a Sleeping Child] (4:01) – Spinetta
B3. “A Estos Hombres Tristes” [To These Sad Men] (5:56) – Spinetta
B4. “Que El Viento Borró Tus Manos” [That the Wind Erased Your Hands] (2:36) – Del Güercio
B5. “Laura Va” [Laura Goes] (2:48) – Spinetta

Sessions took place at Estudios T.N.T. with engineers Alejandro and Salvador, coordinated by Oscar Figueroa. “Laura Va” features a chamber ensemble arranged and directed by Rodolfo Alchourron with José Bragato (cello), Simón Zlotnik (viola), Alicia Varadi (harp), Gustavo Bergalli (flugelhorn), and Rodolfo Mederos (bandoneon). Spinetta illustrated the album cover in tempera and pencil on matte paper; RCA initially rejected it for its surreal depiction but later issued the album with Spinetta’s original artwork intact.

The album’s sole single, “Muchacha (Ojos de Papel)” backed with “Ana No Duerme,” appeared on January 20, 1970. “Muchacha” received unexpected exposure via a youth-oriented fabric advertisement, prompting national attention and wide recognition. Spinetta later expressed regret over the ad but acknowledged the impact it had on the song’s visibility.

They accompanied the album with a released “Tema de Pototo,” backed this time with “Final,” a track originally meant to close the album but excluded due to time constraints. RCA rejected the band’s intended a-side, “Gabinetes Espaciales,” which surfaced on the 1970 label sampler Mis Conjuntos Preferidos.

“Muchacha” became an anthem for Argentine youth, with Spinetta recalling the immediate emotional response it drew at the Coliseo Theater performance. The album reached 10,000 copies sold within weeks of release, with Almendra hailed in Gente and other press for their packed summer shows and fervent audience connection. In early 1970, Spinetta published illustrations for each song in the underground magazine Alquitrán.

Almendra (1970)

Almendra released their second self-titled album on December 9, 1970, as a two-record set on RCA Vik. Luis Alberto Spinetta conceived the album as a rock opera about humanity’s inner search. 

This double-album expands their stylistic range with 21 tracks of fragmented vignettes, extended suites, and miniatures drawn from an abandoned conceptual work. Luis Alberto Spinetta and Edelmiro Molinari alternate between angular and sustained guitar motifs, with Spinetta adding atmospheric piano and Molinari doubling on organ. Emilio Del Güercio underpins the arrangements with fluctuating bass figures and occasional keyboard passages, while Rodolfo García reinforces the outer contours with clipped fills, shifting accents, and ensemble vocal parts.

“Toma el tren hacia el sur” opens the album with forward-leaning propulsion, driven by Spinetta’s vocal phrasing and a sharp Molinari guitar break that pulls at the tempo’s edges. “Agnus Dei” stretches across 14 minutes, framed by vocal chants and a slowly ascending tension that dissolves into extended instrumental interplay marked by loose shifts and chromatic drift. “Florecen los nardos” follows a similar arc, moving from sparse phrases into more saturated electric textures, but sheds clear resolution for sustained harmonic suspension. In contrast, “Para ir” and “Camino difícil” concentrate on structured forward motion, with contour and phrasing shaped tightly around fixed intervals and balanced dynamics.

“Un pájaro te sostiene” fuses rhythmic insistence with ascending vocal motion, opening into a broad chorus without losing pace. “Rutas argentinas” and “Parvas” pivot on linear figures and fixed-meter repetition, pushing pace through compressed guitar lines and minimal vocal layering. On “No tengo idea” and “Aire de amor,” Molinari steers the instrumentation toward rougher patterns and staggered lead figures, prioritizing raw tone over sectional clarity. “Verde llano” and “Obertura” pull back from voice entirely, using string and wind textures to trace thematic fragments from the abandoned rock opera. 

A1. “Toma El Tren Hacia El Sur” [Take the Train South] (3:43) – Spinetta
A2. “Jingle” (1:27) – Spinetta
A3. “No Tengo Idea” [I Have No Idea] (2:46) – Molinari
A4. “Camino Difícil” [Difficult Road] (2:29) – Del Guercio
A5. “Rutas Argentinas” [Argentine Routes] (2:36) – Spinetta
A6. “Vete De Mí, Cuervo Negro” [Go Away from Me, Black Crow] (1:09) – Spinetta
A7. “Aire De Amor” [Air of Love] (2:57) – Molinari
A8. “Mestizo” [Mixed-Blood] (2:26) – Molinari

B1. “Agnus Dei” [Lamb of God] (14:35) – Spinetta
B2. “Para Ir” [To Go] (4:00) – Spinetta

C1. “Parvas” [Bundles] (5:10) – Spinetta
C2. “Cometa Azul” [Blue Comet] (4:22) – Del Guercio, Spinetta
C3. “Florecen Los Nardos” [The Tuberoses Bloom] (6:50) – Spinetta
C4. “Carmen” (3:03) – Del Guercio

D1. “Obertura” [Overture] (3:04) – Spinetta
D2. “Amor De Aire” [Love of Air] (2:35) – Molinari
D3. “Verde Llano” [Green Plain] (1:35) – Molinari
D4. “Leves Instrucciones” [Brief Instructions] (1:30) – Spinetta
D5. “Los Elefantes” [The Elephants] (6:21) – Spinetta
D6. “Un Pájaro Te Sostiene” [A Bird Holds You Up] (2:25) – Del Guercio
D7. “En Las Cúpulas” [In the Domes] (4:41) – Spinetta

Sessions took place at Estudios T.N.T. with engineers Alejandro, Salvador, Casajuz, and Tim. Emilio Del Guercio coordinated the album with added contributions on organ, piano, and tape effects. 

El Valle Interior

Almendra released their third album, El Valle Interior, in December 1980 on RCA.

The album reconnects the quartet after a decade apart, with a refined studio interplay that balances intricate instrumental passages and lyrical introspection. Guitarist Edelmiro Molinari threads sustained phrases through Spinetta’s harmonic outlines, while the voice-guitar arrangements unfold with tight internal phrasing and sudden spatial shifts. Emilio Del Guercio anchors the compositions with a textured low-end that moves fluidly between melodic underpin and rhythmic fulcrum, while Rodolfo García reinforces transitions with understated percussive symmetry and tonal restraint.

“Las cosas para hacer” opens with interlocking guitars—one pulsing lightly in the foreground while another drapes clean lines across the stereo field—beneath Spinetta’s close-miked phrasing and Del Guercio’s anchored rhythm structure. “A mi dama” tightens further into a compressed acoustic setting where the vocal contours stretch slowly across a restrained chord cycle, bridged mid-song by a fluid jazz-inflected solo that never breaks the surface tension. “Miguelito, mi espíritu ha partido a tiempo” introduces background strings that hover behind a staggered beat and harmonic vocal shape-shifting, marked by a sudden change in chord underlay that recalibrates the vocal line.

“Espejada” continues the motif of parallel guitar lines, but diffuses structure into overlapping phrasings that never fully resolve. “Cielo fuerte (amor guaraní)” slows the pace into an almost suspended state, with clipped vocal inflections circling a static rhythm. “El fantasma de la buena suerte” breaks formation through shifting vocal-register layering, open-voiced guitar interjections, and a midsection that leans on group improvisation before returning to its central refrain. “Buen día, día de sol” closes the album with brighter harmonic pacing, a circular riff structure, and occasional audience claps that pull the arrangement into a live-in-studio feel.

A1. “Las Cosas Para Hacer” [The Things to Do] (6:40) – Del Guercio
A2. “Amidama” [To My Lady] (3:25) – Spinetta
A3. “Miguelito, Mi Espíritu Ha Partido A Tiempo” [Miguelito, My Spirit Has Departed on Time] (8:00) – Spinetta

B1. “Espejada” [Mirrored] (2:05) – Spinetta
B2. “Cielo Fuerte (Amor Guaraní)” [Strong Sky (Guaraní Love)] (4:38) – Del Guercio
B3. “El Fantasma De La Buena Suerte” [The Ghost of Good Luck] (6:45) – Spinetta
B4. “Buen Día, Día De Sol” [Good Day, Sunny Day] (4:40) – Spinetta

Across the album, Spinetta’s voice maintains a sharpened tone and precise pitch placement, while García underpins even the more vaporous tracks with rhythmic choices that cut through the ambient layering without overt force.

Sessions took place under the supervision of producer Alberto Ohanian, with Almendra Editora handling manufacturing and distribution. The inner sleeve features original illustrations by Del Guercio, complemented by visual design from Fabián Di Matteo and Sergio Pérez Fernández, and photography by Eduardo Martí.

Discography:

• Almendra (1969)
  
• Almendra (2LP, 1970)
  
• El valle interior (1980)

Sources:

• Discogs: Almendra
• RYM: Almendra
• 45cat: Almendra
• ProgArchives: Almendra
• MusicBrainz: Almendra