Invisible -

Invisible was an Argentine supergroup that released three albums during the mid-1970s. Musically, the band evolved from the free-flowing, psych-tinged poetic rock of their first two albums to the layered eclecticism of their 1976 swan song El Jardín de los Presentes.

Luis Alberto Spinetta made a name for himself in the major national bands Almendra and Pescado Rabioso. Héctor Pomo Lorenzo played in the brief, initial formation of Los Abuelos de la Nada and did time in Pappo’s Blues, where he rubbed shoulders with Carlos Machi Rufino.

After Invisible folded, Spinetta recorded solo and later re-teamed with Lorenzo in Spinetta Jade. Rufino resurfaced at decade’s end in the jazz-rock trio Tantor. Gubitsch played on Astor Piazzolla‘s 1977 live album and joined the folk ensemble Lágrima.

Members: Luis Alberto Spinetta (guitar, vocals), Carlos Machi Rufino (bass), Héctor Pomo Lorenzo (drums), Tomás Gubitsch (guitar, 1976-77)

Background

After Pescado Rabioso folded, Luis Alberto Spinetta formed Invisible as a trio with drummer Héctor “Pomo” Lorenzo and bassist Carlos Alberto “Machi” Rufino, both plucked from Pappo’s Blues after sessions for Volumen 3. Lorenzo played on Spinetta’s 1971 solo debut Spinettalandia y sus Amigos. They also partnered in the unrecorded Tórax and partook in Lorenzo Billy Bond y La Pesada del Rock and Roll, a revolving-door rock troupe.

Spinetta steered Invisible clear of distortion-first rock and emphasized a cleaner attack with minimal overdrive. Their music set Spinetta’s lyric-led writing against the hard base Lorenzo and Rufino carried over from Pappo, then worked in looser, more variable forms.

Invisible debuted in late 1973 with the single “Elementales Leches” backed with “Estado de Coma,” followed in early 1974 by “Oso del Dueño” backed with “Viejos Ratones del Tiempo.”

A. “Elementales Leches” [Elemental Milks] (3:39)
B. “Estado de Coma” [Coma State] (3:22)

A. “Oso del Sueño” [Dream Bear] (4:39)
B. “Viejos Ratones del Tiempo” [Old Mice of Time] (5:59)

Invisible

Invisible released their self-titled debut album in April 1974 on Talent.

The album presents a clear, low-distortion attack that pairs heavy riff weight with long instrumental passages and frequent rhythmic displacement. Guitarist Luis Alberto Spinetta and bassist Carlos Alberto “Machi” Rufino trade lead space and second-voice lines while drummer Héctor “Pomo” Lorenzo drives the album with a hard, energizing backbone and shifts between kit, percussion, and (on “El diluvio y la pasajera”) guitar. As on subsequent albums, the trio group-wrote everything.

“Jugo de lúcuma” opens with a treated-guitar tone that reads like organ color, then snaps into a hard riff and a vocal line that cross-cuts the band’s accents; Spinetta builds the lyric around lúcuma (a Peruvian fruit tied to Inca culture) and frames the song on the sleeve with Escher’s “Tres esferas I.” The arrangement pivots through rhythm changes and two guitar solo passages before an abrupt cutoff, with a last-minute guitar phrase that arrives as a final turn. “El diluvio y la pasajera” starts in acoustic space, then stretches into long, open spans where the trio loosens the center for improvisation; Spinetta tied the lyric to a pre-Columbian “fantaciencia” premise, and the sleeve pairs the track with an image of a sphere pierced by a needle.

“Suspensión” breaks the group’s low-distortion rule for a heavier, force-driven riff, then drops into an interlude that mirrors the title’s suspension before the weight returns; the sleeve links the song to Escher’s “Dragon.” “Tema de Elmo Lesto” runs as the album’s lone instrumental, built on a descending figure the bass and guitar repeat, and the sleeve introduces Elmo Lesto through a Spinetta drawing tied to the band’s onstage character. “Azafata del tren fantasma” carries a slower pulse at the front, opens mid-track for extended playing with a drum-forward stretch, then turns heavier late; Spinetta shaped the lyric around the phrase itself and staged it as a banquet betrayal story, with the sleeve headed by a king-of-swords image.

“Irregular” keeps the focus on instrumental development and constant time shifts, holds the voice back until later, and pushes “irregularity” across rhythm, contour, and volume; the sleeve sets it under a photo of rubble with a church tower rising behind. The attached single tracks (“La llave del mandala” and “Lo que nos ocupa…”) sit on heavier rhythms and riff-led weight, with “La llave…” keyed directly to an Escher mandala (“Límite del Círculo IV”) and “Lo que…” tied to a Jung-linked consciousness theme and a sleeve image of an aged face.

A1. “Jugo de lúcuma” [Lucuma Juice] (4:29)
A2. “El diluvio y la pasajera” [The Flood and the Passenger] (8:46)
A3. “Suspensión” [Suspension] (5:42)

B1. “Tema de Elmo Lesto” [Elmo Lesto Theme] (2:24)
B2. “Azafata del tren fantasma” [Stewardess of the Ghost Train] (8:21)
B3. “Irregular” [Irregular] (7:37)

C1. “La llave del mandala” [The Key to the Mandala] (4:13)
D1. “Lo que nos ocupa es esa abuela, la conciencia que regula el mundo” [What Concerns Us Is That Grandmother, the Consciousness That Regulates the World] (4:19)

Invisible recorded the album in April 1974 at Estudios Phonalex with producer Jorge Álvarez and engineer Norberto Orliac.

Talent’s first 1974 vinyl edition packaged the LP with the “La llave del mandala” single and printed the lyrics for both records inside the sleeve, each text headed by an image. Juan Oreste Gatti designed the cover layout with photography by Hidalgo Boragno and art sourced from Dutch illustrator M.C. Escher. Later reissues appended the band’s first two singles.

Durazno Sangrando

Invisible released their second album, Durazno Sangrando, in September 1975 on CBS.

The album runs as a five-track conceptual set built around ideas Spinetta drew from Carl Jung’s writings on El secreto de la flor de oro (in Richard Wilhelm’s 1929 translation) and its Taoist meditation frame. Guitarist Luis Alberto Spinetta keeps the trio’s front line clear and open while bassist Carlos Alberto “Machi” Rufino reinforces the vocal lines and drummer Héctor “Pomo” Lorenzo holds a firm underpin through long-form structures; “Encadenado al ánima” expands the palette with Esteban Martínez Prieto’s ARP Strings Ensemble on the first section.

On Durazno sangrando, the long-form “Encadenado al ánima” shifts between slow, atmospheric spans and quicker surges, then drops into improvisation-heavy sections that reset the pulse with hard cuts and sudden restarts; the track brings Machi Rufino’s bass forward in the mix, leans on expressive drum detail, and adds ARP string-synth color on the opening part. The title song tightens the frame to an acoustic, pastoral pace and saves its single electric-guitar event for a brief, high-impact solo late in the track.

“Pleamar de águilas” holds to a calm, maritime drift and switches the lead vocal to Rufino, letting the bass line steer the movement once the song settles. “En una lejana playa del ánimus” opens in a lighter, relaxed gait, then turns on tempo changes and sharper contrasts, with a late-arriving dynamic riff that reorients the second half and pushes the intensity upward. “Dios de la adolescencia” closes the set in a short, tranquil register, built on acoustic counterlines and a direct vocal line that reads cleaner than the album’s more surreal passages.

A1. “Encadenado al ánima” [Chained to the Anima] (15:32)
A2. “Durazno sangrando” [Bleeding Peach] (3:46)

B1. “Pleamar de águilas” [High Tide of Eagles] (4:22)
B2. “En una lejana playa del ánimus” [On a Distant Beach of the Animus] (9:57)
B3. “Dios de la adolescencia” [God of Adolescence] (2:45)

Invisible recorded the album in 1975 at Estudios CBS in Argentina, with Luis Alberto Spinetta credited as producer; Discogs also credits Horacio Cusato and Roberto Labraga as technicians and lists Jorge C. Portunato as CBS A&R.

Eduardo Martí shot the photography, and CBS issued the original LP in a gatefold sleeve. Rosario municipal authorities later censored the cover design credited to Martí and an associated poster drawing by Spinetta, objecting to the image’s resemblance to explicit anatomy.

El Jardín de los Presentes

Invisible released their third album, El Jardín de los Presentes, on September 29, 1976, on CBS. The title translates as The Garden of the Present.

The album moves Invisible into a four-piece frame and widens the arrangement surface with two-guitar interplay, bandoneón color, and string-synth layers. Guitarists Luis Alberto Spinetta and Tomás Gubitsch trade rhythmic and lead roles across electric, acoustic, and 12-string textures while bassist Carlos Alberto “Machi” Rufino and drummer Héctor “Pomo” Lorenzo lock the shifts to a firm underpin and extend the palette with fuzz bass and a broad spread of auxiliary percussion; guest bandoneón parts from Juan José Mosalini and Rodolfo Mederos and ARP String Ensemble from Gustavo Moretto push the set further into blended timbres.

“El anillo del Capitán Beto” opens on a tense, off-center guitar chord, then locks into a steady forward pulse where bass and drums stay light but insistent under Spinetta’s vocal, swelling toward a closing stretch that turns the narrative into sustained instrumental tension. “Los libros de la buena memoria” narrows the dynamic range to quieter guitar figures and a slower emotional temperature, then brings in bandoneón late as the harmony thickens and the line takes on a more suspended, nocturnal weight.

“Alarma entre los ángeles” runs as a long instrumental build, led by Tomás Gubitsch’s guitar in extended soloing and rhythmic turns that keep shifting the ground under the same central drive, while the band keeps the transitions fluid enough to read as one continuous arc. “Que ves el cielo” resets the album with a short acoustic frame—direct vocal phrasing, minimal backing, and a compact shape that functions as a breath between longer forms.

Side B pivots back to denser motion: “Ruido de magia” pushes a more abrasive, immersive texture, briefly accelerates, then drops into a dreamier midsection before the last lines land; “Niño condenado” stages the album’s sharpest contrast, starting calm and low, then kicking into heavier, force-driven passages that return later with a second surge and a late guitar statement. “Las golondrinas de Plaza de Mayo” closes on a gentler gait with a lifted cadence, letting the vocal ride a steady, laid-back rhythm as the arrangement thins toward its final tag.

A1. “El anillo del Capitán Beto” [Captain Beto’s Ring] (5:12) – Spinetta builds the opening on a tense, unfamiliar guitar chord, then drops the listener into a narrative about a Buenos Aires bus driver who recasts his bus as a spacecraft and travels through space with the powers of his ring while carrying loneliness with him; Spinetta ties the writing to his reading of Sartre’s El engranaje. The lyric later picked up a popular sports re-reading because it name-checks River Plate imagery and a “Capitán Beto,” but Spinetta rejects any intended link to Norberto “Beto” Alonso.

A2. “Los Libros de la Buena Memoria” [The Books of Good Memory] (5:10) – Spinetta frames this song as love-symbol writing, and the album brings bandoneón in for the first time here through Juan José Mosalini, sharpening the record’s tango-leaning color.

A3. “Alarma entre los ángeles” [Alarm Among the Angels] (6:31) – The album’s lone instrumental spotlights Tomás Gubitsch through extended guitar soloing; he cuts it at age 18 as his first recorded appearance, and the piece sits among Spinetta’s early attempts at writing in a more jazz-directed, high-energy fusion language associated with the McLaughlin/Mahavishnu axis.

A4. “Que ves el Cielo” [You See the Sky] (2:07) – A short acoustic piece that later turns into a repertory staple, including a 1980 joint concert where Charly García takes the song.

B1. “Ruido de magia” [Noise of Magic] (4:38) – Gustavo Moretto enters on ARP String Ensemble, and the track centers on Spinetta’s guitar lead while Machi Rufino and Gubitsch line up a synchronized bass-and-guitar figure inside the arrangement.

B2. “Doscientos años” [Two Hundred Years] (4:12) – Spinetta ties the subject to swimmer Antonio Abertondo and builds the arrangement around an instrumental passage where Gubitsch takes a featured solo over a repeated A-major chord from Spinetta’s guitar, capped by a brief bass solo from Machi Rufino.

B3. “Perdonado (niño condenado)” [Forgiven (Condemned Child)] (7:09) – Spinetta writes the lyric from watching a dog at his family home (Amapola) and imagining a child condemned to live as a dog yet “forgiven” of adult existential anguish. The music runs as an interlocked-guitars-and-bass design that sets a calm, lethargic instrumental span against a later aggressive section driven by a hard riff and repeated shouted “¡Perdonado!”, then ends on a Spinetta guitar solo that Gubitsch singles out as the album’s best.

B4. “Las Golondrinas de Plaza de Mayo” [The Swallows of Plaza de Mayo] (3:24) – The track starts from guitar arpeggio and a short bass riff, then layers bandoneón (Rodolfo Mederos and Juan José Mosalini) plus Moretto’s ARP String Ensemble, with Spinetta pushing the vocal from near-whisper to near-shout on the line that the swallows “only fly in freedom.” Spinetta denies a conscious reference to the dictatorship or the Madres de Plaza de Mayo (formed the next year), but the song keeps attracting political re-readings; it closes on a second Mederos bandoneón statement and Machi’s spoken sign-off: “Bienvenidos al jardín de los presentes.”

Invisible recorded the album in 1976 at Estudios CBS in Argentina with Luis Alberto Spinetta credited as producer; Néstor Gilardón and Oscar Giménez engineered the sessions, and Roberto Labraga handled the mix, with CBS A&R credited to Horacio Cusato.

Eduardo “Dylan” Martí supplied the album title, and the original LP credits Juan Gatti for artwork and interior photography, with Eduardo Martí credited for the cover photo.

Postlude

Luis Alberto Spinetta resumed his solo career with the 1977 jazz-rock album A 18′ del Sol. After a brief Almendra reunion, he reteamed with Hector Lorenzo in Spinetta Jade, which made four albums between 1980 and 1984, progressing from fusion to new wave styles.

Carlos Rufino teamed with Aquelarre alumni in Tantor, which cut a 1979 jazz-rock album and proceeded with Anacrusa bassist Marcelo Torres for the 1982 followup.

Album discography:

Invisible (1974)
Durazno Sangrando (1975)
El Jardín de los Presentes (1976)

Non-album singles:

“Elementales leches” / “Estado de coma” (1973)
“La llave del Mandala” / “Lo que nos ocupa es esa abuela, la conciencia que regula el mundo” (1974)
“Oso del sueño” / “Viejos ratones del tiempo” (1974)

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