What 50 years ago was pure avant-garde today is one of the most undisputed classics of national rock. On November 29, 1969 , the first album of Almendra , the legendary band of Luis Alberto Spinetta. And it gave impetus to the incipient Argentine rock.

Almendra consisted of Spinetta on guitar and first vocals,Edelmiro Molinari on first guitar,Emilio del Guercio on bass and choirs, andRodolfo García on drums. Between April and September 1969, they recorded their first album of the same name at TNT studios. The theme “Figuration” includes Pappo, in choirs, and in the theme “Laura va” Rodolfo Alchourron, conducting an orchestra, and Rodolfo Mederos, in bandoneon.

The album had a decisive influence on the foundation of national rock that slowly awakened to a new premise: it was possible to sing in Spanish and remain a rocker. Almendra's music—along with that of other bands that shared with them that primary time of Argentine rock, such as Los Gatos or Manal— brought a wave of sounds that changed much of the “norms” with which until then music was made in Argentina. The idea that rock had to be sung in English was banished. He began to assimilate the fact that he could have poetry, metaphor, mysticism, different sounds.

The lid

The cover of the disc —drawn by Spinetta himself — it's, too, disruptive. The Skinny once told that story: “I had made an original super worked. The types of the recorder they started bicycling, they didn't know where he was. We weren't going to allow the disk to go out without it. I had the drawing very clear in my head and I went home and did it again. We didn't want to leave things in hands of mediocre types of the company who make disc caps like Chorizos.”

50 years passed and the impact of Almendra is still strong in all those who look out on Argentine rock. Happines, then, for those who enjoy rock.