Can Am Des Puig

Can Am Des Puig was a psychedelic folk group from Spain. Their name is Catalan and translates as "The House of Am on the Hill". They are often mistakenly known as "Book of Am" or "The Book of Am" due to a confusing design layout on their album. The ensemble formed during the winter of 1978 around Juan Arkotxa and Leslie Mackenzie in the mountain village of Deya (Deia) in Mallorca. The village is famous for its artistic and musical heritage and its association with Robert Graves and the early Soft Machine among others. The Soft Machine connection is significant for two reasons: 1) the "Book" was conceptualised as an album, then recorded in a house that the Softs used as a rehearsal studio in the early 60s, and 2) the four-track TEAC tape recorder upon which it was recorded was provided on loan by Daevid Allen - founder member of the Softs, followed by Gong and other musical ventures. The music for both albums was arranged, rehearsed and recorded in a 48 hour period in late February 1978. Only the first album was mixed, mastered and prepared for release at the time due to limited funding. Juan Arkotxa finally oversaw the mastering the second album in 2005. The initial idea for the album sprang from the creation of a series of engravings by Juan & Leslie, representing the states of mind a man goes through in a day. While these were on exhibition in Madrid, the artists had the idea of creating some associated music. More background information, together with colour pictures of the original engravings, is available in the form of detailed sleeve notes by Juan Arkotxa on the recent re-release on Wah-Wah Records. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.