A symphonic tale of memory, spirituality and the birth of kingdoms
There are albums born out of inspiration. There are albums born out of passion. And there are albums born out of the sheer necessity to survive — out of pain, persistence, and refusal to surrender to darkness. “The Lords of Wisdom: Season I Episode I – Reconquista (Part I) Asturias” by Last Knight belongs to this third category. It is a work that was not simply composed: it was fought for.
José Manuel Medina does not hide that, in the most difficult years of his life, music was the only light — the only space where he could breathe. Bankruptcy, illness, lost recordings, delays, and then a spontaneous creative eruption that made the album grow to a size requiring it to be split into two parts — all of this can be heard in the music. And yet this is only the beginning: the The Lords of Wisdom project — whose first season is formed by the “Reconquista” trilogy — is planned as at least sixteen albums, creating one gigantic, long‑term saga. “Reconquista (Part I)” is therefore the opening chapter of an epic whose scale has no precedent in contemporary symphonic rock.
Before I move on to the description of the individual tracks, let me tell you a few words about the history of Last Knight. Here it is:
To understand the weight of this album, we must go back to 1996, when a young José Manuel Medina — in love with film music, progressive rock and electronic soundscapes — created the Last Knight project as a space for telling stories through sound. Although he dreamed of becoming a film music composer, the lack of formal musical education and the limited opportunities in Spain forced him to seek his own path. Inspired by Morricone, Vangelis, Jarre, Arkenstone, Moroder and the classic rock of the 1970s, Medina began building his own musical language — one that fused orchestra, electronics and rock.
The first projects — “Lord of the Time” (2001), “Journey to the Land of the Wind” (2003), “Cantábrico” — were attempts to capture landscapes, travels and the history of Spain. A breakthrough came when David Rohl (Mandalaband) invited Medina to collaborate. Thanks to him, Last Knight became an international project, and Medina met musicians who would later co‑create his greatest works. In 2014, the monumental three‑disc album “Talking to the Moon” was released, recorded with musicians from all over the world. In 2019 came the concept album “Seven Deadly Sins”, dedicated to the memory of John Wetton. And then came 2020 — the pandemic, isolation and an explosion of creativity that led to the creation of Medina’s life project: the “The Lords of Wisdom” trilogy, forming the first season of a planned sixteen‑album saga.
It is in this context that “Reconquista (Part I)” is born — an album that is not only music, but a testament to survival.
Here are the people who created this exceptional record:
Vocals:
Marc Atkinson – lead & backing vocals
Mariano Gardella – lead & backing vocals
Deibys Artigas – lead & backing vocals
José Manuel Medina – lead vocals
Guitars and string instruments:
Rafael Pacha – acoustic & classical guitars, psalter, saz, electric guitars, violins, recorders, percussion, pipes, mandolins, zither & flutes
Nelson Pombal – electric guitars
Kheiro Lamri – electric guitars
Keyboards and orchestrations:
José Manuel Medina – piano, Hammond B3, vibraphone, glockenspiel, organ, Mellotron, Rhodes, keyboards, harpsichord, percussion, orchestrations
Rhythm section:
Pablo Lato – electric bass
Jeff Duncan – drums
Additional instruments:
Troy Donockley – whistles
Victor Adebisi – violin
Orchestra and choir:
The Somnus Symphony Orchestra & Choir
Production:
Produced by José Manuel Medina
Executive Producers: Pablo Lato, Pedro V. Martínez & José Manuel Medina
Engineered by Simon Thorne
Mastered by Marcus Thorne
Artwork by James Lobaco
And now, let us turn to the album “The Lords of Wisdom Season 1 Episode I – Reconquista Asturias”.
The album opens with the monumental “The Grand Overture”, a ten‑part suite in which the Somnus Symphony Orchestra and Choir build a panorama of eight centuries of history. Medina leads the listener from the fall of the Visigothic kingdom, through the Muslim invasion, to the birth of resistance in the mountains of Asturias. This is music that does not narrate — it summons. The brass sound like battle horns, the strings pulse with tension, and the choir carries a sacred gravity. It is a gateway into a world where history and legend intertwine.
“In The Middle Ages” is the first full‑fledged song — a medieval fresco about people living under the weight of power, faith and fear. Mariano Gardella sings with theatrical intensity, like a narrator who has witnessed the fall of kingdoms and the rise of new ones. The guitars of Kheiro Lamri and Rafael Pacha create a dialogue between worlds: electricity and tradition, steel and wood. It is a song about an era in which hope was a luxury and survival — a miracle.
“The Kingdom of Asturias” is an instrumental miniature in which Pacha paints the landscape of northern Spain — harsh, mountainous, untamed. The recorders sound like echoes of ancient songs, and the classical guitar carries the melancholy of the first Christian kingdom. It is music like the mist over Covadonga — delicate, yet full of meaning.
“A War of Eight Centuries” is a one‑minute hymn that sounds like a seal of history. Marc Atkinson sings of a war that lasted eight centuries — not as a conflict, but as a path walked by generations. Short, but immensely powerful.
“Cordoba” is a delicate, luminous instrumental impression. Pacha pays tribute to a city that was the jewel of Al‑Andalus — a place where knowledge, art and spirituality flourished despite the storms of history. The guitar sounds like a memory of a golden age.
“War” is one of the most dramatic moments on the album. Deibys Artigas — whose illness delayed the work — sings with piercing intensity, as if fighting not only history but his own fate. It is a song about war that strips life of meaning, about kings losing their crowns, about people who no longer know who threw the first stone. Nelson Pombal’s guitars cut through the air, Medina’s Hammond roars, and Jeff Duncan’s drums carry chaos. This is music like a storm.
“Chivalry Tales I” is a short, dynamic miniature — a sketch of a knightly tale. Pablo Lato’s bass leads the narrative, and the Hammond adds the color of an old manuscript.
“A Green Field of Memories” is one of the most personal pieces on the album. Medina sings about the passing of time, about memories that become the only refuge, about accepting one’s fate. It is the song of a man who has seen too much, yet still believes that “we will meet again, dancing in the rain.” Pacha’s guitars and Duncan’s drums create a space that is delicate yet full of emotion.
“The Kingdom of Leon” is a thirteen‑minute suite — the heart of the album. A musical chronicle of a kingdom that grew, fell and rose again. Pacha and Victor Adebisi create a dialogue of violins and recorders that sounds like a conversation between two eras. Medina builds monumental keyboard landscapes, while Duncan and Lato hold everything together like the foundations of a cathedral. It is a piece that could stand as a mini‑album of its own.
“Flames Would Rise” marks Gardella’s return — a song about the flames that burned heretics, about people living in the shadow of fear. A short but strikingly evocative portrait of the Middle Ages: brutal, merciless, real.
“Across The Mountains” is another instrumental miniature — a breath between chapters. Pacha’s recorders sound like wind carrying history across the Pyrenees.
“The Kingdom of Galicia” is a sixteen‑minute tale of a kingdom at the edge of the world. Music full of mist, ocean winds and Celtic ornamentation. Pacha creates a festival of ancient instruments: zither, hurdy‑gurdy, mandolins, viols, flutes. Gardella sings like a bard who knows stories a thousand years old. Medina adds layers of harpsichord, Mellotron and synthesizers, creating a landscape that is both historical and timeless.
“Pamplona” is a short baroque miniature for harpsichord and orchestra — a musical engraving, a flash of old splendor.
“The Backyard” is Pacha’s pastoral impression — light, radiant, like rest after a long journey.
The album closes with “Hymn for Asturias” — a finale that sounds like both prayer and triumph. Artigas sings of a land as hard as stone, of people who “rose from silent hills,” of a kingdom that survived storms, wars and time. Donockley brings Celtic magic that lifts the piece beyond history — into myth. It is an ending that does not close, but opens — announcing the continuation of the saga.
It is worth emphasizing that “The Lords of Wisdom: Season I Episode I – Reconquista (Part I)” was created despite a serious technical incident in the studio that damaged part of the recordings. The team had to recover, restore or re‑record them — and did so with full dedication, without losing a single grain of artistic integrity. Every note, every arrangement, every sound was created by human hands. No artificial intelligence. No automated creativity. Pure human work.
In the section of dedications and acknowledgments, one hears deep gratitude — for families, friends, collaborators, for those who passed away, and for those who served as spiritual guides. Oldfield, Powell, Morricone, Woolfson, Wetton — their spirit hovers over this music like stars over a medieval sky. This is an album born from hands, hearts and breath.
“The Lords of Wisdom: Season I Episode I – Reconquista (Part I) Asturias” is not just an album. It is a testament to survival. It is the music of a man who lost everything — and from that “nothing” created a world greater than ever before. It is a story about history, but also about a creator fighting his own fate. A monumental, honest, passionate and painful work. The first volume of a saga that is only beginning to gather momentum. And if the sixteen‑minute suite from Part II, which Medina is working on right now in the studio, is any indication of what is coming — then something truly extraordinary awaits us.
