Mascarada was born at early 1988, when Juan Mares (Keyboards, Flute), Daniel Mares (Voice, Guitars) and Pedro Córdoba (Bass, Guitars) joined forces.
Juan and Daniel played previously on Llewellyn/Galadriel, a progressive line-up which has a short live back in 1986. Pedro had some experience on several rock and pop groups prior to joining Mascarada. From the start, Mascarada was founded on the idea that the music is the only important concept, which must be second to no other thing.
After some searching and a number of changes, Mascarada manage at least to assemble a stable line up with Carlos Móstoles (Acoustic and Electric Guitars) and Jose Luís Montero (Drums) as a guest musician, and with this line up they record their first demo, entitled "El Actor en Irlanda", containing three tracks (El Actor, Noviembre , Irlanda), but the lack of adequate resources made for a very low sound quality, and the group decided not to release it.
From 1989 on the band undergone a good number of changes, but finally a new line up is ready,with Daniel (Voice), Juan (Keyboards, Flute), Carlos (Guitars), Francisco Javier García (Drums, Percussion) and Vicente Guillen (Bass); with this line up, they record "Restos del Amanecer".
"Restos del Amanecer" recived very good reviews, despite the bit too much Marillion-like sound of the group, mainly due to the guitar playing stile of Carlos Mostoles. From then on, the work of the band became increasingly complex, and more personal.
Sadly, things start going wrong, and following a new series of changes, the band splits up in 1991.
But Juan and Daniel choose to continue working with the names of Mascarada,considering that most of the ideas that gave birth to the group are still valid, and Mascarada still has a lot to say. In 1992 they produced their first work as a two-piece band, "The Tower (and other strange places)". Since then, Mascarada has produces two other works: "The World Jones Made" and the last one, "Urban Names", which was released early in 1997.
Finally, late in 1997, Mascarada reached and agreement with the Italian progressive label Mellow Records, for the edition, release and distribution of "Urban Names" on CD. This will be the first official release of the band.
After the band splitting in 1991, Mascarada has not performed live,
but this possibility is still alive...
Many people have asked for detailed information on the history of the band. You can find here a detailed timeline of the history of the group and additional information about the members of the band, past and present.
You can see here some photos of the band.