FRIULI - VENEZIA GIULIA

Until 1918 Trento, Bolzano, Gorizia and Trieste were part of the Austro–Hungarian Empire. So, now we cross an inmaginary bridge and go to TRIESTE, the far east of Northern Italy, on the border with Slovenia, a city loved by the Irish writer James Joyce who taught English here between 1904 and 1920. From Trieste, that now is the capital of the Italian autonomous region FRIULI-VENEZIA GIULIA, there comes Gino D’Eliso (MySpace), a singer-songwriter who in 1976 released a very interesting album with strong prog influences, Il mare. He is still active today and is working on a new album.

This city is also home to composer and guitarist Alfredo Lacosegliaz, who in the late seventies played in a short-lived project called Ensemble Havadià closely related to the Stormy Six’s label L’Orchestra. He’s still active with a solo career and a new project called the Alfredo Lacosegliaz Patchwork Ensemble (Official Website) that should be of interest to prog folk lovers. In 2010 they released an album called Pan duro and in 2011 another interesting one, Hypnos.

The most famous contemporary prog band from Trieste are Rhapsody Of Fire (Official Website), influenced by heavy metal and classical music. There are also other interesting prog bands here such as the metal influenced Sinestesia (MySpace) and Notturna (MySpace) or the more original J’Accuse..! (MySpace) who in 2008 released an excellent debut album on Mellow Records, Abbandono del tempo e delle forme.

Other local prog bands and artists are the prog-pop Proteo (MySpace), the “klezmer prog” Passover (MySpace), the neo prog of the young multi instrumentalist and composer Luigi De Santi (ReverbNation), the experimental solo project of composer Sandro Glavina called L’Uomo e l’Ombra (ReverbNation), the prog-jazz Funambolique (MySpace) and Frequency On Border (MySpace) and the heavier Soundrise (MySpace).

Not far from Trieste heading north along the border with Slovenia we reach GORIZIA, on the banks of the river Isonzo, home to Cooperativa del Latte, the psychedelic I Salici (Reverbnation) and a very interesting emerging band called Il Fauno di Marmo (Facebook), formrly known as The Rebus (MySpace). We can now cross the old border between Austria-Hungary and Italy and go to UDINE which in the past gave us a project called Nascita della Sfera. The current prog scene of this city features bands such as the jazz-rock Assolo di Bongo (Official Website) and So What (MySpace), the classically influenced Quasar Lux Symphoniae (Official Website), the folk prog La Munglesa (MySpace), the metal influenced Syderal Overdrive (MySpace), the instrumental jazz folk Démodé (MySpace), the the psychedelic Aiperion (MySpace) and Haab Cycle (MySpace), who were born from the ashes of another psychedelic band called Astral Loom (MySpace).

South of Udine, there is Cervignano del Friuli, near the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Aquileia, home to the neo prog Linea Nazca (MySpace) and two metal influenced bands, the young Azure Agony (MySpace) and the veterans Garden Wall (MySpace), a band that have been active since the late eighties. In 2011 Garden Wall released a very interesting new album on Lizard Records, Assurdo.

We conclude our visit to Friuli-Venezia Giulia in Pordenone with the symphonic prog band Barrock (Official Website), the prog jazz pianist Remo Anzovino (Official Website) who in his latest album Igloo collaborated with PFM’s drummer Franz Di Cioccio, the jazz prog Iz Quartet (Facebook), the psychedelic Iperico (MySpace), the experimental, raw Inter Nos (MySpace), the prog metal Pathosray (MySpace) and the folk prog Tarantàs (MySpace) and Orchestra Cortile (MySpace).