In
1971 I New Trolls met composer Luis Enriquez Bacalov and producer
Sergio Bardotti for the soundtrack of the film “La vittima designata” directed by Maurizio Lucidi starring Tomas Milian. The
plot was set between Milan and Venice and featured the scene of a
murder in Venice... So the idea of a soundtrack inspired by Vivaldi
and featuring the strength of a rock band interacting with an
orchestra seemed a good idea for the musical comment of the scenes on
the screen. Then, from cinema to vinyl was a short step. I New Trolls
line-up features here Vittorio De Scalzi (guitar, keyboards, electric
piano, flute, vocals), Nico Di Palo (guitar, vocals), Giorgio D’Adamo
(bass), Gianni Belleno (drums, vocals) and Maurizio Salvi (keyboards,
organ) while the orchestra was directed by Maestro Bacalov himself.
This album is usually regarded as a masterpiece of Italian
progressive-rock and it’s historically important because it was the
first experiment of this kind in Italy, moreover it was quite
successful and it opened the way for other works in the same style.
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| Mew Trolls 1971 |
On
the first side the band interact with the orchestra blending
prog-rock influences (for instance the flute in “Jethro Tull style”
and the distorted guitar) and classical music passages with balance
and good taste. The first movement is the lively instrumental
“Allegro”. In the second movement, the slow, passionate “Adagio”,
well balanced vocals soar in an evocative way. “Wishing you to be
so near to me... Waiting for the sun to shine again / Finding that
it’s gone too far away / To die, to sleep, maybe to dream...”.
The short lyrics were inspired by the poetry of Shakespeare... To
die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
or in that sleep of death what dreams may come (Hamlet, Act III -
scene I). The third movement, “Cadenza – Andante con moto” is a
beautiful melancholic piece, to sleep and to dream... The fourth
movement, “Shadows”, is dedicated to Jimi Hendrix. It’s a
reprise of the “Adagio” where the band with electric guitar and
flute in the forefront seem to look for Jimi’s shadow in the dark
and struggle to find it...
On
side two there is a long track where the members of the band showcase
all their musicianship, “Nella sala vuota, improvvisazioni dei New
Trolls registrate in diretta”. This piece is almost completely
instrumental (in the middle there are just some vocals in Italian, a
short reprise of a previously released single “Il sole nascerà”)
and though the title means “improvisation in an empty room” it is
very far from being just a boring free improvisation sounding more
like a medley of different pieces put together. According to Vittorio
De Scalzi, this is not just a filler and the aim of the band was to
reproduce in studio the same energy that they were able to express
live on stage during their concerts . Well, the result is definitely
not bad at all!
On
the re-release on CD of this album you’ll also find its sequel,
“Concerto grosso n. 2”. Indeed, after their first split-up and
the separate experiences of the members with Ibis and New Trolls
Atomic System, in 1976 I New Trolls reunited with a renewed line-up
and tried to repeat the success of “Concerto Grosso per i New
Trolls”. Luis Enrique Bacalov composed the music of the first three
tracks and the band interpreted them interacting with an orchestra.
Perhaps you can’t find here the originality of the album released
in 1971 (on the third movement every now and then there are slight
reminiscences of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells...) but the pieces
are well structured and well performed. In the second and third
movement there are some remarkable harmony vocals and the romantic
lyrics are sung in English... “She’s many miles away from me /
She’s wasting nights away from me / But every song and every tear
and every lie and every fear / Are always calling back my love
keeping back my love...”. An amazing example of merging classical
music and progressive rock...
It’s
a pity that the other tracks of the album seem to go in another
musical direction. Just some nice pop songs (the dreamy “Quiet
Seas”, sung in English and “Bella come mai”), some West Coast
echoes (“Vent’anni” reminds me slightly of CSN&Y, with
amazing harmony vocals built up around a remarkable acoustic guitar
work, while “Let It Be Me” is the cover of a song made famous by
the Everly Brothers) and a not altogether convincing vocal experiment
(“Le Roi Soleil” where the words of the bleak nonsense lyrics are
nothing more than sounds while the music recalls slightly Queen’s
“Bohemian Rhapsody”).
You can listen in streaming to Concerto Grosso per i New Trolls HERE and to Concerto Grosso N. 2 HERE
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