THE MASTER OF TIME

Fate Of A Thousand Worlds is the second album by Gran Torino, an interesting prog band from Verona. It was released in 2013 on the French label Musea Records, two years after the promising debut grantorinoProg, with a renewed line up featuring Alessio Pieri (keyboards, piano), Gian Maria Roveda (drums), Fabrizio Visentini (bass) and Leonardo Freggi (guitars). According to the band's website, this is a conceptual work about a man who travels in space and in real time throughout the universe that is based on a short sci-fi story written by one of their friends, Paolo Gadioli, that you can find in the booklet and that's also mirrored in the beautiful art work created by Ed Unitsky. The music was conceived as a soundtrack to describe the adventures, emotions and torments of the protagonist...

The opener, "Child of the Stars", sets the atmosphere and introduces the protagonist, Velasquez, a kind of super-hero created by a superior race whose mission is to conquer the whole universe. His birth required a huge amount of energy that was obtained by destroying a planet... The music starts softly, then the rhythm gradually rises, calms down for a while and rises again, powerful and threatening...

Then comes the frenzied "Absolute Time". Here every now and again I'm reminded of bands such EL&P and Goblin... The merciless protagonist can travel through space and time and when he finds a planet inhabited by a superior race he can go back to an era when that civilization was not so evolute and can't resist to his powers...

"The Battle of Velasquez" is a dark, powerful track that could recall some passages from Darwin! by Banco del Mutuo Soccorso. It's a perfect score for the destructive actions of the protagonist who defeats powerful armies and ravages fortified cities. It leads to the following "Dead Suns" where you can hear the great poem of the extinguished suns and the last pulses of the worlds swept away by Velasquez...

The melancholic "The Fog of Time" describes the feeling of loneliness and deep sadness of the protagonist. Velasquez can't find anyone who can match him. They call him just the child of the stars, they fear him, they hate him... Next comes "Empty Soul" that tries to capture in music the strange feeling that the protagonist experiences by approaching a new planet: it's just like a deep emptiness in his soul. So, he begins to observe this new planet, to explore it from above...

Gran Torino 2014

The delicate, romantic "Arìda" is a piano solo track that describes the meeting between Velasquez and a beautiful woman called Arìda who lives on the mysterious planet. The heartless protagonist finally falls in love and the following "The Short Dream" describes in some way this complicate, unsettling romance...

"End of a Planet" breaks the dream, the rhythm rises suggesting an impending danger, something is going to happen. Suddenly Velasques has to go back in his spaceship, there's something wrong... As he gets on board the planet blows up and his love is lost forever... Here the music reminds me slightly of other two planets in a distant solar system, hidden behind the jewellery of a thousand stars and forests of coral...

The title track, "Fate of a Thousand Worlds", ends the album describing the dark thoughts of the protagonist, condemned to live alone in his immense spaceship, master of time, master of the universe... Master of nothing!

On the whole, this is an excellent instrumental album and the music is really worth listening to. Have a try, even if you don't like the storyline!

Gran Torino: Fate Of A Thousand Worlds (2013). Other opinions:

Mark Johnson: The musicianship is inspired and unique sounding enough to set this band apart from the many instrumental prog bands that roam the universe. Imagine all of the things that you might encounter on a journey through the universe. Without lyrics you are left to your imagination... and sometimes that can provide its own horrors as well as inspirations... (read the complete review HERE)

Pedro Bekkers: Gran Torino have made a lot of progression compared to their debut. With the replacement of the guitarist they moved the bar up by a few notches and forced themselves to create more challenging compositions shifting toward a heavier prog rock or prog metal style. With an album like Fate Of A Thousand Worlds Gran Torino may be very proud of themselves! They can face the future with confidence... (read the cmplete review HERE)

More info:

http://www.grantorinoband.it/ 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gran-Torino-prog-band/116388991763308 

FATE AND DREAMS

Four Destinies is the third studio album by Alex Carpani and it confirms all the good qualities of its predecessors, Waterline (2007) and The Sanctuary (2010). It was recorded with a line up featuring Alex Carpani (piano, Hammond, Mellotron, Moog, vocals), David Jackson (sax, flute), Ettore Salati (electric and acoustic guitar, bouzouki, balalaika), Giambattista Giorgi (bass), Alessandro Di Caprio (drums) and Joe Sal (vocals) and produced by Cristiano Roversi who engineered, mixed and mastered all the pieces. The album was finally released in 2014 on the independent Festival Music label with a nice packaging and an art cover reproducing a statue by Michelangelo Pistoletto, The Etruscan, from the Forth Worth Museum collection. According to the liner notes, this is a concept album based on four eventual destinies that a man can find on the path of his life: four destinies that irradiate, moving from the same point, in four different directions of life. To be honest, the concept is not very clear: the lyrics alternate parts in English and in Italian and do not try to tell a story but rather conjure up images adding more colours to the four musical tableaux on the album, the rest is up to your imagination! Four destinies, four long tracks with many changes in rhythm and mood, very rich in ideas and musical colours well performed by an excellent team of musicians...

The beautiful opener, "The Silk Road", takes you on a long journey through valleys and deserts, following the ancient tracks of merchants and adventurers such as Marco Polo. It's a road that marks the destiny of many different people in a melting-pot of races, colours, smells and sounds... A road that crosses the borders between science and faith, where you can hear secret stories whispered by silent shadows under the moonlight...

"Time Spiral" takes you on the mountains where you can sit on the banks of a brook and bathe in the icy waters of the springs of Time. There you can get lost in the mystery of life, you can feel the weight of your days passing by like dust and sand carried away by the current... But a threatening storm is approaching and the rage of the wind will soon blow away everything around you in the crazy spiral of a deadly fate...

"Sky And Sea" begins softly and features some dark passages that recall Genesis and Van der Graaf Generator. The music and lyrics take you on a boat sailing across raging waters under a thundering storm in a dark night... You've got to gather all your energies and fight hard for your life against the fury of the elements. At last the storm calms down, you see a lighthouse and you can breathe the smells of a seaport, you can reach a safe harbour. Now the danger is gone but sometimes tears take a long time to dry...

"The Infinite Room" takes you on a sleepwalk through an enchanted world, as in a H.P. Lovecraft story... Your body is out of control while you're strolling through the streets of a fantastic, unreal city. At dawn the dream melts and you wake up confused by feelings, thoughts and visions that are driving you insane. You can hear a strange music that's shaking your soul... "The sound of weird lyric melody was what aroused me. Chords, vibrations, and harmonic ecstasies echoed passionately on every hand; while on my ravished sight burst the stupendous spectacle of ultimate beauty..." (H.P. Lovecraft, from Beyond the Wall of Sleep).

Alex Carpani Band 2014

On the whole, I think that this is a very good album: if you like bands such as Genesis or Van der Graaf Generator and Italian progressive rock, have a try! I'm sure you will not be disappointed.

You can listen to the complete album HERE

 

Alex Carpani: Four Destinies (2014). Other opinions:

Jerry Lucky: The music of Alex Carpani is best described as classic Italian Symphonic Progressive Rock and he has all the musical elements in place humming like a precision clock. You hear old or classic familiar sounds set against a host of newer textures, blending together to create a wonderfully enticing modern album. Thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended... (read the complete review HERE)

More info:
http://www.alexcarpani.com/ 
https://www.facebook.com/alex.carpani 

A STRANGE FRONTMAN

Feat.Esserelà began life in Bologna in 2009 on the initiative of Francesco Ciampolini (keyboards), Renato Minguzzi (guitar) and Lorenzo Muggia (drums), three friends in love with vintage sounds, progressive rock, jazz, fusion, funk and many more. According to their website, the name of the band refers to an old dummy lying in their rehearsal room that they used to call, quite unceremoniously, just quell'esserelà (that creature over there). As time passed by, they began to bring the old dummy on stage as a prop meant to add humour and colour to their live performances and they began to introduce it as their frontman. After years of fun, hard work and a good live activity on the local scene, in 2015 the band released an interesting debut album on the independent label Joe Frassino Records, distributed in collaboration with Lizard Records.

The album title, "Tuorl", and the art cover by Michele Tomasini recall a living yolk, a kind of nucleus of vital energy in fieri, but you don't have to take too seriously this concept. In fact, what prevails in this completely instrumental work is a strong fun-loving attitude that is also mirrored by the ironic, non sense titles of the eleven tracks and by the funny pictures and drawings that you can find in the booklet. The sparkling opener "Don't leave your dinosauri at home" sets the atmosphere with its frenzied rhythm and seventies influences, followed, in the same vein, by "Anche cotoletta" (Some cutlet as well), "Il nostro batterista ha un buco nella gamba" (Our drummer has hole in the leg) and "Canguros de la ventana" (Kangaroos at the window). In my opinion, these pieces could form a perfect score for an old Italian poliziottesco film full of car chases and breathtaking rides through the streets of Milan or Rome...

On "S.r.l.à" the rhythm calms down for a while, the atmosphere becomes darker, almost spacey, then the music takes off again towards new heights and horizons. The following "No ( )" is longer, more complex but never boring. In the booklet the band thank artists such as Dave Matthews Band, Stefano Bollani and Claude Debussy for the inspiration of these last two tracks but in my opinion the band's songwriting is brilliant and personal and I think that they fully succeeded in mixing different influences into a new, tasteful brew.

"/°\ \°/ /°\ \°/ /°\ \°/" starts with a weird funky rhythm, then evolves into something else through psychedelic rides and sudden changes of mood. The following "What a (tetra) pack" is lively and brisk and leads to the more complex "Un duettrè qqua" and "Stichituffelpa rampa esserelà tum perugià", two excellent tracks driving you through a colourful maze of sounds and colours. The funny live atmosphere of "Loop o' pool" and a short hidden track a cappella end this interesting album. If you like bands such as Calibro 35, La Batteria or Accordo dei Contrari, check it out!

More info:

http://esserela.ilbello.com/ 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/feat-Esserelà/251679446997 

RED AND YELLOW

Giallo! - One Suite For The Murderer is a compilation of pieces inspired by Profondo Rosso (Deep Red), a seminal thriller directed in 1975 by Dario Argento featuring a famous soundtrack by Goblin. It was released in 2008 on the independent French label Musea Records in collaboration with the Finnish Colossus. Some talented Italian artists were recruited to interpret with their own music and lyrics the scenes and the characters of the film, creating something new while paying in the same time a due tribute to Dario Argento's work, one of the best known Italian Gialli. In fact, "giallo" is an Italian word that means "yellow" but that also defines a genre of literature and film named after the colour of the cover background of a series of cheap paperback mystery novels... All the artists involved in this project showed a great respect for the film that inspired it and for its mood. Anyway, if you are not familiar with it, do not worry: the rich booklet with its nice artwork and the extended liner notes will make you understand what the music is about.

The opener is a short instrumental track, "Frammento Rosso / Intro", that sets the atmosphere. Composer and keyboardist Alfio Costa (from Prowlers, Tilion, Daal) here plays Grand piano and Minimoog with great effectiveness conveying a strong sense of mystery and tension...

Then comes the first suite, "Visions of Helga" by Dark Session. Dark Session is mainly the brainchild of composer and multi-instrumentalist Flavio Costa (from Tilion) who, with the help of his brother Alfio (keyboards) and Hamadi Trabelsi (vocals), here paints in black feelings and notes trying to explore what's behind the mind of the murderer. This piece describes the part of the film where a famous psychic, Helga Ulmann, perceives the evil presence of a serial killer during a public meeting... Through his eyes and his hands she looses her soul and her life! It's a prevalently instrumental track that, in my opinion, perfectly fits the subject matter mirroring in some way the images of the film with sounds and words.

The second suite, "Vecchi giochi" (Old Games), was provided by Leviathan, a Roman band whose roots date back to 1985. Here the line up features Fabio Amici (keyboards, Hammond), Fabio Donna (bass), Andrea Moneta (drums, electric guitar) plus the guests vocalists Pierfrancesco Drago (from Revelation and Arcadelt) and Rossella Salvucci. This piece is divided into four parts and it was inspired by the private investigations of the main character of the film, Marcus Daly. The music and the intriguing lyrics by Beatrice Pietrangeli describe this particular hunting game from the point of view of the lurking murderer rather than that of the improvised detective. So, Marcus Daly here becomes the pray. The first part, "L'avvertimento" (The warning) begins softly with organ and piano in the forefront and theatrical male vocals... The killer's house is like a piano where he composes his troubled existence, every fear is like a black and white sequence, a music from the heart that is driving him insane, he's ready to strike and he's biding his time in the dark... Thin deadly melodies soar on the second part, "L'indagine" (The investigation), delivered by the wonderful voice of Rossella Salvucci. The third part, "L'assassinio" (The murder) features a long instrumental section and the rhythm rises... Run away if you can, but beware! The killer knows where and when he can get you... The final part, "La villa" (The manor), is disquieting and darker than ever, there are some narrative vocals and a church-like choir in the background, then the music and lyrics lead you to the closed gates of mysterious, abandoned villa... A great track!

Floating State

The third suite, "Suite dall'inconscio dell'assassino" (Suite from the subconscious of the murderer), is the contribute by Floating State, an experienced band from Bari featuring Marco Esposito (vocals, classical guitar, flute), Grazia Stella (sax), Mimmo Ferri (Theremin, electric piano, organ, synthesizers), Gigi Ferri (electric guitars), Francesco Antonino (electric bass) and Beatrice Birardi (drums, percussion, vibraphone). This piece is divided into ten sections and begins where the previous track left you: in front of the gate of the mysterious manor. You can hear the gate creaking on its hinges, then the music and lyrics take you in and welcome you to a nightmare where the insane instincts of the murderer, his feelings and sensations unfurl as if they were on trial in a hazy court of justice, accused by his subconscious. There's delirium and madness, evil and mercy in this outstanding track that features also some short excerpts from "School at Night (Lullaby)", from the original soundtrack of the film.

A short, evocative instrumental track by Alfio Costa, "Mirrors / Outro", ends this excellent album where the music flows away in perfect coherence without weak moments.

Various Artists: Giallo! - One Suite For The Murderer (2008). Other opinions:

Olav Martin Bjørnsen: As with all releases in what is often referred to as The Colossus Projects, this one is also an outing that should appeal most to fans of ‘70's symphonic rock, in particular those who enjoy long and elaborate epic compositions... If you enjoy intense moods and atmospheres, and find dark emotions fascinating, this is a release that should have a good chance of providing many hours of joy... (read the complete review HERE)

More info:

Alfio and Flavio Costa:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/TILION/41111514951 

https://www.facebook.com/PROWLERSPROG 

Leviathan:

https://www.facebook.com/leviathanprog 

http://leviathanprog.altervista.org/ 

Floating State:

https://www.facebook.com/floatingstate 

RED SHADOWS

From Rock Progressivo Italiano: An introduction to Italian Progressive Rock

Goblin were formed in Rome in 1974. The line-up on their debut album, released in 1975, featured Massimo Morante (guitar, vocals), Claudio Simonetti (keyboards), Fabio Pignatelli (bass) and Walter Martino (drums, percussion) who replaced the original drummer Carlo Bordini. All the members of the band had previously played in other acts such as Oliver, Il Ritratto di Dorian Gray and Seconda Generazione that never had the chance to record an album. The turning point of Goblin’s career was meeting film director Dario Argento who recruited them for the soundtrack of “Profondo rosso” (Deep Red), one of his most successful films.

Murders, blood, mystery but also music and humour are some of the ingredients of this extraordinary thriller that tells the story of an English musician, Marcus Daly (played by David Hemmings) who, after witnessing the murder of a famous psychic, gets involved in the crime investigations teaming up with a female reporter. Actually, the soundtrack was initially commissioned to Italian jazz musician Giorgio Gaslini but he didn’t fulfil his task (in that period he was involved in other projects) and the band managed to complete it in an excellent manner. The music perfectly fits the scenes on screen adding tension and rhythm to dialogues and images. Both film and score were extremely successful and the name of the band became indelibly associated with this thriller and its strong colours.

Both film and album begin with the notes of the dark, hypnotic title track, by far the best known Goblin piece. The album is completely instrumental but images can be even stronger than words... If you haven’t seen the film try to imagine a cradle tumbling down, a rag doll tortured with pins, some strange direful puppets, then marbles, knives and daggers, a single eye watching you... A face reflected in a pool of blood, deep red! “Sometimes what you really see and what you imagine getting mixed up in your memory like a cocktail and you can’t distinguish the different flavours anymore...” (1).

The next track “Death Dies” is more aggressive and is associated with scenes of murders in the film. Flashing blades and leather gloves in action, blood stains and gloomy puppets come to mind while the music flows nervous and tense... 

 

“Mad Puppet” could recall Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells” and it’s a perfect background for the exploration of a villa haunted by ghosts and dark memories or for a visit to a deserted school in the middle of the night while a psychopathic murderer is lurking...

 

 

“Wild Session” begins with sound effects and the wind blowing. There is a presence... “I feel something like a blade entering my flesh...” (2). An evil thought is still hanging in the room when the rhythm takes off on the notes of a haunting piano pattern...

“Deep Shadows” is disquieting and dark. It features peculiar percussive patterns and many changes in rhythm. Stop and listen, let your imagination drive you through a corridor full of mirrors and strange paintings... Then imagine climbing up the wall of a mysterious house looking for a missing window... It’s dark, you risk falling, be cautious while moving like a clumsy acrobat, there’s a threatening presence observing what you’re doing...

The last two tracks were composed by Giorgio Gaslini and feature orchestral arrangements. “School At Night” is a nursery rhyme that in the film is linked to the perverted mind of a serial killer. “Gianna” is light and romantic and in the film is associated to the character of female journalist Gianna Brezzi. A good way to conclude a 30 minute ride on the edge of folly.

Goblin’s debut album was not only successful but also very influential on the whole Italian music scene... A must for every Italian prog lover! By the way, the re-release on CD features unreleased tracks from the film score and from the sessions...

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(1) - (2): Words taken from a dialogue in the film

You can listen to the complete album HERE