SONGS FROM THE MAGIC WOOD

In 1974 some members of Reale Accademia di Musica worked along with other musicians as a backing band for an album of singer songwriter Adriano Monteduro. The line up featured Adriano Monteduro (acoustic guitar), Henryk “Enrique” Topel Cabanes (vocals), Federico Troiani (piano, keyboards), Roberto Senzasono (drums, percussion), Franco Coletta (electric and acoustic guitar, vocals), Enzo De Luca (vocals, acoustic guitar), Dino Cappa (bass), Tony Mimms (vocals), Michela Grandi (vocals) and Roberto Rosati (timbaillas). What resulted from the recording sessions was a nice collection of songs with soft rock arrangements, very different from the symphonic style of the Reale Accademia di Musica eponymous album. Nonetheless, the album was entitled Adriano Monteduro e Reale Accademia di Musica and co-credited to the band. It’s a concept album where all the songs follow a common thread ad tell of a psychedelic dream, in some way captured by the colourful art work by Fausto Di Landro...

 

The opener “Buongiorno nel bosco (Il canto del sole)” (Good morning in the wood – The song of the sun) is a folksy ballad based on an acoustic guitar arpeggio. The lyrics and music conjure up the image of an enchanted wood at dawn: under the faint light you can see a hollow tree, three dark pandas, a sleepy red deer and a gnome who is carving lilac marionettes. Then the gnome starts to dance happily because he knows this is a holy day to celebrate on the banks of the river, under a magic oak tree. It’s the wood of fantasy and other gnomes row merrily on their small pirogues to reach the place of the ceremony... Next comes “La favola del guardiano del bosco” (The tale of the guardian of the wood) that tells in music and words of the birth of the magic wood. Once upon a time an illuminated man came from a far violent place, he lifted his arms up to the sky and turned himself into the wood creating a paradise and setting everything in peace and harmony with a miracle of love...

“Mezzogiorno” (Midday) paints in notes and words a peculiar hippy style tableau with people running barefoot on the grass under a blue sky. The sun is shining, the bees are busily flying from flower to flower and your thoughts can follow the music and singing of wind and creeks... Then “Le figlie dell'erba (Festa magica)” (The daughters of the grass – Magic party) marks the arrival of some beautiful girls carrying baskets full of fruits and magical mushrooms. The dance is going to start, a band of old dwarves is going to play and everyone will be happy... Well, just a metaphor of the pop festivals of the early seventies!

 

The reflective “Viaggio libero” (Free trip) describes a trip through the magic wood where you can breathe freedom and happiness under the moonlight while the following “Le montagne nel tramonto” (The mountains in the sundown) reminds you that you are just living in a dream. The mountains at dusk are like shadows of faceless knights asleep and you fear that tonight they will ride away... Ghosts are hidden in real life all day long and you are aware that when the new day will rise the dream will fade out and reality will take over again... 

 

The dreamy “Preludio a...” (Prelude to...) is a beautiful instrumental track that leads to “Una canzone” (A song), an acoustic piece about the healing, anti-depressive power of songs, friendship and love. When you feel that illusions, happiness and dreams are going to melt into a bleak daily life, just try to sing along some piano chords or a strummed guitar pattern (with a little help from a pinch of magic grass) to have a new go! Then “Suoni di umanità” (Sounds of humanity) ends the album suggesting that this was a fairy tale that could come true. Fantasies of a timeless world without cities while you are surrounded by the sounds of civilization... Why not?

On the whole, I enjoyed the album although I fear that many prog fans could find it a bit disappointing.

 

Adriano Monteduro e Reale Accademia di Musica (1974). Other opinions:

Jim Russell: The album is only recommended to Italian collectors, fans of exceptional album art, and fans of Italian soft pop-rock music. It is good but it is definitely not what prog heads are looking for. Of course if you're like me you'll buy it anyway hoping against hope for more RADM. You'll get just a hint of a taste of their previous glorious album. For me personally, I think it's just charming enough to be a keeper... (You can read the complete review HERE)

 

ROYAL ACADEMY

From the book Rock Progressivo Italiano: an introduction to Italian Progressive Rock

Reale Accademia di Musica were formed in Rome in the early seventies and rose from the ashes of another band called Fholks. In 1972 they released a very interesting eponymous debut album with a line-up featuring Henryk “Enrique” Topel Cabanes (vocals), Federico Troiani (keyboards, vocals), Pierfranco Pavone (bass), Roberto Senzasono (drums, percussion) and Pericle Sponzilli (guitar) who left the band soon after the recording sessions and was replaced by Nicola Agrimi. The album was produced by Maurizio Vandelli and the overall sound features pleasant melodies and pastoral acoustic passages. This work doesn’t shine in originality and the lyrics sometimes are a little bit naive but it’s well played and recorded and I’m sure that Italianprog fans will love it.

 

The opener “Favola” (Fairy tale) is soft and dreamy. Delicate pastoral melodies depict an enchanted world of songs and fairy tales where Time calmly “weaves its story”...

Then comes the long, complex “Mattino” (Morning) which is about the end of a happy childhood when dreams are blown away by cold reality. The music starts softly, led by piano and vocals... “Open your eyes / Mind that your childhood is over / And you have no time to dream anymore... The simplicity of ingenuity will burn like a candle...”. After a piano interlude the music becomes tense and the rhythm takes off for a beautiful instrumental ride through reality. When the music calms down again it’s time for a new awareness... “Now you are a man / And as a man you have money, a job, dignity and a woman who warms you but... / Even heaven can’t give you back the happiness of childhood...”.

 

“Ognuno sa” (Everybody knows) is a melodic ballad inviting you to live like a carefree child, dreaming of endless roads towards the blue sky... “Life is a flower that you can pick if you want, when you want it / Because it’s the only gift that you can have for nothing in exchange / And if you want you can give it to the people who love you, to those who are with you...”.

On the next track, “Padre” (Father), the atmosphere is definitely more troubled and heavier. It’s a complex piece featuring intense instrumental passages and heartfelt vocals. The lyrics are about the generation gap... “Father, you ask me what I think / You ask me where I want to go, how will it end... You never think of your way of living, walking in circles and killing your dreams...”.

 

“Lavoro in città” (Work in the city) is a beautiful track in three parts. After a short piano intro the music drives you into a nightmare. The lyrics depict a sick world where machines have taken over and freedom is the bed you sleep in. Images from Fritz Lang’s film “Metropolis” come to mind... “The radio can’t sing / It shouts that my civility is dying now / Around me there are faces of people scared like me...”. The atmosphere of fear and alienation melts into a dreamy invocation for a peaceful, simpler life, full of magic songs and sounds... “Everything is divine, you know / Just if you want it / And if you want it, it will be so...”. The third part is a lively, jazzy instrumental finale.

The last track “Vertigine” (Dizziness) concludes the album with a full tank of dark, heavy energy. Electric guitar riffs and organ patterns underline gloomy lyrics. Long rivers are carrying clouds of gas and a threatening shadow is approaching... “Your door is closed but you know that you can’t stop it / It’s coming here, it’s coming here!”.

ORGANIZED DELIRIUM

Attached to the interesting book of the same name by Gianmaria Consiglio published in 2009 by Eclysse, Salerno (available only in Italian, 190 pages containing the history of the band, a deep musicological analysis of the album Ys and many black and white pictures), the CD Il Balletto di Bronzo e l’idea del delirio organizzato contains some post seventies live recordings and unreleased studio tracks of Il Balletto di Bronzo and Gianni Leone and can be considered an interesting document of the rebirth of the band after the split up in the seventies. 

 

 

“Intro” features just background keyboard sounds and the voice of Gianni Leone resuming the history of the band, part of the reasons of the 1973 split up and how the idea of reforming the band was born... Then it’s the moment of “Technoage”, recorded during a concert in Tokyo on the 14th of September 2002, followed by an excerpt from “Deliquio viola” and the first part of “Napoli sotteranea”, taken from the DVD Live In Rome 2008, while the second part of “Napoli sotterranea” comes from a concert at the Villaggio Globale, Rome recorded on the 19th of November 2002. 

 

Next comes a good (although fragmented) synthesis of the whole suite of Ys. “Introduzione” and “Secondo incontro” are excerpts from a Gianni Leone solo performance recoded at the Centrale del Tennis, Rome on the 29th of July 2003, “Primo incontro” is taken from the concert in Tokyo on the 14th of September 2002 and “Terzo incontro ed Epilogo” comes from a concert at the Alpheus, Rome on the 29th of November 2001. 

 

 

Then “Nè ieri, né domani” comes from a live recording in Mexico City on the 9th of March 2003; “”Strano appuntamento” is an unreleased studio recording from 1987 while the last two tracks “Un’eccitazione nuova” and “Discoclub” are unreleased tracks taken from some 1985 studio sessions. To be honest, the unreleased pieces from the eighties are rather weak and closer to disco music than prog but the rest of the CD is worth listening to. 

 

On the whole, along with the book this a good document of the band’s history and a precious item, highly recommended to fans and Italian prog collectors.

 

More info:

https://www.amazon.it 

 

 

RETURN TO SIRIO

Il Balletto di Bronzo took form in Naples in the late sixties under the name I Battitori Selvaggi. The first line up featured Marco Cecioni (vocals, guitar), Michele Cupaiuolo (bass), Giancarlo Stinga (drums) and Lino Ajello (guitar). Their debut album, entitled Sirio 2222, was released in 1970 and sounds quite different from their best-known prog work Ys from 1972 since keyboards wizard and vocalist Gianni Leone joined only in 1971 along with bassist Vito Manzari, leading the band in a completely new musical direction... 

 

On Sirio 2222 you can find many beat and psychedelic influences while the lyrics mainly deal with the counterculturals values of hippies and their way of life always on the road... The music is definitively guitar driven and you can listen to some echoes of Jimi Hendrix ("Un posto", "Girotondo"), Canned Heat ("Eh Eh Ah Ah"), Animals, Yardbirds or The Who ("Neve calda", "Ma ti aspetterò", "Ti risveglierai con me") mixed with a strong melodic flavour. The best moments on this album, in my opinion, are the romantic "Meditazione", an interesting effort to blend classical music with rock, and "Incantesimo", a "psychedelic enchantment" trying to blend blues with fairy tales imagery... Good also the long "Missione Sirio 2222" that tells in music and words the wreckage of a spaceship: a strange kind of "psychedelic suite" with peculiar oriental influences. 

 

On the whole "Sirio 2222", although perhaps in some way naive and derivative, could be an interesting album for psychedelic rock lovers... Nonetheless I think it's not an essential one in a prog collection...

***********

In 2013, more than forty years after the release of Il Balletto di Bronzo’s debut album Sirio 2222 two members of original line up met again and started to work on a new project, just for the pleasure of playing music and develop new ideas, under the name Il Balletto di Bronzo di Lino Ajello & Marco Cecioni to differentiate it from the new incarnation of the band led by Gianni Leone and focused on Ys’ heritage and Gianni Leone’s solo works. Anyway, for this new project the aim of the musicians was not to play prog but songs in the hippie, psychedelic vein of Sirio 2222 although with an updated sound and taste...

 

 

The new album was released in 2016 on the independent label Suoni dal Sud - No Music No Life. It’s entitled Cuma 2016 DC and for the recording sessions Marco Cecioni (vocals, guitar) and Lino Ajello (lead guitar) gathered around them younger musicians and old friends such as Alessandro Stellano (bass, guitar, vocals), Francesco Del Prete (drums), Alfonso Mocerino (drums), Alessandro Crescenzo (keyboards), Adriana Salomone (backing vocals), Gianni Leone (vocals, keyboards) and Tony Guido (keyboards). 

 

The art cover and the drawings in the booklet by Marco Cecioni try to reflect the content of the album, a good mix of art pop and psychedelia, hard rock and melody. The track list unfold without fillers, the songwriting is good, some pieces are powerful and straightforward (like “Bivio acido”) some others more leaning to Italian canzone d’autore where artists such as Max Gazzé (in “Una meta” or “Figlio dei fiori”) or Zucchero (in “Big Mama”) could come to mind. I particularly enjoyed “Ordine disordine” that mixes hard rock and Mediterranean flavours, the dreamy “Pirati” and the new version of “Neve calda” from Sirio 2222... Also interesting “Vorrei essere un Deejay (Eivissa)”, a reflection about the new dancing habits of the youth and their sense of freedom. But, of course, if you are looking for another Ys I fear you will be highly disappointed. 

 

On the whole, a good album but far from essential in a prog collection.

 

You can listen to the complete album HERE

 

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/cuma2016.ballettodibronzo/ 

THROUGH THE PAGES

Lifestream came to life in Prato, Tuscany in 2006, influenced by bands such as Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes, Kansas, Pain Of Salvation, Porcupine Tree or Marillion. After a first demo Ep and some line up changes, in 2018 they released an interesting full length debut album entitled Diary on the independent label Lizard Records with a line up featuring Alberto Vuolato (guitars), Andrea Cornuti (bass, backing vocals), Andrea Franceschini (piano, keyboards, backing vocals) and Paolo Tempesti (lead and backing vocals, drums, percussion). According to the band, it’s a concept album sui generis where all the tracks follow a common thread drawing the listener inside the lives of different characters like a wind flipping through the pages of a book. The art work by Alessandro D’Aiuto tries to give an idea of the subject matter... 

 

The opener “Dreamer” starts by background keyboards, a strummed guitar and soaring melodic lines, then the rhythm section enters bringing darker atmospheres. It’s a piece that depicts a man fed up with his daily routine and wants to break free following his dreams. At night he fills the blank pages of his diary with his plans and desires but the morning after the change is always postponed... 

Next comes “Built From The Inside” that features the backing vocals by the guest Marta Guerrini and deals with a man who gets lost in the virtual reality of his self-made world. This piece fades in the following “The Shy Tree”, a beautiful ballad with a Gothic flavour that conjures up sweet memories from the past, ghosts and regrets. 

 

 

“Sound Of The Earth” deals with environmental issues and evokes a kind of call of the wild. It’s the reflection of a man who wants to live in harmony with earth and nature. He feels like a grain of sand in the hourglass of life, a leaf beaten by the howling wind but he still stands up looking for the truth in an empire of lies... Then it’s the turn of the long, complex “Discoveries” that is divided into four parts and tells of a man attracted by forbidden theories who tries a dangerous experiment to find a way to explore the afterworld and discover the truth of all things... 

 

Lifestream on stage, 2019

 

The soft, melancholic “Whispers” evokes spirits and voices from the past coming out from the pages of a diary and invites to not fear the changes because the road that leads to peace and harmony is full sacrifices... It is linked to “Over The Rippling Waters”, an excellent, complex suite divided into five parts that every now and again could recall Marillion and tells of a nightmare where ashes dance in a mad, frozen reality during another journey through the unconscious... Then the beautiful title track, “Diary”, marks the moment where the nightmare fades out and a new awareness rises. It depicts a diary where you can write down your sorrow and disappointment, a diary that can have a therapeutic role... 

A cover of Il Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, “E mi viene da pensare”, closes the album with a tribute to the memory of Francesco di Giacomo and Rodolfo Maltese... 

On the whole, a really good work! 

You can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/lifestreamproject/