Raccomandata
con Ricevuta di Ritorno were a band of the Italian prog scene of the
early seventies. The line-up featured Luciano Regoli (vocals,
acoustic guitar), Nanni Civitenga (guitar), Stefano Piermarioli
(keyboards), Damaso Grassi (flute, sax), Manlio Zacchia (bass) and
Francesco Froggio Francica (drums, percussion). They came from Rome
and released only one album. Anyway, the musicians were also involved
in other projects, for instance singer Luciano Regoli came from a
previous experience in a band called Il Ritratto di Dorian Gray (that
never released an album) with future Goblin leader Claudio Simonetti
and, after RRR disbanded, he and guitarist Nanni Civitenga played in
another band called Samadhi...
“Per...
un mondo di cristallo” (For... A crystal world) is a concept album
based on a story by Marina Comin, who wrote the lyrics. The music and
words try to describe the feelings of an astronaut who comes back to
Earth and finds only desolation and ruins... The planet where he had
lived before his space journey does not exist anymore, around him
there’s nothing (“Nulla”). The first track is a short
introduction dominated by a church-like organ then, on the second
track, acoustic guitar and flute greet the astronaut’s awakening.
The protagonist climbs onto a rock (“Su una rupe”) and realizes
that he’s living a kind of nightmare because everything around him
is dead now... The music is complex, with shifting tempos... “Men,
if you could climb on this rock and see what you have done... You
would have thought more about what you were doing...”. Then anguish
and fear, it’s as if the world was falling down and the protagonist
remembers the happy days of his past “like a tree that is using its
roots...”. Here the music is uneasy and it reminds me of Il
Balletto di Bronzo’s “Ys” (“Il mondo cade su di me”), then
turns into a “jazz mood” (“Nel mio quartiere”).
inner sleeve
The
second part of the album begins with a dramatic atmosphere, a
threatening unsmiling shadow is rising on the horizon. When the
protagonist realizes that the merciless shadow is “humankind” the
rhythm turns into tarantella... The lost world was nothing but a
puppet show, a stage where men were acting like marionettes (“Un
palco di marionette”). The music here describes the madness of
humankind in a perfect mix of a wide range of moods and rhythms. The
final track is dreamy, with acoustic guitar and flute in the
forefront... Now the protagonist has nothing in his mind but crystal
dreams (“Sogni di cristallo”) that melt back into the mist...
On
the whole a very good album, with a beautiful art cover. Perhaps it’s
not flawless (the lyrics are a little bit naïve and the vocal parts
are not “impeccable”) but it’s really worth listening to... If
you like bands as BMS, Le Orme or Il Balletto di Bronzo this album
will be an excellent addition to your collection!
Trasparenze
is the fifth studio album by Malibran, a band from Catania whose
roots date back to 1987. It was released in 2009 on the independent
label Electromantic, more than seven years after its predecessor
Oltre l'ignoto. Although it was originally conceived as a solo
project of the leader and multi-instrumentalist Giuseppe Scaravilli, later other members of the band joined him during the recording
sessions and eventually this excellent work was released under the
name Malibran with a line up featuring Giuseppe Scaravilli (vocals,
acoustic and electric guitar, flute, bass, keyboards), Jerry Litrico
(guitar) and Alessio Scaravilli (drums) plus the guests Giancarlo
Cutuli (sax) and Toni Granata (violin). Of course, here composer and
lyricist Giuseppe Scaravilli does the lion's share playing almost all
the instruments but the result is in perfect continuity with the band
sound. In the booklet you can find extended liner notes that explain
the genesis of each track while the art cover is taken from a
painting by Karl Friedrich Schinkel that in some way describes the
spirit of this work...
The
opener is the title track, "Trasparenze" (Transparencies),
a complex suite with many changes in rhythm and mood featuring some
passages that could recall Genesis or Jethro Tull. It's about the
passing of time... All along your life there's something or someone
that attracts you and shows you the way you have to follow with its
perfumes and its fire. You have to go on and on as your age flows
away like a short poem, between dreams and reality, led by your will
and by the flames of that fire...
Next
comes the dreamy "In un attimo" (In a while). It starts
with strummed guitar and flute, then the music and lyrics conjure up
a long awaited, timeless moment of peace. You have in front of you a
white canvas that your are going to fill with the colours of your
dreams... You are painting a magic landscape and your soul is flying
over there. Your troubles are left behind and you can smile,
forgetting for a moment all the problems of everyday life, your mind
is already over there...
"Vento
d'Oriente" (Wind from the East) features a mysterious, exotic
flavour. Heavy electric guitar riffs are mixed with Mediterranean
influences while the music and lyrics evoke distant deserts and
ancient sands, lost identities and empty realities. Listen to the
voice of the wind blowing from the East, it carries echoes of ancient
songs and whispers mysterious charms...
"Presagio"
(Omen) alternates calm, pastoral sections to heavy riffs and Latin
rock passages. It tells of obscure presages looming on the horizon
like the thundering sound of the rapids ahead while you are swimming
on the calm waters of a river, cradled by the current. Well, you've
better keep calm and fight against all the adversities of life
without fear...
"Pioggia
di maggio" (Rain of May) is a beautiful, dreamy instrumental
track full of soaring, delicate melodies. It leads to "La marea"
(The tide) that tells in music and words of the contrast between the
need to go away searching for a better way of life and the
responsibilities that prevent you from leaving, keeping you tightly
bound to your routine. You know you have to stay but you feel a
strange emptiness growing inside you, maybe one day or another you'll
turn your glance back and you'll start running after an idea,
following dreams and ideals, drifting with the tide towards new
horizons...
"Nel
Ricordo" (In the memory) is about the power of fate. Your future
turns around you like a dark shadow from whom you can't escape,
you'll soon forget who you are because you're already changing and
moving forward, you can't help it! The days and the nights you spent
are like circles in the water that soon will fade away, the past is
going to melt in your memory, you can't cheat on destiny...
"Volo
Magico" (Magic flight) is a short instrumental track that
conveys a strange sense of mystery. You can hear the sound of the
bumblebees around you as you're flying from flower to flower under
the charm of exotic perfumes and colourful landscapes... It leads to
the nocturnal atmospheres of "Promesse vane" (Vain
promises), a piece about a man who feels like an eternal boy and
finds difficult to accept his everyday life and the burden of time
passing by. Where are the promises of his childhood, what is left of
his old dreams? He's burning out and nothing but his fantasy and
imagination can set him free from the metaphorical chains of reality
and make him happy, at least for a while...
The
short, dreamy "Gioco di specchi" (Game of mirrors) is a
nice instrumental track that introduces the wonderful suite that
closes the album, "Pensieri fragili" (Fragile thoughts), a
long, complex piece that every now and again recalls Arti &
Mestieri and begins by the sound of a pouring rain... Here the music
and lyrics take you back in time to World War I, in a trench along
the front between the Kingdom of Italy and the Austro-Hungarian
Empire. Under the rain the thoughts of a young infantry soldier
unfurl while the water washes away a desperate night of waiting.
Around the soldier there is nothing but mud and fog but he dreams of
enchanted valleys and smiling faces that now seem just faded
memories... A thousands eyes observe the human fragility from the
sky, the soldier feels that the real enemy is inside him, he wants to
give up not because of cowardice but because he feels that this war
is not his own business. He doesn't care about honour and glory and
in the fog he gets stealthily out of his shelter and runs for his
life, disappearing in the rain...
On
the whole, I think that this is a wonderful album without weak
moments that will not disappoint Italianprog fans...
Malibran:
Trasparenze (2009). Other opinions:
Chris
"Seventhsojourn": Trasparenze is a long album that
clocks in at 78-minutes, so you get your money's worth. There's not
even much filler on it, with maybe just a couple of slightly weaker
songs. My one criticism is that the album is a bit light on
keyboards, but the loads of great flute you usually get with Malibran
offset this... (read the complete review HERE)
The
Octopus Tree is the second album by Miss Patty Miss & The
Magic Circle, a band from Bologna led by vocalist Patrizia Urbani
whose roots date back to 2005. It was released in 2014 on the
independent label Irma Records, four years after the debut album New
Eclipse. The line up on this new work features Patrizia Urbani
(vocals, acoustic guitar), Silvia Telloli (piano, synth, Moog,
backing vocals), Antonino Stella (electric and acoustic guitar),
Massimo Tarozzi (bass) and Christian Di Maggio (drums, percussion).
Along the years the musicians have honed their skills with a good
live activity on the local scene and the result of their hard work is a nice album of
classic rock tinged with psychedelia with no overtly complex tracks
nor adventurous suites but never banal nor too openly derivative.
The
excellent opener "Alchimia intenzionale" (Intentional
alchemy) is sung in Italian and every now and again it reminds me of
the optical visions depicted by Fabrizio De Andrè in his album Non
al denaro, non all'amore né al cielo. It describes an
unconventional, colourful form of soaring happiness where colours and
perfumes are mixed in a lively psychedelic dance. Well, I think
that's a really pity that the band didn't exploit more their native
language...
On stage 2011
Next
comes the dark, suggestive "Come Into My Silence". The
soaring vocals warn you about an impending danger while casting a
spell on you... Here the hieratic voice of Patrizia Urbani reminds
me of the rock priestess Patty Smith. The following "Cold"
is a wonderful visionary track describing the coldness of a world
full of social differences and merciless businesslike attitudes...
You would prefer to be a flower or a leaf softly floating in the wind
or a little bird but you're nothing but a human being fighting with
the cold.
The
frenzied "Everchanging" veers to more modern sounds and in
some way reminds me slightly of Deborah Harry and Blondie. Then it's
the turn of the dreamy "By My Clock" and of the romantic,
heartfelt "Little Seed". With "Simple Fall" the
rhythm rises again and vintage sounds come back for a new, short
psychedelic ride before calm down on the notes of the following
"Promises", an acoustic ballad that reminds me slightly of
Fleetwood Mac.
A
nice psychedelic cover of Black Sabbath's "Planet Caravan"
and another piece sung in Italian, the lively "Adesso no"
(Not now), close this fresh album full of colours and dreamy
atmospheres. Prog lovers could be disappointed by the lack of really
challenging compositions but if you like classic rock have a try and
judge by yourselves: you can listen to the complete album HERE.
Hailing
from Santa Teresa di Riva, a small town in the province of Messina,
Sicily, Conqueror have been part of the Italian prog scene for more
than twenty years and Stems is their fifth full length studio
album. It was released in 2014 on the independent label Ma.Ra.Cash
Records, four years after its predecessor Madame Zelle, with a
renewed line up featuring Simona Rigano (keyboards, lead vocals),
Natale Russo (drums), Ture Pagano (guitars) and Peppe Papa (bass).
Sabrina Rigano left the band in 2010 and without her flute and sax
contributes the overall sound of the band is more keyboard and guitar
driven than in the past but still extremely crisp and convincing.
According to the band's website, on this album you can find eight
tracks with a common thread, eight poetical frescoes of daily life
memories where the passing of time changes the perception of reality.
Anyway, each piece takes on its own very distinct personality and in
the booklet you can find a photograph associated to every track that
in some way helps to describe the mood of the music and lyrics...
The
beautiful opener "Gina" is a long, complex track that
evokes memories of warm hugs lingering in the night while time is
nothing but a blurred concept. Who is Gina? There's no clue to know
it, she might be an elderly woman or a little child... The music
starts softly then a drum roll leads to darker passages and a
disquieting marching beat seems to evoke the ghosts of an impending
tragedy... What is left of the mysterious Gina is just the souvenir
of a crown of coffee-beans and a smile, the perfume of a lost
happiness, the sound of words that are still able to stir your
imagination, a tenderness that stems from the soul and still shines
in the memory...
The
reflective, dreamy "Di notte" (At night) conjures up a
melancholic quest in the dark for the signs of the days that are
gone, a search for soft whispered words, breaths and sounds drowned
into the light of a reality that leaves no room for memories and
regrets and where your thoughts get lost in the perpetual motion of
the daily grind...
Next
comes the ethereal "False idee" (False ideas) that conjures
up a mysterious atmosphere. After a walk under a dark moon, a
strummed acoustic guitar passage evokes never forgotten silences that
come back echoing around you until the first rays of the morning
sun... When the sun will rise you'll have to make up your mind to see
a new light and regenerate your faded energies, trampled by false
ideas. In your dreams white butterflies are flying free among orchid
petals. It might be a good omen...
On
the following "Un'altra realtà" (Another reality) the
soaring vocals of Simona Rigano interpret the thoughts of a woman
that closes her eyes and pretends that she doesn't see what's
happening around her. She dreams of another reality where good
prevails over evil... Call it hypocrisy or just fragility or
weakness but she wears a metaphorical mask and hides her feelings,
biding her time to find another way of living...
Conqueror on stage 2014
The
melancholic "Sole al buio" (Alone in the dark) features
some bluesy passages and tells of the contrast between the promises
of the childhood and the choices that you have to do when growing up.
Now all the illusions and the promises of the past are gone,
abandoned like old pictures in a box, left alone in the dark... But
you can't forget that past and sooner or later you'll pick those
pictures out of the box to look at them under a new light.
"C'est
la vie" is a lively track that recalls PFM and tries to depict
in music and lyrics the frenzied rhythm of progress in a modern age
where you can never stop and look behind. No rules to follow, no time
to breathe, no room for reflection, everyone is always in hurry and
reason sometimes is left behind while the world runs like hell in a
direction that we can't even imagine... Stop to think, at least for a
while, soon the celebration of modern life will start again!
The
calm, evocative "Sigurtà" depicts in music and
lyrics the magnificent landscape of a natural park and the emotions
provoked by the colours of its plants and flowers. You can walk along
the paths of this enchanted place following the timeless ghosts of
Romeo and Juliet... By the way, the title refers to, Parco Giardino Sigurtà, a beautiful
natural oasis located in Valeggio sul Mincio, near Verona, the home city of the famous lovers.
The
closer "Echi di verità" (Echoes of truth) is another great
track where the music and lyrics depict in a poetical way curious
lies and melancholic half truths, deceiving mechanisms that make you
lose the sense of reality by deforming feelings, images, sounds and
smells... How can you face such a labyrinth of mirrors and escape
from the maze of your false perceptions? How can you decide and
choose? How can you understand what is really important in your life
as times goes by? Well, the answer is up to you...
On
the whole, a wonderful album that marks the maturity of this band.
After
a long hiatus, in 2007 il Biglietto per l'Inferno came back to life
on the initiative of two founder members, Giuseppe "Pilly"
Cossa and Mauro Gnecchi. With a renewed line up, the band started
performing live the old repertoire from the seventies and in 2009
released a new studio album entitled Tra l'assurdo e la ragione
(Between absurd and reason) featuring new arrangements of the
historic pieces along with two new tracks. In 2015 il Biglietto per
l'Inferno carried out this process of re-appropriation and reworking
of their past by releasing a new studio album, Vivi. Lotta. Pensa.
that in some way completes the work started with the previous one. It
was released with a beautiful packaging on the AMS/BTF label and a
three folds jacket with an art work by graphic artist Marco Menaballi
that tries to depict its musical and lyrical content...
The
current line up features Giuseppe "Pilly" Cossa (piano,
keyboards, accordion, melodeon), Mauro Gnecchi (drums, percussion),
Mariolina Sala (vocals), Ranieri "Ragno" Fumagalli
(hornpipe, recorder, ocarina), Enrico Fagnoni (upright bass, electric
and acoustic bass, acoustic guitar), Renata Tomasella (piffero,
recorders, ocarina), Carlo Redi (violin, mandolin, acoustic guitar)
and Pier Panzeri (electric and acoustic guitar). Along the years, old
and new members have matured and incredible cohesion creating an
amazing wall of sound where ethnic and folk elements are perfectly
mixed with progressive rock while the new female vocalist should not
be considered just a replacement for the original front man since
Mariolina Sala is not just a singer but also an actress and a
sensitive interpreter able to convey emotions with her enthralling
theatrical approach...
Biglietto per l'Inferno 2015
This
new album starts by the joyful notes of the title track, "Vivi.
Lotta. Pensa." (Live. Struggle. Think.). It's the new
arrangement of a piece contained on the second album of the band, Il
tempo della semina, a committed track about freedom, equality and
solidarity that sounds still actual and crisp, between globalization
issues and new revolutionary winds blowing all around the world.
Next
comes a brand new track, "Narciso e Boccadoro" (Narcissus
and Goldmund). It's a delicate, dreamy ballad inspired by the 1930
novel of the same name by Swiss writer Hermann Hesse, also published
as Death and the Lover. The novel tells the story of Goldmund,
a young man who wanders around aimlessly throughout Medieval
Germany after leaving a Catholic monastery school in search of what
could be described as "the meaning of life", or rather,
meaning for his life (quote from wikipedia). Here the ethereal
interpretation by Mariolina Sala evokes the last words of the
protagonist before passing away and the souvenir of his old friend
Narcissus...
The
following "La canzone del padre" (The father's song) is a
long, complex track that was originally released on Biglietto per
l'Inferno's second album. It's about the generation gap and tells the
story of a difficult relationship between a father and his son.
Eventually the rebellious son grows up and becomes a popular pop
singer but there's no way to heal that broken relationship. The band
really breathed a new life into this piece with a sparking
arrangement and a passionate interpretation...
"Mente
Solamente" (Mind, lonely mind, nothing but mind) is another
piece from the second album that here is completely reinvented
blending psychedelic elements and joyful folksy passages. It's an
almost instrumental track that invites to let your thoughts run free
for a while on the steps of a strange dance...
The
long epic "L'amico suicida" (A suicidal friend) closes the
album. It was originally released on the eponymous 1974 debut work
and was written in memory of an old comrade-in-arms of Claudio Canali
who took his life during the military service. This is another great
interpretation able to stir emotions with renewed energies...
On
the whole, this is a really good album that is absolutely worth
listening to.
