Il
Viaggio (The journey) is the third album by Murple, a Roman band
whose roots date back to the seventies. It was released in 2014 on
the independent label AMS/Btf with a renewed line up featuring
historic members Pier Carlo Zanco (piano, keyboards, vocals), Duilio
Sorrenti (drums, percussion) and Mario Garbarino (bass) along with
the new recruits Mauro Arnò (guitars) and Claudia D'Ottavi (vocals).
After a long hiatus, the band came back to life in 2007 and in 2008
released a long awaited second album, Quadri di
un'esposizione, followed by a
good live activity. In my opinion this new work is better than
the previous one, here the mix between vintage and modern sounds is
more calibrated and all the new compositions are convincing and well
performed. Forty years have passed
since the wonderful 1974 debut album Io Sono Murple,
but the band is still alive and kicking and the new members are able
to give new energy to the overall sound with excellent
results.
The
opener "Il viaggio" (The journey) begins by a short
acoustic guitar intro. The guitar is played with a bottleneck and
this is rather unusual for an Italian prog album... Then the other
instruments come in and conjure up the black and white images of an
old railway station. The lyrics compare life to a metaphorical
journey where everyone has a train to take. There are so many rails,
stations, connections, the other passengers are ever changing,
someone gets out while others come in... No one can know where his
journey will end but one day you will hear your train slackening and
you'll arrive in a black and white station lost in the mist, from
where you won't set off any more...
Next
comes the beautiful, mysterious "Alejandra". The title
seems to refer to a charming woman of Hispanic ancestry while the
music blends dark keyboards passages with more solar parts where
electric guitar and synthesizer bring a touch of joyful lightness
evoking the suggestive evolutions of a dance under the full moon.
According
to the band, the following "Nani e clown" (Dwarfs and
clown) was composed in 1973 and performed live at the Be-In festival
in Naples. Starting from an old tape, the band re-arranged and
properly recorded it in the studio breathing a new life into this
piece that describes in music and words an acrobat who walks on a
tightrope during a circus show. Dwarfs and clowns are his only family
and he enjoys the spotlight when he puts his life at stake for the
delight of the public... The music goes through many changes in mood
and rhythm underlying the acrobat's feelings and the emotions of the
crowd gathered below him... Excellent!
Next
comes the calm, dreamy "Angelika", an instrumental track
that could make you think of a wonderful woman in the ethereal,
breathtaking atmosphere of a Nordic landscape. It leads to the
melancholic "Per una volta" (For once) where the music and
lyrics depict a proud, vain man without ideals who is wasting his
days looking for something that does not exist... The charming voice
of Claudia D'Ottavi warns him to change and to break down the wall
that he has built around him before it's too late.
 |
| Murple on stage 2012 |
Then
it's the turn of "La battaglia" (The battle), a sumptuous
instrumental track with baroque echoes and a lively pace that
conjures up the image of an army on its way to the battlefield...
Then the ironic "Sirene" (Sirens) ends the album. A
beautiful voice warns you that nowadays sirens are not half-women and
half-fish as in the old lores and legends but they can still threaten
and kill evil men with their spells. They were born from a beautiful
woman in love, cheated by her husband who pushed her from a high
cliff. Instead of dying into the sea, the woman was transformed into
a siren... Now her spawn look like every other woman but they're
hungry of vengeance: beware! If you listen to their singing you'll
die!
On
the whole, this is a very nice album that's really worth listening to
(despite the dangers evoked by the final song!). The art cover by
Cesare Pietroiusti portrays the shapes of three men, three ghosts
coming from afar but still able to give us some excellent music. I
really hope that this will not be the last leg of their journey and
I'm looking forward to Murple's next work.
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