After
the long awaited 2012 debut album Quanah!, the Venetian band
Quanah Parker came back in 2015 with a second work and a renewed line
up featuring Riccardo Scivales (keyboards), Elisabetta Montino
(vocals), Giovanni Pirrotta (electric and acoustic guitars, bass),
Paolo Ongaro (drums, percussion) and Alessandro Monti (bass,
recorder, bells, tabla, claves, triangle). The new album was released
on the independent label M.P. & Records and it's titled Suite
degli animali fantastici. According to the liner notes, the main
course of the album is a long suite sung in Italian that was inspired
by a friend, Edward J. Shanaphy who came with the idea of writing an
album about some fantastic beasts. The initial idea was then
developed by the band's leader and composer Riccardo Scivales with
the help of lyricist and multi-instrumentalist Alessandro "Unfolk"
Monti who, identifying these "fantasy creatures" as
projections of a human mind, imagined them setting off on a
fascinating journey through space and time to finally come back to
their creator. The whole band contributed to refine and complete the
music and lyrics adding colours and emotions to make the dream come
true. In my opinion, the result is amazing!
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| Quanah Parker 2014 |
The
hypnotic opener "From
Distant Lands" is not part of the suite but perfectly fits the
subject matter and represents a wonderful introduction to the album.
It begins softly and you can feel an exotic magnetism in the air.
Then you can hear the soaring song of a mermaid playing with her hair
under the water and through the light. She's smiling...
Then
comes the long, complex "Suite degli animali fantastici"
(Suite of the fantastic beasts) that is divided into eight parts and
starts with the dreamy "Risveglio Onirico" (Oneiric
awakening) where the music and the narrative vocals conjure up gentle
waves breaking on the shore of a fantastic island on a timeless sunny
morning. Here, slowly a dream comes to life, sneaking its way through
imagination and reality, coming out from the threshold of sleep... On
the second part, "Danza di un mattino" (Morning dance), the
rhythm rises and there's an electric atmosphere while Elisabetta
Montino gives voice to the fruit of a sensory illusion that begins to
move around in an ecstatic dance. "Interludio Notturno"
(Nocturnal interlude) is a short, dreamy passage featuring male and
female vocals evoking an invisible beast hiding in the shadows, under
the moon, keeper of a mysterious secret... The following "Déjà
Vu Fantastico" (Fantastic Déjà Vu) is brighter and the soaring
vocals take you up in the air, across the sky and beyond the borders
of myth, where echoes of past lives resound and you get lost among
strange, ever-changing shapes. Two eyes are staring at you, shining
like stones of light...
"Luci dagli Abissi" (Lights from
the abyss) is a calm instrumental passage the leads to the mysterious
"Cantico Marino" (Sea song) where you can almost hear the
breath and the voice of talking dolphins. You're getting lost in an
illusion of eternal life, you can't stop sinking into another
dimension... The music and lyrics of the following part "Animale
Multiforme" (Multiform beast) depict a beast that can breath
into the abyss of memory and that can generate a rainbow in the air
just by a twist of its tail. It can fly beyond the clouds and through
the galaxies and now it's running, leaving its tracks in the
labyrinth of your mind... The last part, "Ritorno alla Mente"
(Back to the mind) marks the end of this cathartic dream painting the
awakening with soft, autumnal colours. The dream is gone but
something remains: illusions, fantastic stories, tangled thoughts
under the rain and a new awareness... What a wonderful suite!
Perfectly at ease with her native language, Elisabetta Montino vocals
can be ethereal and powerful in the meantime and her theatrical
approach here underlines the visionary strength of the music and
lyrics with great effectiveness. Moreover, not only did she interpret
the storyline with her vocal performances but also with images since
she also took charge of the drawings for the beautiful art work.
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| Quanah Parker on stage |
After
the "fantastic suite" comes a tribute to Francesco Di
Giacomo, the late vocalist of Banco del Mutuo Soccorso who passed
away in 2014. "A Big Francesco" (To Big Francesco) is a
melancholic instrumental track filled with emotion and poignant
nostalgia that recalls the best moments of the Roman band now kept alive by
Vittorio Nocenzi.
Well,
so far so good! Unfortunately, the last two tracks, "Death Of A
Deer" and "Make Me Smile" are not at the same level of
the rest of the album and sound to my ears almost like fillers or
bonus tracks. Both are sung in English, the first one is a long piece
with some folksy passages where Elisabetta Montino tries to give
voice to the feelings of a hunted deer while the latter is a love
song with a jazzier mood. Anyway, do not worry: the last two tracks
do not spoil the pleasure of listening to this beautiful work! Have
try, I'm sure it will be an excellent addition to every prog
collection!
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