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!
You can listen to the complete album HERE
No comments:
Post a Comment