Magia
Nera come from La Spezia and their roots date back to the late
sixties under the name Nuova Esperienza. In 1969 they changed their
name into Magia Nera (Black Magic), inspired by the sounds of bands
such as Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep and Deep Purple and started playing
covers and composing original material. In the early seventies the
band had a good live activity on the local scene and took part with a
good success to some music festivals such as the Free Festival Pop of
Bottagna. When all was ready for a deal with the label Magma Records
something went wrong and the band split up without recording
anything... More than forty years later Magia Nera reunited with
almost all the original members to complete what they had left
behind. In 2017 Magia Nera finally released their debut album,
L'ultima danza di Ophelia, on the independent label Akarma
Records, distributed by Black Widow Records. The current line up
features the veterans Emilio Farro (vocals), Pino Fontana (drums),
Lionello Accardo (bass) and Bruno Cencetti (electric guitar) plus
Andrea Foce (keyboards) who replaced Orazio Colotto. The overall
sound is definitively vintage and I'm sure that fan of seventies
Italian prog will appreciate this work...
The
dark opener "Ophelia" depicts in music and words a scene
from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. The bass lines introduce a
ghost dance under the moon, soon joined by the other instruments...
The unfortunate Ophelia floats on the fresh waters of a brook,
carried away by the current. Her corpse is moving under a willow
tree, for a moment her dress is tangled up in the branches. She seems
almost dancing… It was Ophelia’s last dance: now what is left is
nothing but a choir of dark sirens and some salt tears mixed to the
sweet waters of the brook...
The
long, melancholic "Il passo del lupo" (The wolf step) tells
about the last hours of a proud loser, a solitary fugitive who tries
to run away from his destiny hiding in a dark forest like a wolf.
Eventually the Dark Lady takes him in the land of eternal shadows and
he accepts his fate without fear…
The
following "La strega del lago" (The witch of the lake)
depicts in deep purple colours a very strange kind of woman, a
powerful bloodthirsty vampire summoned during an obscure rite from
the dark waters of a lake, Lady of shadows and darkness, owner of the
the most profound abysses of your soul... It leads to the lively "La
tredicesima luna" (The thirteenth moon), a short track that
celebrates the mysteries of obscure rites where swords and dark
powers draw magic circles and witches dance on the borders between
different worlds.
"Suite
- Oltre la vita" (Suite - Beyond life) is the main course of the
album, a long, complex piece divided into ten parts. It starts softly
with a dreamy mood, then the music and words build up a solid
darkness that provides the perfect theater screen on which the
mind could play its fantasies.
The dance of death was about to begin, and already
the strings of the fiddles and guitars were smoking and the stench of
brimstone and cordite filled the air...
In my opinion, this short
quote from The Stand
by Stephen King describes the atmosphere of this piece very well and
even if there are no fiddles you
can find here
plenty of fiery organ
passages and frenzied guitar riffs. The
music alternates acoustic passages to electrical storms where you can
feel dark presences,
coming in steady inexorable waves while
the poetical, hermetic lyrics draw
disquieting, Gothic images
rather than try to tell a story. The
influences of bands such as Deep Purple, Black Sabbath or Uriah Heep
are apparent but in the mix you can even
listen to a
short quote
from
The Funeral March of a Marionette (Marche funèbre d'une
marionnette), a short piece by
Charles Gounod best known as the theme music for the television
program Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
A very good piece!
Uriah
Heep’s cover “Gypsy" closes an album that is really worth
listening to and that deserves the attention of Italianprog lovers.
You
can listen to the complete album HERE
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