Monday 8 February 2021

AWESOME LYSERGIC DREAM INNOVATION

Hailing from Ravenna, Aldi dallo Spazio came to life in 2015 with the aim of blending together different musical influences. According to the band, the first part of the name is the acronym of Awesome Lysergic Dream Innovation but psychedelia and space rock are only two of the many elements of their sound that draws inspiration also from seventies classic rock and Italian prog bands such as PFM or Procession. In 2017 the band digitally self released a first version of their debut album entitled Quasar with a line up featuring Dario Federici (vocals, keyboards), Simone Sgarzi (guitar), Davide Mosca (guitar), Marco Braschi (bass) and Lorenzo Guardigli (drums) plus the guest Marco Zoli (sax) on two tracks. In 2019 the album was remixed, remastered and re-released on the independent label Jolly Roger Records. The art work by Federico Espositi tries to capture the spirit of the musical content with a painting that represents the Big Mother, responsible of creation and destruction... 
 
 

The opener “Long Time Lover” starts with a charming crescendo and a rhythm of bolero that progressively veers to a kind of electric tarantella that could recall PFM. The central part is closer to classic rock while the lyrics tell of a complex relationship, a spell that binds two lovers in an endless embrace of love and pain, joys and fears, dreams and tears. It takes time to understand the strange laws of this mutual, fatal attraction... 
 
The epic “The Distance” starts softly with a dreamy, ethereal atmosphere while the vocals remind me slightly of Procession’s debut album. The music and lyrics evoke a kind of spiritual, psychedelic journey through space and time. Far away, beyond the light and the horizon you have to search for your roots to understand who are you... Some narrative parts in Romagnol dialect and Italian add a particular touch of colour evoking old songs soaring from the past and mystical landscapes on the banks of the unknown... 
 

 
“Little Piggy Will” describes a peculiar hazy dream crowded with strange characters, floating sensations, touches of psychedelia and exotic Oriental flavours while the following “Santana (A Freedom Song)”, tells of a kind of quest for peace and love with a nice, colourful choice of sounds on the border between jazz, progressive and Latin rhythms... 
 
The long “Epiphany” opens with the voice of Bertrand Russell, a short excerpt from a 1959 interview with BBC where the philosopher gives an advice to future generations, wise words that are still valid today: “I should like to say two things, one intellectual and one moral... Never let yourself be diverted either by what you wish to believe, or by what you think would have beneficent social effects if it were believed but look only, and solely, at what are the facts... I should say love is wise, hatred is foolish. In this world which is getting more and more closely interconnected we have to learn to tolerate each other, we have to learn to put up with the fact that some people say things that we don't like... We must learn a kind of charity and a kind of tolerance which is absolutely vital to the continuation of human life on this planet...”. Then, as the music takes the listener on a trip to the dark side of the moon, the reflective lyrics invite you to look in the mirror and search for something worth to live for... 
 
Aldi dallo Spazio 2018

 
After a short break, the CD version features an untitled ghost track that begins by the sound of the sea waves and a strummed acoustic guitar pattern. It’s a delicate, introspective ballad sung in Italian where the dreamy vocals evoke inner gods and the indefinite sound of immensity... A good conclusion for an album that is really worth listening to! 
 
You can listen to the complete album HERE
 
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