In 1974 the same team of musicians that contributed to the recording sessions of the album credited to Adriano Monteduro and Reale Accademia di Musica, with the exception of Carlo Bruno on bass and the help from Pericle Sponzilli and others, recorded for the RCA label another album, La cometa, that was supposed to be the first solo effort of Reale Accademia di Musica’s vocalist Henryk Topel Cabanes. Nonetheless, during the seventies it was never released and the tapes got lost. As told by Henryk Topel in a 2013 interview for the site italianprog.com, the band split up soon after the release of their first eponymous album and they tried to survive in the music business as session men… “La cometa was recorded for RCA in 1974 soon after the record we made for Monteduro. The record company gave us much money for it and each of us decided to try his own solo career, some even took off for exotic countries and everything ended...”. Before parting ways, the musicians from Reale Accademia di Musica contributed to the recording sessions of the 1975 album entitled 1930: Il domatore delle scimmie for the Italian pop singer Nada... Then the curtain fell.
It wasn’t until 2010 that a tape with La cometa sessions re-emerged from oblivion and was finally digitally released under the name Reale Accademia di Musica on the Pinball Music label, as recalls Henryk Topel Cabanes in the aforementioned interview: the master, whose only copy was kept by my old friend Stefano Fournier (who also took part in the recording) laid forgotten for many years. Not long ago I requested the rights to Universal, owner of all the historic material of RCA, and they told me they didn't have anything left, so I had the old tape remastered and brought it to light again... Then, in 2013, a physical, remastered edition on CD and vinyl was released on the Poliedizioni label with a different art work. So, now we have the chance to listen to it...
The opener “La cometa” is a blues-rock piece inviting you to ride the tail of a bizarre, shining comet of sugar and silk, capable to transform every man into a poet and to change his mentality... Then it’s the turn of “Nenae”, a nice acoustic ballad with a dreamy atmosphere and romantic lyrics portraying a beautiful girl running free with bright, dancing colours in her hair. She leaves behind her mystical traces of love...
“Quando morirò” (When I will die) is a lively country rock piece. The lyrics evoke happiness and joy, the right song to play during the funeral of the protagonist, a man always ready to have fun... Next comes “Aereoporto” (Airport) that depicts in music and words the feelings of a man who is going to take off on a nightly flight...
“Makumba Hotel” is a beautiful instrumental track with an exotic atmosphere full of nocturnal suggestions. It could be a perfect score for an Italian film of the seventies... Then the calm “Oratorio” (Oratory) evokes memories from a childhood spent in a Catholic institute underlying the contradictions of a religious education.
“Una canzone” (A song) is a different version of a piece about the healing power of music recorded for the album Adriano Monteduro e Reale Accademia di Musica. The following “Uomo rosa” (Pink Man) could recall The Beatles of “When I’m Sixty-Four” or “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” and describes a peculiar, unreal character, a kind of erotic reverse of real people who dances for a while and then melts into the night… The short instrumental “Topolino Topel” (Mickey Mouse Topel) ends the album with a light touch and a rag time pace that could recall a silent black and white comedy film.
On the whole, an uneven work containing some interesting pieces and weaker ones but that is worth listening to.
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