Come un vecchio incensiere all’alba di un villaggio deserto is the second album by Alan Sorrenti and was released in 1973 on the Harvest label. It was recorded in London with a line up featuring, along with Alan Sorrenti (vocals, acoustic guitar, synth), also Toni Esposito (percussion, drums, cymbals, bells), Ron Mathienson (contrabass), Francis Monkman (from Curved Air - synthesizer, piano, guitar), Mario D’Amora (piano), Toni Marcus (violin, viola), David Jackson (from Van Der Graaf Generator - flute) and Victor Bell (cello) while Umberto Telesco took care of the art work. The follow-up of the beautiful Aria might not be as good as its predecessor but it is not without interest for prog lovers. Alan Sorrenti’s experimental vocals are still in the forefront exploring new territories even if the music doesn’t reach the same peaks of intensity of Aria and the lyrics, in my opinion, are less inspired...
The opener is a dark, acoustic ballad, “Angelo” (Angel), featuring excellent flute passages and a suggestive percussion work. The lyrics describe in a visionary way a painful wait and a broken promise, fragments of dreams and tormented memories...
The following “Serenesse” deals in a poetical way with the difficulty to communicate with other people. Hate and fear are like a ditch that you have to cross walking on a thin tree trunk to reach the other side where you can find love and peace. This song was also released as a single and probably is the most accessible on the album with its joyful violin plying and the flute that counter points the vocal lines...
“Una luce si accende” (A light turns on) is a melancholic ballad featuring some delicate violin passages... “A light turns on / And already you can hear a lover’s kiss / And what am I if I have not the boldness to love? / What have I if I haven't got the courage to love?”. It's not exactly a love song but a song about the emptiness provoked by the lack of love...
“Oratore” (Speaker) is an experimental, acoustic track featuring good melodic hints and foggy lyrics drawing mystic visions and psychedelic dreams... “The sun was looking at us from the other side of the motorway / While you, speaker, were talking...”. Well, sometimes speeches can be meaningless and this track in my opinion is not completely convincing...
Next comes “A te che dormi” (For you who are sleeping), where on an acoustic strumming guitar background soaring unquiet vocals weave a troubling lullaby... “Sleep, you’ll find me deep inside the lake / While I’m playing with the moon / That hides herself when you arrive...”.
The title track, “Come un vecchio incensiere all’alba di un villaggio deserto” (Like an old incensory at dawn in a deserted village) is a long suite that ends the album. Despite the excellent work of percussionist Toni Esposito and some good melodic lines I find it somehow confused, with too many experiments and maybe not enough substance. It’s about death and rebirth from the ashes, but it comes out like a mystical patchwork that lacks of melodic coherence and, in my opinion, risks to lead to boredom...
On the whole, I think that this is a good work but not an essential one.
You can listen to the complete album HERE
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