HOMELESS AND PROPHETS

Via Modesta Valenti is a progressive rock band based in Rome that took form in 2017 inspired by the likes of Genesis, Yes or Pink Floyd with a line up featuring Matteo Zanuzzi (vocals and lyrics), Adriano Sabatucci (acoustic and electric guitar), Francesco Mongatti (piano, keyboards), Gianmarco Palma (electric bass) and Luca Santi (drums). The name of the band refers to a homeless woman who, in 1983, died in poverty and in the cold of Rome Termini station, arousing much indignation for her state to the point of becoming a symbol, a kind of secular saint to whom the homeless people of the Italian capital turn. In 2002 the Municipality of Rome named in her memory a fictitious street where the homeless can apply for residency registration, via Modesta Valenti.

 

 In 2024 the band self released a debut EP, entitled Suite For The Last Prophet, containing just a long piece divided into twelve short sections for a total length of twenty-three minutes. It tells in music and words a surreal story, a kind of psychedelic dream where the band showcase their instrumental skills and a strong sense of humour. To be honest, in my opinion vocals and lyrics are not the strength of this work but the music is good and worth listening to, a nice patchwork of different styles and atmospheres stitched together with passionate coherence even if following a plot a bit confused...

 

Via Modesta Valenti, 2024

The suite begins by a piano solo introduction. Then the vocals on a marching beat evoke the image of a boy who enters in a public library and asks for a book about the human common denominator (“The Eternal Story”). The librarian gives him a copy of the Quran and while reading it the boy falls asleep and begins to dream. In fact, the following section tells of a crazy journey on camel back through the Arabic Desert (“Desert Trip”). When the boy arrives in La Mecca he can hear the voices and noises of the bazaar in a foreign language (here the lyrics turn from English to Italian) (“Bazar Blues”). Then the protagonist enters in a Turkish bath and the dream gets more and more blurred (“Jazzy Smoky Snake”) going on between mystical ravings about gods and prophets (“Pristine soul”), tempting and deviously enchanting women (“Barbara”), pseudo-scientific digressions (“Origins”), delirious political rantings about a borderless and endless world (“Silk And Mohair”), mysticism trapped into the unconscious (“The Final Fork”) and geometrical transcendentalism (“In The Mist Of Tempo Changes: Trying To Connect Two Dots”). Then it’s time to wake up, the protagonist is back in the library, in a world where you can find the words of God in the bookshops for sale (“La Mecca Conquest”). A short instrumental section (“A.C.U.C. Almost Completely Useless Coda”) ends the suite...

 

On the whole, a nice work that deserves a try.

You can listen to the complete EP HERE

More info:
https://www.facebook.com/p/Via-Modesta-Valenti-61556383730618/

MOMENTS OF TRANSITION

Merging Cluster took form in Florence in 2010 on the initiative of two former members of Biofonia, Gabriele Marconcini and Emiliano Galli, both in love with modern prog and psychedelia. In 2014 the band managed to release a self produced demo EP with a line up featuring Gabriele Marconcini (vocals), Emiliano Galli (keyboards), Marco Casalini (drums), Gianfilippo Innocenti (guitars) and Roberto Manzani (bass). Then the project went through a long period of hibernation. Ten years after, with the same line up, Merging Cluster woke up and finally released their first official studio album, entitled Peak Of ephemeral Light, on the independent Lizard Records label. It contains the four tracks of the demo EP remixed and remastered and four brand new pieces. According to an interview with the band, it is not a concept album in which a story is told but there are some recurring themes in the various pieces. All of them, in one way or another, tell of the moments of transition that make a person different from what he was before, or from what he believed or hoped he could be... 

 

The opener “Dysrationalia” every now and again could recall Marillion and is a long piece about the difficulty of thinking and behaving rationally when faced with even the most banal facts of life. The music and lyrics invite you to keep your eyes and mind open and vigil so as not to become prisoners of your emotions or victims of the conformism...

The title track, “Peak Of Ephemeral Light”, comes from the old EP. It’s a nice spacey piece that tells about the awareness that a man is nothing if compared to the immensity of the universe. The course of the galaxies in their race to the unknown can’t be reversed and a human being is not immortal, he’s just a kind of peak of energy soon destined to vanish into the void...

“Subjective Doubles Syndrome” is another old track from the 2014 EP. The atmosphere is disquieting and tense as the lyrics describe the feelings of a man on the brim of madness who believes that there’s someone going around with his body and face, someone who is speaking with his voice. In fact, the title refers to a rare delusional misidentification syndrome in which the patient experiences the delusion that he has a double with the same appearance, but usually with different character traits, that is leading a life of its own... 

 

From the 2014 EP is also the introspective, visionary “Gift Undeserved” that begins softly with guitar and bass that could recall Pink Floyd as the music and lyrics take you through fantastic landscapes. According to an interview with Gabriele Marconcini in the magazine Prog Italia, this piece describes states of consciousness suspended between dream and reality and how we do not feel adequate or deserving of what is given to us by chance or by superior forces...

The last track from the 2014 Ep is the beautiful “The Shadow Line”. It was inspired by a novella of the same name by Joseph Conrad that depicts a young man becoming an adult, in particular a young man who boards a ship for the voyage of his life. He will become a captain and the shadow line of the title represents the threshold of this development. The tide is turning, the sea and the sky are changing while the protagonist approaches the line, his eyes are burning. Will his heart keep on pounding when he’ll cross that line? Here the lyrics tell of the moment of transition between two phases of life...

“Planning The Renaissance” is a piece full of positive energy that kicks off with a hard electric guitar riff supported by the hammering rhythm section. It is an urgent request for change in individual and collective consciousness. The vocals express anger and indignation screaming the vital need for a new resolution. How can we plan a rebirth? We should find a way to learn how to create a new light, a new heart and find a new way of living in harmony with mother nature...

 

Merging Cluster 2022

“Land Of The Wait” opens by a delicate piano intro, then the vocals evoke blind days that pass, one the same as the other, leaving behind empty promises and regrets. The atmosphere is melancholic, but then the perspective changes and old memories of seasons full of expectations come to the surface. In fact, this piece tells of the reality that clashes with expectations destined to never materialize and was inspired by another seminal novel, The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati. The novel tells the story of a young officer, Giovanni Drogo, who spent all his life guarding the Bastiani Fortress, a remote stronghold overlooking a desolate desert. He waits for a war in which to obtain power and glory, but the enemy hordes never arrive...

The final track, “Over (You)”, is dark and hypnotic. According to the band the lyrics are hermetic and esoteric but always focused on the experience of the passage. Sometimes we feel a strong sense of loss. Sometimes we lose our battles, sometimes our wars, sometimes we lose our body, sometimes our mind and identity. Then there comes a time when we feel that our future is over and we need a serpent kiss...

On the whole, a good work that deserves a try.

 

You can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/mergingcluster 

FOLLOWING THE BRIGHTEST STAR

Limite Acque Sicure came to life in Ferrara in 2005 on the initiative of Andrea Chendi and Antonello Giovannelli, initially just with the aim of playing covers of historic prog bands from the seventies. After some personnel changes and many years of live activity on the local scene, in 2022 the band released on the independent Minotauro Records label a very interesting eponymous debut work featuring their own compositions in vintage style (and one cover) with a line up featuring Andrea Chendi (vocals) and Antonello Giovannelli (piano, synth, organ) along with Ambra Bianchi (vocals, flute, harp, percussion), Francesco Gigante (bass), Paolo Bolognesi (drums) and Luca Trabanelli (guitars). According to the band, it’s a concept album sui generis where all the tracks follow in some way a common thread: the eternal challenge with the unknown. The art cover gives a clue of the content...

 

The long, complex opener “Sogno d’oriente” (Oriental dream) begins softly but soon heavy electric guitar riffs break the dreamy atmosphere. In fact, the dreams evoked here by the music and lyrics are not those of the folktales narrated by Scheherazade in the One Thousand and One Nights but those of people who try to escape from wars, famine and adversities. Looking for a better place and a better future, some of them walk for miles and miles, crossing borders and rivers while others embark on ships in very bad conditions defying storms and raging waves. Often their hopes collide with reality and what they find at the end of their efforts is just another miserable place, if not death...

The introspective “Terra straniera” (Foreign land) begins by a piano solo passage, the atmosphere is tense and melancholic. The music and words tell of the sense of alienation felt by a person who is cut off from the society around him and feels like a stranger in his own land. What he has to do to overcome his blue mood is to be positive and follow the brightest star in the sky...

A pulsing rhythm introduces the following “Il respiro dell’anima” (The breath of soul), a piece about the mystery of birth, life and death. It depicts a kind of mystical journey that begins from the relationship between a mother and her child and continues until maturity and awareness. All in all, we are nothing but blood and matter in search of the soul...

 

“Antico mare” (Ancient sea) begins by the sound of the waves. The atmosphere is relaxed and dreamy. The music and lyrics evoke ancient civilizations and forgotten gods, battles and legends, bold warriors and beautiful women, mighty walls and talking masks, philosophers and poets. The shores of the Mediterranean Sea are full of the signs of a glorious past that still lives in our memories and the hope is that in the future the waves of this sea will bring more beauty and less wars...

“Fiamme intorno” (Flames around) is a complex piece about time passing by, regrets and hopes. It begins with a tense atmosphere while the music and lyrics describe a poet who feels that time is standing still. He can’t find the words to express himself, he has no more ideals to fight for. Around him there are ghosts that dance like flames, the time that has passed can not return and the rivers where words once flowed are now dry and full of the dust of the past. Then the tension eases, resignation and bewilderment give way to new energies that fill the inner void of the protagonist. As the artist accepts to live in harmony with his new reality the inspiration comes back... According to the liner notes, this piece is dedicated to the memory of Neil Peart.

 

Limite Acque Sicure on stage, 2022

The long epic “Il giardino del mago” (The wizard’s garden) is a cover of Banco del Mutuo Soccorso and was recorded live. It’s an interesting tribute to one of the bands that inspired them the most and it leads to the last track, “Ti salverà” (It will save you), short, folksy song that begins by a strummed acoustic guitar. It’s a reprise of the last part of the second track, “Terra straniera” where the lyrics invite you to look up and follow the brightest star in the sky, a metaphorical ideal to not get lost in the path of life. According to an interview with the band, it’s a kind of synthesis of this work: as a virtuous attitude to maintain in the passages, in the evolutions of our life and our being, we wanted to propose the pursuit of an ideal, of a star that guides us...

On the whole, an excellent album where vintage sounds and original ideas merge convincingly.

You can listen to the complete album HERE

Limite Acque Sicure: Limite Acque Sicure (2022). Other opinions:
Jose Antonio Marmol: The high quality of this album, in both its musical content and sound, is fantastic and recognizable after the very first listen, which is not that usual when talking about debuts... (read the complete review HERE)

More info:

https://limiteacquesicure.it/

https://www.facebook.com/limiteacquesicure/ 

WILD STRAWBERRIES

Una vita migliore is the fourth studio album by La Coscienza di Zeno and was released in 2018 on the AMS Records label with a renewed line up featuring Alessio Calandriello (vocals), Gabriele Guidi Colombi (bass), Andrea Orlando (drums, percussion), Stefano Agnini (synthesizers, Moog, organ), Gianluca Origone (guitars) and Luca Scherani (piano, synth, Mellotron, Hammond organ, bouzuki) plus the guests Sylvia Trabucco (violin), Alice Nappi (violin), Edoardo Romano (sax), Joanne Roan (flute), Daniela Piras (flute), Davide Corso (sax, clarinet), Marco Callegari (trumpet), Gaetano Galli (oboe), Melissa Del Lucchese (cello), Fausto Sidri (vocals, percussion), Martina Saladino (vocals), Nicola Sannino (vocals) and Alice Scherani (Glockenspiel). It’s an amazing symphonic rock work that draws on the tradition of the Italian historic bands from the seventies to express deep feelings shaping new pieces with an up to date sound and fresh ideas. The beautiful cover artwork, by Genoese artist Jessica Rassi, is linked to the content of the album...

 

The wonderful opener “Lobe iste calabu” sets the atmosphere. It’s an instrumental track that starts by a delicate acoustic guitar arpeggio and goes through many changes in rhythm driving you to unknown, dreamy realms made of sounds and emotions...

The title of the following “Il posto delle fragole” (Wild Strawberries) refers to a famous 1957 Swedish drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman and depicts in a surreal way stagnant memories and dreamlike flashes, poignant regrets and the new awareness of an old man, a scientist, who reflects about his past mistakes while trying to seek for a peaceful place to rest. In the end the fog dissolves from his nightmares and he can find the place he was looking for, a place to become a child again...

The lively, folksy “Danza ferma” (Still dance) begins with a strong baroque flavour. The music and lyrics try to describe the unstoppable rhythm of Time that keeps men and women in perennial movement. You can’t help it, you have to keep on dancing as memories flow back and forward and the rhythm rises while the music goes on...

 

“Mordo la lingua” (I bite my tongue) is a tense, melancholic piece about incommunicability. The music and lyrics evoke the image of a little, hot heart that tries to find a shelter form the storms of the outside world with no result. The protagonist drowns in a sea of adverbs and useless words, he can’t properly express himself and keeps on biting nervously his tongue. Without expression skills you risk to become invisible because a man who can’t talk and find the right way to communicate with other people is like a vanishing shadow...

“L’aspettativa del bimbo scuro” (The expectation of the dark child) is an introspective track with strong classical flavours were music and lyrics revolve around the psychological gap between what a man appears to be and his hidden desires and illusions. In every man there’s a dark side, a rebellious child that struggles to emerge on the surface from the deepest shadows of the ego. A dark, blind child that seeks for immorality and slowly retreats in face of the terror of social judgement...

The long, complex title track, “Una vita migliore” (A better life), tells in a very poetic way of a horrible family crime. The new partner of a woman, a seaman, sexually harasses and rapes her young daughter. The woman tries to protect and justify her man. The psychological impact on the girl, as you can imagine, is devastating and the music and lyrics try to depict the victim’s feelings conveying a strong sense of disenchantment and inner discomfort. The girl longs for a better life but now all her dreams are broken, her innocence lost forever...

Then, the beautiful instrumental “Vico del Giglio” closes the album. It’s a track that could recall Banco del Mutuo Soccorso without being derivative and invites you to have another spin...

On the whole, an excellent album and a must have for every Italianprog lover.

You can listen to the complete album HERE

La Coscienza di Zeno: Una vita migliore (2018). Other opinions:

Michael “Aussie-Byrd-Brother”: If you're an Italian prog fan, then La Coscienza di Zeno have once again delivered an album that holds everything you could ask for. They draw from such a rich history of vintage Italian progressive music but effortlessly graft it to a modern setting, and they deliver it all with an exceptional technical proficiency and vibrant imagination. Their previous album `La Notte Anche di Giorno' may still be their defining moment to date, but `Una Vita Migliore' is another classy, luxurious and unpredictable symphonic Italian work from an endlessly skilled band, full of colour and endless personality... (Read the complete review HERE)

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/lacoscienzadizeno.ge/