BLEEDING MICROPHONES

Alan Sorrenti is the third, eponymous album by Alan Sorrenti and was released in 1974 on the Harvest label with a line up featuring Alan Sorrenti (vocals, acoustic guitar, synth), Toni Esposito (drums, percussion), Nero Limone (bass, electric guitar), Enzo Castella (acoustic guitar, mandolin) and Mark Harris (piano, acoustic guitar, synth) while Umberto Telesco took charge of the pictures for the art cover. With this work the musical approach of the Neapolitan artist started to change and the experimentalism of his previous two works begun to give way to simpler forms. The arrangements are good but not so bold and challenging as in the past while a melancholic vein is always present in the lyrics and in the melodies...

The opener, “Un viso d'inverno” (A face in winter), is an ethereal, acoustic ballad where the music and lyrics conjure up a black and white landscape. Time passes slowly among the trees, a pale sun shines behind the clouds and, as by magic, melts the ice on a wintry face... The vocals here are still used as an instrument but without taking too impervious paths.

Next comes the cover of the popular traditional Neapolitan song “Dicitencello vuje”, written in 1930 by Rodolfo Falvo and Enzo Fusco, here reinterpreted by Alan Sorrenti in a very personal way. It’s a man’s desperate declaration of love towards his beloved woman, made indirectly and passionately. This track was also released as a single and was very successful although it was considered a kind of treason by many of the old fans...

 

“Ma tu mi ascolti” (But you, are you listening to me?) is a melancholic, desperate ballad dealing with alienation and exclusion. The music and words depict the image of a homeless who seeks for help... “Now you know that I’m not strong / Now you know that I fear living... I am tired and I wish a home / The one who destroyed me now shows me the way / It was late winter when they tried to make me forget of myself / And I lost my way / I got lost...”.

“Sulla cima del mondo” (On the top of the world), is sarcastic track about vainglory, social climbing and careerism. Success might hide a huge spiritual void and infinite sadness. The lyrics depict a man on the terrace of a skyscraper from where the city below looks like a thriving anthill. He had to turn into a clown to play with the world... “But what do you want? / I don't want to feel pain any more / No, I don't want to suffer any more... You are running after the time / Because you want all in a while / And you will live crying / On the top of the world...”.

“Poco più piano” (A little slower) is an unconventional love song, with an arrangement featuring horns and strings, an oblique pace and almost hysterical vocals. The cryptic lyrics evoke bucolic landscapes and cloudy memories as the heart of the protagonist beats slower and slower...

“Microfoni assassini” (Killer microphones) is a disquieting piece that sounds like a surreal claim for artistic freedom... “Naked and trembling / Now I’m here / In front of killing microphones / In front of you, who are looking from your cage / At my bleeding mouth...”. Well, the early seventies were hard times for concerts in Italy and Alan Sorrenti was frequently contested by a turbulent public that in some occasions throw to him stones, empty bottles, fruits...

Then the dreamy “Incrociando il sole” (Crossing the sun) ends the album with suffused atmospheres and acoustic sounds. It brings a touch hope in a gloomy day... “Everyone is dead now / Everyone is older / But we are still together in the air / Crossing the sun...”.

On the whole, this work has its good moments and it could be of some interest for prog fans, but it's not an essential one.

You can listen to the complete album HERE

SMELLS OF INCENSE AT DAWN

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

A GUST OF FRESH AIR

Alan Sorrenti is an artist from Naples who was born to an Italian father and a Welsh mother. In 1972 he released an interesting debut “prog-style” album, “Aria” (Air), on the label Harvest. This work is an excellent effort to blend acoustic and dreamy atmospheres with experimental sounds and vocal acrobatics. The most evident source of inspiration here is Tim Buckley but in this work the Neapolitan artist, helped by some excellent musicians as Tony Esposito (drums percussion), Vittorio Nazzaro (bass, classical guitar) and Albert Prince (piano, organ, bandoneon, mellotron, synthesizers) managed to shape a particular, original sound that is really worth listening to.

The opener is the long, complex, claustrophobic title track... “Air, I’m looking for you in every corner of my room / Air, I’m running after you in the labyrinths of my mind... Air, I feel I’m losing you...”. The voice is used as an instrument to draw surrealistic poetry while calm, reflective moments are counter-pointed to almost hysterical, frenzied passages... For almost twenty minutes the music flows away with sudden changes in rhythm and colourful melodic lines run one after each other. The track is enriched by the violin of the special guest Jean Luc Ponty...

The second track “Vorrei incontrarti” (I would like to meet you) is my favourite. It’s a dreamy acoustic ballad, almost mystical. It expresses the desire to follow something so beautiful that it seems unreal, an illusion, a spell or a siren singing... “I would like to meet you / Outside the gates of a factory / I would like to meet you / Along the streets leading to India / I would like to meet you / But I don’t know what I would do / Perhaps I would cry with joy... Sing your song, sing it for me / Maybe one day I will sing for you...”.

“La mia mente” (My mind) is a melancholic ballad where vocal experiments and dissonant piano chords soar from an acoustic strummed guitar background... “My mind is a balloon / Wandering in a soft dream / And it doesn’t come back to earth / My people show it / My people shoot at it / The first hit make it shake / The second one shoots it down...”. In some moments Alan Sorrenti here reminds me of Area’s singer Demetrio Stratos.

The final track “Un fiume tranquillo” (A quiet river) is another long, particular ballad. The lyrics deal with the fear of self-destruction while the music flows like “a quiet river erasing the memories”, a “quiet river that can save you from a violent fall...”. 

From the book Rock Progressivo Italiano: an introduction to Italian Progressive Rock

You can listen in streaming to the complete album HERE