NOCTURNAL FIREFILIES

 After Locanda delle Fate’s split up in 1980, the band’s keyboardist Michele Conta completed his medical studies and focused his energies on his career of physician. Anyway, his passion for music didn’t die and after a long time he pulled out of the drawer some of the pieces he composed during the years and gave a definite shape to his sketches with the help of sound engineer and arranger Simone Lampedone and guitarist Ermanno Brignolo. After a long, passionate work in 2019 he finally released a solo album, entitled Endless Nights, on the independent label AMS Records. Along with Michele Conta (piano, keyboards) and Ermanno Brignolo (guitars, vocals) the recording sessions involved many guest musicians such as Max Arminchiardi (guitar), Gianni Branca (drums), Gavin Harrison (drums), Lele Melotti (drums), Segio Pescara (drums), Gianni Cicogna (bass), Effe Quartet (strings) and Leonard Plumbini (cello). The result is absolutely worth listening to...

 

The instrumental opener “E’ nell’aria” (It’s in the air) begins by the sound of a storm in the background and a dynamic piano solo passage, then the other instruments come in bringing a change in rhythm and atmosphere. It’s an excellent piece that mixes frenzied, heavy electric guitar riffs with calmer, dreamy sections dominated by piano and keyboards and that could recall the old pieces of Locanda delle Fate with an updated sound...

“With You On The Walk Of My Life” is a calm, romantic track featuring English lyrics about the importance of a long lasting relationship and the good luck you have finding someone who can help you in times of trouble, support your dreams or simply hug you when you come back home. It’s another track that recalls Locanda delle Fate but the vocals in my opinion are not completely up to the task... Then it’s the turn of the dreamy “Notte infinita” (Endless night), another excellent instrumental track that alternates delicate, relaxed atmospheres with more livelier moments and soaring keyboards flights... 

 

The following “Growin’ Up” takes us back to the times of Locanda delle Fate. In fact, this is a new version of an old track of the band, “Crescendo”, that was not included in the 1977 album Forse le lucciole non si amano più and was not officially recorded in studio until 2012. The lyrics deal with the passion for rock music and the experience of being part of a band... In a rehearsal room the notes of the instruments are like atoms moving in a perfect chaos that match, crash and collide providing an incredible energy. Unfortunately, again the vocal parts sung in English are not up to the beauty of the music and I miss Leonardo Sasso’s operatic exuberance.

The reflective, melodic “In riva al mondo” (On the shore of the world) starts by a sound of church bells, the nocturnal atmosphere is calm. The music and lyrics (in Italian) evoke visions and memories inspired by the view of a sleepy city from the window of a room, in the middle of the night... 

 

Michele Conta, 2019

“Fiori nascosti” (Hidden flowers) ends the album alternating a first part characterized by a soft, mellow mood with a more varied second part where there are sudden surges of rhythm and joyful flights of notes. The short vocal part (in English) invites you to look around and start searching for the beautiful things that are so close to you but the hectic rhythm of live can hide from your sight... You’d better find them before it’s too late!

On the whole, a good work with a strong nostalgic vein.

 

You can listen to the complete album HERE

 

Michele Conta: Endless Nights (2019). Other opinions:

Nick Hudson: Conta has given us a lush, symphonic album deliciously reminiscent of the classic days of ‘70s Italian prog, without sounding stale or dated, and allows the other players on his album room and space to elevate this beyond the stereotypical keyboard album... (Read the complete review HERE)

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/michele.conta.35 

 

FIREFLIES FOREVER

 Lucciole per sempre, along with The Missing Fireflies from 2012, is a good complement to the band’s 1977 masterpiece Forse le lucciole non si amano più and could be considered a celebration of their career. In fact, this CD plus DVD features two brand new tracks recorded in studio by the last line up, five tracks taken from a 1977 live show recorded in the studios of the Italian National TV and four tracks taken from a 1974 concert (the DVD includes only the videos shot for the two unreleased pieces and the complete video from the TV show). The album was released on the independent label AMS Records in three different versions: the first option is the standard edition, consisting of a tri-panel gate-fold support containing a CD, a DVD and a 64-page booklet full of vintage pictures and excerpts from Luciano Boero’s book Prati di lucciole per sempre (with an English translation); the second option is a super-limited deluxe edition that, in a vinyl-size box, contains the standard CD plus DVD and booklet set, a white-coloured gatefold cover LP, a certificate of authenticity and an exclusive signed copy of the original promotional 1977 poster with the photograph here used on the cover and originally appeared in the 1977 LP sleeve; the third option consists in a simple gate-fold cover LP edition, on black 180gr. vinyl.

The album opens with the new compositions. The first one, “Mediterraneo”, is a beautiful track with some ethnic flavours inspired by the Mediterranean sea and by the efforts that men have to endure to overcome the raging force of the waves when the weather is bad and by the peace that its beauty could give when the weather is calm. The second one, “Intro - Lettera di un viaggiatore” (Letter from a traveller) is another excellent track, this time inspired by the character of Cristoforo Colombo. Here the band imagined a love letter sent by the famous explorer to the Queen of Spain...

 

Then it’s the turn of the historic pieces taken from the 1977 TV broadcast. The sound quality is good enough and we have the chance to watch and listen to the heartfelt live versions of “Forse le lucciole non si amano più”, “Profumo di colla bianca”, “Sogno di Estunno”, “Non chiudere a chiave le stelle” and “La giostra” (the last one not included in the 1977 album and officially released only in 2012 on the album The Missing Fireflies). 

 

The last four tracks were poorly recorded in 1974 and, in my opinion, can be appreciated only for their historical relevance. The first one, “Ti penserò con tenerezza” is a cover of Gentle Giant’s “Think Of Me With Kindness” but with Italian lyrics. Then other three covers follow, “Nothing At All” (Gentle Giant), “Appena un po’” (PFM) and “Bambina sbagliata” (Formula Tre).

On the whole, a perfect item for Italianprog collectors with a wonderful packaging and a lot of great music.

 

You can listen to the complete album HERE

 

More info:

http://www.locandadellefate.com 

LOVELY FIREFLIES

From Rock Progressivo Italiano: an introduction to Italian Progressive Rock

Locanda delle Fate are a band from Asti that had been playing and listening to other prog band’s music for a long time before the release of a debut album with their own compositions. The original line-up featured Giorgio Gardino (drums, vibraphone), Luciano Boero (bass, Hammond), Ezio Vevey (electric and acoustic guitar, flute, vocals), Alberto Gaviglio (electric and acoustic guitar, vocals), Michele Conta (piano, electric piano, polymoog, harpsichord, clavinet, synthesizer), Oscar Mazzoglio (Hammond, piano, moog, polymoog, synthesizer) and Leonardo Sasso (vocals). “Forse le lucciole non si amano più” (Maybe the fireflies don’t love each other anymore) was released in 1977, when progressive rock was going out of fashion and wasn’t at all successful. It’s a real pity because this is a great album. You can find many influences here but all of them are blended together with a romantic, “original touch” and the result is very good. The mood is dreamy, the music and well balanced arrangements exalt the oneiric images created by the lyrics and vocals: the contrasts between illusions and disillusions and between dreams and reality are described in many poetical ways as in a kind of concept album. After all I think that the beautiful album cover describes its contents very well, probably better than all my words...

Locanda delle Fate 1977

The dreamy opener “A volte un istante di quiete” (Sometimes a quiet moment) is an excellent instrumental track that every now and then reminds me of BMS and Genesis and that shows the great musicianship of the members of the band.

The title track is about the contrast between dreams and reality and leads you into a world of quiet looking for the illusions and dreams that nobody wants anymore in a world of ephemeral shadows... “Dragged away by a stolen conscience / Dazzled by myths and legends / Our dreams are full of miracles / But when the light comes they are not enough for us anymore...”.

“Profumo di colla bianca” (Smell of white glue) is about a man who, after having found an old notebook and some old toys in the attic, longs for the dreams and illusions of his childhood... “A thousand glasses reflect the memories left by a child / I pick up a book of pictures faded by reality / Immense is the wish to close the doors on my age...”. Old and new ghosts are blurred while shadows rest in the dark attic among the leftovers of a lost time that light and dust embroider. Behind the walls the wind blows and carries away confused whispers...

“Cercando un nuovo confine” (Looking for a new border) is sweet and melancholic. It’s about a baby girl who flies to heaven leaving behind a world of dreams and reality, intertwined threads that she will never know... “You will never know love but your skin won’t get old / And you will remain a flower / A flower that the wind will never waste...”. No time to understand, no time to cry... Just a quick glance back at a planet of rocks where anxious people long for happiness. Time disappears and dreams seem as paintings hanging in the wind, all around there are new, sweet sounds... “You won’t have in your heart the hate hidden in castles and cities... You will follow the amazing acrobatics of your lighted mind / You will invent dances of words and new wonderful games / You will tell me new and old stories... Your thoughts like mirrors of other worlds will sweetly play notes you will silently listen to...”.

“Sogno di Estunno” (Dream of Summer/Autumn) is about another dream. The atmosphere is melancholic like a mild September rain pouring on the memories of a sparkling summer... “I look at my shadow while I’m walking / It glides on the rocks while the last summer rain tells me about the things I haven’t got... It’s strange, you know / The rain is falling on the lawn / The crickets are already singing / It’s strange, you know / Summer has a thousand colours / That I almost can’t see anymore / It’s strange, you know / To have such a great desire to run / And walking slowly not to waste the last moment of freedom...”.

“Non chiudere a chiave le stelle” (Don’t lock the stars up) is a wonderful short acoustic ballad. The acoustic guitar arpeggios and the harmony vocals are excellent. The lyrics are about a beautiful girl who wastes her time closed in her room, lost in her dreams... “If you hide the world from your eyes you don’t risk anything / But you will be alone / Your dreams are like locked stars / But they won’t be enough anymore / When the sun comes in...”.

“Vendesi saggezza” (Wisdom for sale) is a long, complex track. Soaring vocal lines fly over sweet melodic passages. Close your eyes and try to imagine open spaces beyond your window... Suddenly a butterfly enters your room and starts to talk about a love born among the flowers. Dreams flow but suddenly something happens and you realize that you can’t fly anymore... “There’s a burglar in the room / He doesn’t steal your silver or gold coins / But soundlessly he will snatch away from your flights your truer alibis / It’s not enough, please give me the flowers I haven’t got / I don’t want to explain anymore / You will be greater than Icarus / You will watch yourself flying...”.

On the CD edition there’s also a bonus track (“New York”). It’s a melodic piece but it is not at the same level as the other tracks... It doesn’t add anything to this beautiful album that I consider a little masterpiece.

Read about Locanda delle Fate's reunion HERE

More info about the band:
http://www.locandadellefate.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LocandaDelleFate

THE RETURN OF THE FIREFLIES

Locanda delle Fate come from Asti and in 1977 released a wonderful album titled “Forse le lucciole non si amano più”. Despite the excellent quality, the album was not successful at all and the band gave up in 1978. In the late nineties the band reunited and released a new album in a different style on the independent label Vinyl Magic, “Homo homini lupus”. In some way, all the original members except the vocalist Leonardo Sasso of the band were involved in this project but the result in my opinion was quite disappointing.

“Lucifer quotidie parat bella usto capillo / Quam ferus qui primus protulit horrendo enses / Nos ad mala nostra corde vertemus micante / Atqui homo fieri potuit homini lupus...” The opener title track was sung in Latin and is about the self-destructive attitude of humankind, men killing other men in merciless, endless wars. It's a quite interesting song with amazing backing vocals, Mellotron and Hammond B3. Anyway the rest of the album is not at the same level and after the first track the music turns into melodic pop. There are some scattered good ideas and a couple of nice songs such as “La fine” (The End) or “Fumo” (Smoke) but on the whole this work is really nothing special. A long hiatus followed its release...

Locanda delle Fate 2012

Well, ten years after the ephemeral reunion of the late nineties Locanda delle Fate came back with a renewed line-up. This time the reunion was mainly focused on the live activity and the band rearranged the old repertoire with a vintage taste for some live performances with excellent results and in 2010 they played their first concerts since the late seventies. The current line up features the veterans Leonardo Sasso (vocals), Luciano Boero (bass), Giorgio Gardino (drums) and Oscar Mazzoglio (Hammond, keyboards, minimoog) plus two new members: Maurizio Muha (piano, Moog, Mellotron) and Massimo Brignolo. In 2012 they released a new album on the independent label Altrock, “The Missing Fireflies”, featuring some new studio versions of old pieces and some live tracks taken from a 1977 concert.

The studio version of “Crescendo” (Growing up) is amazing and the vintage sounds take you back in time... “How much of life is wasted by waiting for tomorrow / The petals of a Time without seasons fall down / Some leaves are dancing like butterflies for us all around / I try to catch them by it's time to growing up now...”. This song was composed back in the seventies but it was never recorded in studio before and the new version respects the way it was conceived.

“Sequenza circolare” (Loop) is a fine, short instrumental composed by the newcomer Maurizio Muha and is a perfect introduction for another piece composed in the seventies and here recorded in studio for the first time, “La giostra” (The carousel). It's a beautiful, timeless track about the magic power of dreams... “She is clinging to my nerves that are taking off in orbit above me / I have no fear but standing here I can already see some mirages...”.

The last studio track is a new version of “Non chiudere a chiave le stelle” (Don't lock the stars), a piece about a beautiful girl who wastes her time closed in her room, lost in her dreams. The original version was released in the 1977 album “Forse le lucciole non si amano più” but this version is good as well.

The live tracks are taken from a concert in Asti, at the Alfieri Theatre, on November 21, 1977. The sound quality is not bad but part of the original tapes are lost and what's left are just the final part of “Non chiudere a chiave le stelle”, “Crescendo” and “Vendesi saggezza”. It's an interesting document of the live performances of the old line up, nothing more. Well, all in all I think that this is just a new starting point for the band and I'm looking forward to a new album with new original stuff!

You can listen to the complete album in streaming HERE

Locanda delle Fate: The Missing Fireflies (2012). Other opinions

Jim Russell: This album is a concoction of new recordings and old live performances designed to put them in the prog public eye. For that purpose it is a very successful return indeed. However, if the band truly desires a legacy with the RPI bands they are often compared to, they will need a new collection of originals more convincing than their last comeback attempt in the 90s, which was not well received by prog fans. Listening to this album I believe they have the potential to pull it off... (read the complete review HERE).

Raffaella Benvenuto-Berry: For obvious reasons, The Missing Fireflies… will be seen more as a collectors’ item than a genuine new release. The four studio tracks, however, reveal the strength of Locanda Delle Fate’s current line-up, which includes most of its founding members... All in all, The Missing Fireflies will be a worthwhile investment for dedicated followers of the band and fans of the original RPI scene, while newcomers might want to try Forse Le Lucciole Non Si Amano Più before taking the plunge. In any case, the release of the album, together with the success of Locanda Delle Fate’s recent live outings (at the time of writing, they have just returned from Japan, where they appeared at a festival in Tokyo together with other historic Italian prog bands), bodes well for the future of the new incarnation of the band... (read the complete review HERE).

More info:

http://www.locandadellefate.com/

http://www.facebook.com/#!/LocandaDelleFate

PIEMONTE and VALLE D'AOSTA (part 2)

Turin is not the only city in Piemonte which can boast interesting prog bands. The birthplace of Italian writer Umberto Eco, ALESSANDRIA, about 90 km south-west from Turin, saw the formation of a band called Quo Modo Vitae (MySpace) in the seventies. They never had the chance to record an album then and it’s a pity but recently some of the old members joined up again to play live and to work on new and old pieces and, well, I think it would be high time for a debut album!

In Alessandria we can also listen to the excellent Imagin’Aria (MySpace), to the projects of guitarist Cristiano Mussi (MySpace) and to some emerging bands such as the melodic Roccaforte (MySpace), the heavier Anziana Regina (MySpace) and the psychedelic Cosa Rara (MySpace). In the nearby town of Casale Monferrato we can listen to a melodic prog band called Abaco (MySpace) while Acqui Terme is home to another melodic prog band, Plenilunio (MySpace). Another town in the province of Alessandria, Tortona, in the early seventies gave us a band called I Leoni while now it’s the time of the heavy and dark Ufomammut (MySpace).

And now to ASTI, about 55 km south-east of Turin which in the seventies gave us Locanda delle Fate (Official Website). After an ephemeral reunion in the late nineties the band is now back with a renewed line-up and in summer 2010 they played their first concert since the late seventies. Former Locanda delle Fate keyboardist and composer Michele Conta (MySpace) has not taken part in the reunion and is working on a solo project.

 Asti was also home to Archensiel, an interesting prog-folk band that in 1989 released a beautiful album, Piöva, re-released by Akarma in 2004. Archensiel guitarist Massimo Brignolo is now in the new line of Locanda delle Fate. The prog scene from Asti can also boast the emerging Fata dell’Ombra (MySpace) and the interesting Cantina Sociale (MySpace) that in 2009 released an excellent album entitled Cum Lux. Cantina Sociale’s singer Iano Nicolò (MySpace) is also the singer in the new line-up of Arti e Mestieri.

 

Well, almost every city in Piemonte gave birth to at least one prog band that is worth listening to. In CUNEO we find the folk-jazz Falafel Project (MySpace), the math prog Lamalora (MySpace) and Pandora (Official Website) that after an amazing debut album for BTF in 2011 released a sophomore album entitled Sempre e ovunque oltre il sogno.

From Bra, a town  50 km south of Turin and 50 km north-east of Cuneo, there comes Colster (MySpace), an emerging band influenced by psychedelic sounds while Mondovì is home to an instrumental project called Athene Noctua (MySpace). BIELLA in the seventies gave us Odissea while today it is home to a folk-jazz project called Abnoba (MySpace), the emerging LeMura (Facebook) and an interesting band called The Mellon (MySpace), inspired by esoteric and dark atmospheres.

 

Then, from VERCELLI come the veterans Il Castello di Atlante (Official Website), formed in the seventies and still in perfect shape. Another local band of great experience is the neo-prog Arcansiel (MySpace) whose roots go back to the eighties. Arcansiel’s leader, Paolo Baltaro (MySpace), in 2009 released a solo album on Musea Records. The province of Vercelli, to be more exact an area called Valsesia, is also home to an emerging band called Coma Berenices (MySpace).

From NOVARA come Consorzio Acqua Potabile (Official Website), a band formed in 1971 and still active today, and Psichedalia (Reverbnation) while from Domodossola, a town in the province of VERBANO-CUSIO-OSSOLA comes the psychedelic King Suffy Generator (MySpace). By the way, Domodossola is also the birth place of Alberto Fortis, a famous Italian singer songwriter whose first two albums might be of some interest to prog lovers.

To conclude our visit through far North-West Italy, we go to AOSTA, the capital of the autonomous region VALLE D'AOSTA. Here during the seventies Paradiso a Basso Prezzo were based. Their drummer, Guido Gressani, is still active and plays jazz with his Guido Gressani Quintet (Facebook). Now the city is home to I Treni all’Alba (MySpace) that were formed between Aosta and Turin in 2002. All the members of the band are experienced musicians with different influences and in 2008 they released their first full length album, Folk Destroyers, on the independent label Smartz Records.

Each track is illustrated in the beautiful booklet with a drawing by the painter Domenico Sorrenti and the music flows away  as in a long suite where quiet acoustic and folky passages melt into fiery percussion rides and vice versa. The name of the band, I Treni All’Alba, means “the trains at dawn...”.