A PINK ELEPHANT

Violet came to life in Nola, a small town near Naples, in 1998 on the initiative of some friends in love with the music of Pink Floyd. After a first work self-released in 2000, Procrastination, the band members parted ways and took different career paths. It wasn’t until 2020 that the band reunited for a new album. It’s entitled A Big Elephant In The Room and was self-released in 2022 with a line up featuring Fabio Corsale (vocals, guitars, bass), Mario Cocchiara (keyboards) and Giulio Cozzuto (vocals, guitars) plus the guests Lucio Fontana (drums) and Tania Maria Cristall Patruno (backing vocals). The artwork by Giulio Cozzuto and Alex Stubbe Teglbjærg tries to give you an idea of the musical and lyrical content...

 

The influence of Pink Floyd is apparent from the very first notes of the short opener “Burlesque”, an atmospheric piece where you can even hear the voice of Vera Lynn in the background and that introduces the subject matter by evoking hordes of mutants disguised as human beings that are walking in the streets of our cities... Then the rhythm rises and comes the disquieting “In The Garden Of Elah” that conjures up distant memories, regrets, virtual reality and troubling dreams. You run like hell in a garden full of strange and bizarre things, one of your arms is rather weird and you have a metal hand that works for you...

 

Violet, 2022

The short, reflective interlude “Moments” and the following “Sunrise” depict the reasons behind the need to take out from the drawer your forgotten dreams. Poems and songs waiting for a new chance are like blossoms waiting to bloom... Next comes “Children” that depicts the relationship between parents and children as time passes by, the need to follow your dreams and to paint life in bright colours blotting out the darkness of a weary world... Then “Hush” ends the first part of the album with the image of a reassuring mother lending her hand to a child...

 

The melancholic ballad “On The Brighton Pier” opens the second part with a comfortable numb feeling and a sense of confusion and loss that leads to the surreal, tense atmosphere of “Darling, Where Did You Put My Sunglasses For Nuclear Sunsets?”... Then “Witches In Heaven” blows away the shadows inviting to leave behind the valley of tears where you were stuck and mark a new start for a brighter future... “Only A Bridge Of Pain” ends the album bringing a lighter mood, hopes and words blooming in a puff of sand...

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

You can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:
https://www.facebook.com/violetnola

 

 

LOOKING AT A LOST WORLD

Zed & I Bolidi Lenti came to life in Naples in 2011, in love with hard rock, progressive and vintage sounds from the seventies. After a long time spent composing their original stuff, some personnel changes and some concerts on the local scene, in 2022 they self-released an interesting eponymous album with a line up featuring Benny Casola (keyboards, backing vocals), Nino Cecchini (guitar, backing vocals), Sergio Misticone (lead vocals), Eugenio Pastore (drums, percussion) and Sergio Schettino (bass, backing vocals). The sound quality might not be perfect, the songwriting might not shine for its originality and the vocals undoubtedly are a far cry from bel canto but, in my opinion, the band managed to convey to the listener all their passion and pleasure to play...

 

The opener “Filo invisibile” (Invisible thread) paints with deep purple brushstrokes an irrepressible desire to escape from a hypocritical, oppressive society where voracity, greediness and cowardice rule. For the protagonist a road is enough, he looks just for an ordinary place where nothing changes, not even time, and where life flows through your soul, a place where to be free with the people you love...

“A cavallo di un mondo perduto” (Living astride a lost world) is a caustic reflection about Man destiny. Man has chosen his path without humility between clouds of smoke, asphalt, stones, tears, war and thirst. He has lost his future and his stability but keeps on repeating again and again the same mistakes without looking back. He persists in scanning the horizon with his short-sighted gaze, when the abyss is there wide open under his feet. He longs for something that he doesn’t even know and he’s loosing his freedom to live astride a lost world...

Next two tracks deal with environmental issues. “Non sono Dio” (I’m not God) every now and again could recall The Doors and is an ironic piece where the music and words draw bitter reflections about a betrayed, suffering world. If Man fails to change his behaviour he would have better start praying before getting lost in a sea of resigned indifference...

Then “Fukushima” conjures up the image of a glacial dawn lighted by the rays of a dying sun where everything changes in the darkness. The protagonist here realizes that he lives among the ruins of a world that has gone in the wrong direction in search for nuclear sources ending up in the hands of hitmen without dignity...

“Kathmandu” is a soft, dreamy piece that brings back the memories of a journey in Nepal. The traveller remembers what he experienced as he crossed villages and ageless woods where even silence becomes sound and where you can try to look into yourself through a broken mirror before picking up your luggage and start walking again...

The closer “No More White Horse (Non basta il sole)” (No More White Horse - Sun isn’t enough) is a touching piece dedicated to an albino African girl who only chance saved from horrible witchcraft rites. The music and lyrics evoke here a world that gets drowned into illusion and where there’s not enough light for changing. A cry rises, a desperate call for help in a kind of nightmare where reality and hell unite...

On the whole, a work that deserves a try.

You can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100034999578960 

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

TWENTY YEARS AFTER

In 1999, after a hiatus of more than twenty years, founder members Lino Vairetti and Danilo Rustici decided to bring back to life the music of Osanna re-arranging the old repertoire of the band for some new live performances. In 2001 Osanna released a new studio album, entitled Taka Boom, on their own independent label Afrakà with a new line up featuring Lino Vairetti (vocals, guitar), Danilo Rustici (electric and acoustic guitar) and Enzo Petrone (bass) with Gennaro Barba (drums), Gigi Borgogno (electric guitar), Vito Ranucci (sax) and Luca Urciuolo (keyboards) plus the special guest Enzo Avitabile (vocals). It contains some new arrangements of pieces from the seventies Osanna’s albums and two brand new tracks...

“L’uomo” opens the album with a surge of energy. This new version of Osanna’s debut album opener is brilliant, more aggressive than the original one and with an almost rapped section emphasizing the lyrics. The following “Ce vulesse ce vulesse”, is a piece from Suddance (“Ce vulesse”) that here is revitalized with the addition of a second part (“Canta chiù fforte”), harder and angrier than the original one...

The dreamy “Medley acustico” bounds a short excerpt from Palepoli, “Oro caldo”, with “My Mind Flies” from Preludio, tema, variazioni e canzona and “L’amore vincerà di nuovo” from L’uomo. The effect is interesting, but you can’t really resume and condensate such pieces in just five minutes and I feel that something is missing here...

The ironic, funny “Taka Boom” is a new track dealing with the risks of internet addiction leading to a virtual life disconnected with reality. On line you can find everything, you can burn every book and every film because you don’t need them any more, even sex can be experienced on line and pleasure stored in a file... Until the body of your virtual partner, hacked by viruses, will blow up!

Next comes another medley, “In un vecchio cieco - Vado verso una meta”, with two pieces from L’uomo that were bound also on the 1971 album (although in a different order) and here are in some way simplified and played in a more straightforward way. Then the canzona from the second album in its new dress, “There Will Be Time”, leads to “Medley Train” where a piece from L’uomo, “Mirror Train”, is enhanced with a new middle section featuring rap style vocals in the dialect of Naples, “Treno senza stazione” (Train without station).

The new versions of “’A zingara” (from Suddance), “Oro caldo (Fuje ‘a chistu paese)” (an excerpt from Palepoli) and “Everybody’s Gonna See You Die” (from L’uomo) follow and lead to another new track “Colpi di tosse”, a song “of rage and nostalgia” featuring the narrative and rap vocals of the guest Enzo Avitabile interacting with Lino Vairetti’s melodic lines and including quotes of “Fog In My Mind”, from Landscape Of Life. A short acoustic version of “L’uomo” ends the album.

On the whole, a good work that takes Osanna into the new millennium but not an essential one. 

*******************

Uomini e miti is in part a celebration of one of the most relevant bands of the Italian progressive scene of the Seventies and in part a new starting point... Perhaps the magic is gone, but Osanna show here that they are still able of great live performances and the new line up deserves credit. The album was released in 2003 on the independent label Afrakà and contains a CD and a DVD

The CD features six live tracks full of energy and enthusiasm where the band play the updated versions of some historic pieces and the result is quite good... “Ce vulesse - Ce vulesse”, “’A zingara”, “L’uomo”, “There Will Be Time”, “Mirror Train” and an excerpt from “Oro caldo” reflect the new arrangements from their previous album Taka Boom and flow without breaks for more than half an hour.

Then there are some tracks recorded in the studio. “Medley acustico: Oro caldo / My Mind Flies / L'amore vincerà di nuovo”, “Colpi di tosse” and “Taka Boom” come from Osanna’s previous album Taka Boom while “Non sei vissuto mai”, a new arrangement of a piece from 1971 album L’uomo, was previously unreleased.

The DVD documents a celebration concert for the 30th anniversary of the band (recorded in Naples in December 2001), featuring the performances of some guest stars such as Francesco Di Giacomo and Rodolfo Maltese (BMS), Vittorio De Scalzi (New Trolls), Paolo Fariselli (Area), Gianni Leone (Il Balletto di Bronzo) and Jenny Sorrenti (Saint Just) and one track from another concert in 2003. The quality is good and it could be of some interest for Italianprog lovers...

On the whole, a good work.

UNDER THE CITY

“Palepoli” is usually considered Osanna’s best album. It was released in 1973 and it is a very difficult album to define. It’s a philosophical conceptual work about Man’s fate and it develops some ideas already present on their debut album “L’uomo”. It was conceived as a musical to be performed in theatres with the help of actors and dancers and features two long suites separated by a short interlude. The line-up is classical Osanna featuring Lino Vairetti (vocals, acoustic guitar, keyboards), Danilo Rustici (guitar, organ, vocals), Elio D’Anna (flute, sax), Lello Brandi (bass) and Massimo Guarino (drums, percussion). Throughout the album it is evident that the aim of the musicians is to experience new ways, crossing styles and exploring new musical territories combining British influences with Mediterranean tradition (the lyrics here are in Italian with some parts in the dialect from Naples). Here you can find the images and sounds from an apocalyptic future and shadows and ghosts from the past.

The opener “Oro caldo” (Hot Gold) begins softly, there’s a quiet Mediterranean mood, just flute and percussions... Then an “electric tarantella” full of energy and rage takes off... The lyrics mark the contrast between the wish to live in a real world where there’s true love in the houses and joy in the streets and a different, harder reality full of rage and struggles. There’s a crowd shouting in dialect “Run away from here, escape from this country / Here words, people and thoughts don’t get along even for a single month...”. The crowd is desperate, as prisoners of a farce, they are just old-fashioned people tired of hoping and full of secrets... The tarantella ends in a guitar solo, then there’s an evocative instrumental passage in “Genesis style”... The world seems rather dull, covered by the dust of men, furrowed by deep trenches that look like the wrinkles of someone who has never cried... There are people who try to fight, to arrange plans to get a home and a job but it’s difficult to say what’s right and what’s wrong... The atmosphere is quiet and melancholic but the rhythm every now and again rises in sudden explosions of rage... “There’s fog in my mind... Hot gold is oozing from a trumpet / From where the shadow of a cold, silent note comes out...”. Cold, tired, ageless faces pass by, it’s like a human market where mercy is on sale and fragility pours from the sky... “And the wind runs towards me / Carrying the reality in its whirls / I feel cold in my thoughts / Thousands of voices are trampling on me, oh no! / Hot gold is flying / It’s like a bomb now... False! Right! False! Right!”. The music in some passages is of a dramatic beauty... Why is the present so hard? To understand it you have to search for your roots, exploring the unknown city which lies underground, populated by ghosts... “If you can search, search for Palepoli / The reality of an age without us... Plays and crafts of men, the hilarity of Pulcinella / If you can, search inside Palepoli...”. Classical influences are stronger here and contrast with the filtered raw vocals and jazzy passages expressing contrariety to a reflection about the past, the voice of Power... “The history of a city is nonsense / We go forward thanks to progress / We are progress, you’ve got wealth / We produce, although you have to work / We defend our society, but you have to fight the war...”. The city appears now as an enormous room from which you would like to break out. The mood becomes dreamy, you dream of another way of living... “I want to live in a real world where there’s love in the homes...”. But the dream clashes with the walls of the room-city... “Stanza città” (Room-City) is just a short instrumental bridge between side A and side B, you can listen to a short reprise of the opening section then to a claustrophobic conclusion...

“Animale senza respiro” (Animal without breath) starts in a jazzy, frenzied way, then the rhythm calms down giving way to a mystical atmosphere. The lyrics deal with ancient rituals and false myths leading humankind to self-destruction. Men have always built shrines and sacred altars, prayed and invoked their gods in vain... “Immortality will lie voiceless in your temples / You will burn bitter incenses and in that smoke you will drown / You will invoke false myths / Animal! You will fall / Animal! / You will crumble...”. The animal here is a metaphor for a blind man running after power and glory... An electric guitar solo kicks off a desperate race, men are running toward an uncertain future while the rhythm rises... “Animal, you’re out of breath now / You’re nothing but a shapeless heap of human stuff / Your mind is wandering in an endless rave...”. The race leads to an explosion... Then acoustic guitar introduces a dreamy, delicate passage... “You have no more time / You have no more hours / You have no more strength to believe in yourself / In this metre of life that you still have / You are looking for the air to breathe / You have no more time / You have no more hours / You are nothing now...”. The atmosphere becomes gloomy, dark bass lines pulse with experimental sounds in the background, then flute and melodic vocals draw a kind of bittersweet dirge... “Clouds of cold wool cover your agony / You will rise your lament towards your gods...”. But God lies in the air, you breathe and you can’t recognize Him. What’s happened? A nuclear disaster? The purity of a childhood has been robbed from us, the utopia of a new civilization has been destroyed and our faces are nothing but masks to conceal a faked truth... “You will pay for having robbed from us the purity of a childhood... You destroyed my age / My strength is empty... Animal! / You have built the utopia of a civilization, you have made a rain of vileness pour down...”. Rage rises... “No! Our masks won’t live again... I still want to dream the sound of the bells... Just a few more hours of cowardice and you will burn, animal! You will burn!”. But even if men ask for help their hate will never die... The rhythm becomes frenzied, wild sax passages and a jazzy mood describe the madness of humankind... “Animal without breath, you can already feel death on your face...”. Prayers are pointless now, because men are responsible for the hell they created... “Look at the sky / You can see the divine madness flying, laughing, dancing...”. On Earth mean people kill, and a threatening song celebrating the war soars... Then melts into the void. The amazing instrumental short coda leads to an awakening after a bad dream.

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

You can listen to the complete album HERE

Osanna: Palepoli (1973). Other opinions:

Jim Russell:  This is such a difficult album to write about, like trying to write about the most bizarre psych freak-outs or trying to discuss a 40 minute live version of the Dead's "Dark Star." Some things need to be heard to be understood... (read the complete review HERE)

ONE IN ALL

In 1974, after Osanna's split up, former members Danilo Rustici (guitar, keyboards, vocals) and Elio D'Anna (sax, flute) teamed up with a drummer from Forlì, Enzo Vallicelli, and formed a new band called Uno. The only album they left to posterity was their eponymous work, recorded in London, in the same studios of Pink Floyd, and released on the Fonit Cetra label...

 

Osanna’s ghost here seem to be “hanging on a nail” (just to quote a verse from the lyrics of the album) while the members of the band are trying to overcome their past, but the result, in my opinion, is not convincing at all. I find that the song-writing is almost awkward in some points (for instance "Popular Girl" is a R & B track that suddenly turns into a "tarantella", but the passage from one part to another is too abrupt and it sounds unnatural to my ears) and too much derivative. There are many influences coming from The Beatles (like on the sweet, dreamy "Stay With Me" and on the first part of "Goodbye Friend") and heavy "echoes" coming from "the dark side of the moon" (like in "Uno nel tutto", after a first "R'n'R section, or in the "Goodbye Friend" finale), but the result is a kind of clumsy patchwork featuring rather weak vocals.

The best track (and, in my opinion, the only really good one on this album) is "I cani e la volpe" (The dogs and the fox), a melancholic ballad featuring lyrics telling of some boys who are trying to escape from a world that has gone mad and is full of violence. Here they are compared to a fox hunted by barking dogs that are screaming all their rage against the life... "Right Place" and "Uomo come gli altri" are not bad and closer to Osanna's sound but can’t “save the match”...

On the whole, an album that might be recommended only to Osanna's die-hard fans...

You can listen to the complete album HERE

In 1974 the first album by Uno wasn’t successful and, consequently, the members of the band parted ways soon after it was released. Nonetheless not all of this experience was negative and so, after many years...

Uno nel Tutto, 2021

In 2021 drummer Enzo Vallicelli gathered around him a new line up under the name Uno nel Tutto, and featuring besides him also Enrico Gabrielli (winds, keyboards, vocals - from Calibro 35), Roberto Dellera (bass, lead vocals - from The Winstons) and Stefano Pilia (guitars - from Italian indie rock band Afterhours),. Teir aim was to revisit and perform Uno’s old repertoire for a concert at the Ravenna Festival. In my opinion, the new line up, based in Romagna, sound even better than the original one and successfully revitalized and improved the old stuff. I hope they’ll go on... Have a try! You can watch the complete concert HERE.

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/UnoNelTutto/

NEAPOLITAN POWER

In 1977, after the negative experiences of Uno and Città Frontale, Osanna’s founder members Lino Vairetti (vocals, guitar), Danilo Rustici (electric and acoustic guitars) and Massimo Guarino (drums, percussion, vibraphone) reformed the band with Enzo Petrone (bass) and Fabrizio D'Angelo Lancellotti (keyboards, synthesizers) and started to work on a new album. During the recording sessions they were helped by some guest musicians such as Benni Caiazzo (sax) and Antonio Spagnolo (electric violin) who contributed to enrich an overall sound going in a new musical direction by blending rock, soul and jazz with the traditions of Naples. Osanna’s fifth studio album, Suddance, closer to the style of Napoli Centrale than to the particular prog of the early albums of the band, was released on the CBS label in 1978, when the Halcyon Days of prog were coming to an end, and although it might be disappointing for old fans, in my opinion the result of the band’s efforts is not bad at all. In fact, I think that the colourful art work by Guido Harari expresses all the vitality of its musical content...

 

The opener “Ce vulesse” (It would take) sets the atmosphere with its brilliant blend of rock and fusion. The lyrics are in the dialect of Naples like most of the pieces on this album and sound like an invocation and a complaint in the meantime. The piece deals with the feeling of eternal hope that’s one of the characteristic of the people of Osanna’s home town...

 

The following “’A zingara” (The gipsy woman) is my favourite piece on this work. It’s a bitter-sweet, melancholic track featuring a mysterious mood... It tells in music and words of the desperate life of a gipsy woman with “music and hope in her heart” who is discriminated and rejected by our society... “She's a gipsy and she causes fear / That's why everybody avoids her in the street / She is so desperate to bang her head against the wall / But every time she asks for help people pretend they don't see her...”.

 

The long, committed “’O napulitano” closes the first side of the album with a heartfelt, raging proclamation of Neapolitan pride. It’s a kind of manifesto, a call to arms where the band invite their fellow citizen to fight hard against empty promises, corrupted politicians and decay, to rediscover their roots and traditions, to subvert the sense of cultural stagnation that suffocates their beloved city, to refuse the escape of emigration...

 

The instrumental title track, “Suddance”, opens the second side of this work with its blows of fresh energy, tight rhythms and frenzied solos. According to a recent interview with Lino Vairetti (on Prog Italia magazine #38), it draws loosely inspiration from “New Country”, a piece from Jean-Luc Ponty’s album New Voyage...

 

Osanna 1978

 

Next comes the long, desperate “Chiuso qui” (Closed here), the only track sung in Italian. It starts by a melancholic sax solo passage and describes in music and words the feelings of an inmate, a patient of a mental hospital sentenced to life because of his madness. Out of reality freedom fades away on the border of a dream...

 

The short, dreamy instrumental “Saraceno” (Saracen) leads to “Naples In The World” that closes the album with another explosion of Neapolitan pride. It’s a piece sung in English where the band express the feelings of the Neapolitan emigrants spread all around the world who are proud of their roots and bring with them the love for their city...

 

On the whole, although this might not be considered an essential album, at length I think it’s a good work released by an excellent group of musicians who were trying to explore new musical paths to go further... It's a pity that soon after Suddance was released they had to stop for a long time!

 

You can listen to the complete album HERE

NEW VARIATIONS

According to the liner notes, Rosso Rock is a tribute to 1972 Osanna’s album Preludio, tema, variazioni, canzona, soundtrack of the film Milano Calibro 9. It was released in 2012, exactly forty years after the original release, and features a new version of the 1972 album recorded live at the Club Città in Kawasaki, Japan in November 2011. The line up features Lino Vairetti (lead vocals, acoustic guitar), Gennaro Barba (drums), Pasquale Capobianco (electric guitar), Nello D’Anna (bass), Sasà Priore (piano, organ, keyboards) and Irvin Vairetti (vocals, Mellotron, synth) that for this special concert interacted with the Tokyo Vielle Ensemble Orchestra...  

 

 

For this event the band did not to try to play the old material in a philological way but worked on the old stuff weaving new orchestral arrangements, where necessary changed the original sequence of the pieces and with some cuts and additions reshaped them giving form to a cohesive and coherent suite. If the original set list might sound a bit fragmented, here all the separate sections follow one to each other without breaks and in perfect harmony...  

 

A sparkling version of “Preludio” opens the suite followed by the dreamy “Tema”. Then the calm “Variazione V - Dianalogo” (2:24) and the fiery “Variazione VI - Spunti dallo spartito n. 14728 del Prof. Imolo Meninge” precede “Variazione I - To Plinius” and “Variazione II - My Mind Flies”. A new, heartfelt, vocal part sung in Italian entitled “Tempo” (Time) appears before “Variazione IV – Cortile”, then “Variazione VII - Posizione Raggiunta (1:30)”, “There Will Be Time” and “Preludio Reprise” close the suite along with the greetings to the Japanese public. In the suite there’s no room for the Jethro Tull hints of “Variazione III – Shuum...” of the original version or the iconic “Bouchet Funk” (a piece included in the soundtrack but not on the 1972 album) but, in my opinion, the result is excellent anyway. 

 

 

The other tracks on the album were recorded at ISL Studio in Naples with the help of the Gianluca Falasca String Ensemble and some guest musicians such as Roberto Petrella (acoustic guitar), Stefano Longobardi (keyboards, vocals) and Gianni Biondi (vocals). “Fiume” (River) is a rearranged, convincing version of the piece from 1974 album Landscape Of Life while the following “O culore ‘e Napule” is a brand new track sung in the dialect of Naples that celebrates the bounds between the musicians and their home town with its sun, sky, sea, music, traditions and endemic problems. The closer “Rosso Rock” quote Peter Hammill’s “The Light Continent” and tries to paint the air with the red colour of blood, rock and fire. For this last track the band shot a beautiful video...  

 

On the whole, a great work full of emotions and excellent music. 

 

You can listen to the complete album HERE

 

More info about the band:

http://www.osanna.it/

VARIATIONS ON A SOUNDTRACK

Preludio, tema, variazioni, canzona also known as Milano Calibro 9, is Osanna’s second studio album and was released in 1972 on the Fonit Cetra label with a confirmed line up featuring Lino Vairetti (lead vocals, guitars, organ, synthesizer), Danilo Rustici (guitars, organ, synthesizer), Elio D’Anna (flute, sax, ottavino), Lello Brandi (bass) and Massimo Guarino (drums, percussion). It marks the collaboration between the band and Argentine-Italian film composer Luis Enriquez Bacalov (who had previously worked with the New Trolls) and was conceived as the score for the film Milano Calibro 9. Director Fernando Di Leo was very impressed by the album Concerto Grosso per i New Trolls and asked Luis Bacalov to compose the soundtrack for his film Milano Calibro 9 in the same style. Osanna were chosen to perform the score interacting with an orchestra and, according to an interview with Lino Vairetti, they recorded the music while watching the film on a screen in a theatre and for them this was really a new exciting experience...  

 

 

In my opinion, you can't really appreciate this album without watching the film and it would be unfair to define this work just as a sequel of the collaboration between Bacalov and New Trolls... The film Milano Calibro 9 (Milan Calibre 9) is a noir (or, if you prefer, a poliziottesco) inspired by some short stories of the writer Giorgio Scerbanenco (Kiev, 28 Jul. 1911 - Milan, 27 Oct. 1969) and it was conceived by Fernando Di Leo as a kind of vehicle to express his sociological, anthropological and philosophical point of view about the world of crime and the turmoil of Italy in the early Seventies. This film is the first chapter of a trilogy that includes also La mala ordina (The Italian Connection) and Il boss (The boss) and features an excellent cast of actors like Gastone Moschin, Mario Adorf, Philippe Leroy, Barbara Bouchet and Lionel Stander. During the movie you can listen to some delicate and very evocative themes while on the screen images of an almost surrealistic violence flow with Milan in the background. The blending of baroque music and progressive-rock commenting the crucial passages of the plot contributed to the successful final result of the film and only having watched it you can associate the music to the “shaking and dancing” images of the cruel and beautiful character interpreted by Barbara Bouchet or to a merciless killing (it's the case of “Variazione VI”).

 

  

After recording the score, the band re-recorded all the tracks for the record market adding a composition by Luis Bacalov, “There Will Be Time”, that can't be found on the original soundtrack. The first two seminal tracks of the album, “Preludio” and “Tema”, were composed by Luis Bacalov too and seem to come out from Concerto grosso while the variations, featuring a more aggressive mood, were composed by the band and arranged with the help of the maestro. The nervous “Variazione I (To Plinius)” fades into the following “Variazione II (My Mind Flies)”, the only variation featuring vocals and lyrics. It’s a beautiful, dreamy piece sung in English that ends the first side of the album by describing a kind of psychedelic flight where the mind soars over the sands of time leaving behind a body that looks like a sleeping bar of steel...  

 

 “Variazione III (Shuum…)” opens the second side of the LP with the flute in the forefront and strong Jethro Tull influences, then follow the nervous “Variazione IV (Tredicesimo cortile)”, the calm, ethereal “Variazione V (Dianalogo)”, the lively mix between baroque music, hard rock and tarantella of “Variazione VI (Spunti dallo spartito n. 17728 del Prof. Imolo Meninge)” and the short, jazzy “Variazione VII (Posizione raggiunta)”. The bitter-sweet ballad “There Will Be Time”, with lyrics based upon a poem of Thomas Elliot and dealing with some reflections about time passing by closes an album that might sound a bit fragmented but is really worth listening to...  

 

 

By the way, the film Milano Calibro 9 was also released on DVD and you can watch it in the original Italian version with removable English subtitles or in English version (restored, remastered and with bonus material including an interview with Luis Bacalov). Don't miss it!

You can listen to the complete album HERE

Preludio, tema, variazioni, canzona (1972). Other opinions:

Ben Miler (Proghead): On this album, the band matured quite a bit. Where on "L'Uomo", it was a combination of hard rock, blues, jazz, folk, and prog, on this album, they were able to combine those styles in a more mature and progressive framework... My big complaint of the album is I wished for lengthier compositions (luckily they fixed that problem with "Palepoli"), because I like the mood of many of the pieces, just wished it lasted longer. But I guess that had to deal with the fact this is a movie soundtrack. Still a great album... (You can read the complete review HERE)

ORGANIZED DELIRIUM

Attached to the interesting book of the same name by Gianmaria Consiglio published in 2009 by Eclysse, Salerno (available only in Italian, 190 pages containing the history of the band, a deep musicological analysis of the album Ys and many black and white pictures), the CD Il Balletto di Bronzo e l’idea del delirio organizzato contains some post seventies live recordings and unreleased studio tracks of Il Balletto di Bronzo and Gianni Leone and can be considered an interesting document of the rebirth of the band after the split up in the seventies. 

 

 

“Intro” features just background keyboard sounds and the voice of Gianni Leone resuming the history of the band, part of the reasons of the 1973 split up and how the idea of reforming the band was born... Then it’s the moment of “Technoage”, recorded during a concert in Tokyo on the 14th of September 2002, followed by an excerpt from “Deliquio viola” and the first part of “Napoli sotteranea”, taken from the DVD Live In Rome 2008, while the second part of “Napoli sotterranea” comes from a concert at the Villaggio Globale, Rome recorded on the 19th of November 2002. 

 

Next comes a good (although fragmented) synthesis of the whole suite of Ys. “Introduzione” and “Secondo incontro” are excerpts from a Gianni Leone solo performance recoded at the Centrale del Tennis, Rome on the 29th of July 2003, “Primo incontro” is taken from the concert in Tokyo on the 14th of September 2002 and “Terzo incontro ed Epilogo” comes from a concert at the Alpheus, Rome on the 29th of November 2001. 

 

 

Then “Nè ieri, né domani” comes from a live recording in Mexico City on the 9th of March 2003; “”Strano appuntamento” is an unreleased studio recording from 1987 while the last two tracks “Un’eccitazione nuova” and “Discoclub” are unreleased tracks taken from some 1985 studio sessions. To be honest, the unreleased pieces from the eighties are rather weak and closer to disco music than prog but the rest of the CD is worth listening to. 

 

On the whole, along with the book this a good document of the band’s history and a precious item, highly recommended to fans and Italian prog collectors.

 

More info:

https://www.amazon.it 

 

 

RETURN TO SIRIO

Il Balletto di Bronzo took form in Naples in the late sixties under the name I Battitori Selvaggi. The first line up featured Marco Cecioni (vocals, guitar), Michele Cupaiuolo (bass), Giancarlo Stinga (drums) and Lino Ajello (guitar). Their debut album, entitled Sirio 2222, was released in 1970 and sounds quite different from their best-known prog work Ys from 1972 since keyboards wizard and vocalist Gianni Leone joined only in 1971 along with bassist Vito Manzari, leading the band in a completely new musical direction... 

 

On Sirio 2222 you can find many beat and psychedelic influences while the lyrics mainly deal with the counterculturals values of hippies and their way of life always on the road... The music is definitively guitar driven and you can listen to some echoes of Jimi Hendrix ("Un posto", "Girotondo"), Canned Heat ("Eh Eh Ah Ah"), Animals, Yardbirds or The Who ("Neve calda", "Ma ti aspetterò", "Ti risveglierai con me") mixed with a strong melodic flavour. The best moments on this album, in my opinion, are the romantic "Meditazione", an interesting effort to blend classical music with rock, and "Incantesimo", a "psychedelic enchantment" trying to blend blues with fairy tales imagery... Good also the long "Missione Sirio 2222" that tells in music and words the wreckage of a spaceship: a strange kind of "psychedelic suite" with peculiar oriental influences. 

 

On the whole "Sirio 2222", although perhaps in some way naive and derivative, could be an interesting album for psychedelic rock lovers... Nonetheless I think it's not an essential one in a prog collection...

***********

In 2013, more than forty years after the release of Il Balletto di Bronzo’s debut album Sirio 2222 two members of original line up met again and started to work on a new project, just for the pleasure of playing music and develop new ideas, under the name Il Balletto di Bronzo di Lino Ajello & Marco Cecioni to differentiate it from the new incarnation of the band led by Gianni Leone and focused on Ys’ heritage and Gianni Leone’s solo works. Anyway, for this new project the aim of the musicians was not to play prog but songs in the hippie, psychedelic vein of Sirio 2222 although with an updated sound and taste...

 

 

The new album was released in 2016 on the independent label Suoni dal Sud - No Music No Life. It’s entitled Cuma 2016 DC and for the recording sessions Marco Cecioni (vocals, guitar) and Lino Ajello (lead guitar) gathered around them younger musicians and old friends such as Alessandro Stellano (bass, guitar, vocals), Francesco Del Prete (drums), Alfonso Mocerino (drums), Alessandro Crescenzo (keyboards), Adriana Salomone (backing vocals), Gianni Leone (vocals, keyboards) and Tony Guido (keyboards). 

 

The art cover and the drawings in the booklet by Marco Cecioni try to reflect the content of the album, a good mix of art pop and psychedelia, hard rock and melody. The track list unfold without fillers, the songwriting is good, some pieces are powerful and straightforward (like “Bivio acido”) some others more leaning to Italian canzone d’autore where artists such as Max Gazzé (in “Una meta” or “Figlio dei fiori”) or Zucchero (in “Big Mama”) could come to mind. I particularly enjoyed “Ordine disordine” that mixes hard rock and Mediterranean flavours, the dreamy “Pirati” and the new version of “Neve calda” from Sirio 2222... Also interesting “Vorrei essere un Deejay (Eivissa)”, a reflection about the new dancing habits of the youth and their sense of freedom. But, of course, if you are looking for another Ys I fear you will be highly disappointed. 

 

On the whole, a good album but far from essential in a prog collection.

 

You can listen to the complete album HERE

 

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/cuma2016.ballettodibronzo/ 

SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENTS

Alias is a project that took shape in Naples in 2019 when some talented musicians, with previous experiences in bands such as Orchestra Multietnica Mediterranea and Napoli Centrale, teamed up to experiment an original kind of progressive ethno-rock blending different styles ranging from classical music and folk to jazz and classic rock. In 2020 the band self-released an interesting debut album entitled The Second Sun with a line up featuring Romilda Bocchetti (vocals, piano, keyboards, darbuka), Giovanni Guarrera (classical guitar, backing vocals), Ezio Felaco (bass) and Fredy Malfi (drums) plus the guest Max Fuschetto (oboe) on one track. Although among their sources of inspiration they mention King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Tangerine Dream or Terry Riley in my opinion these names could be misleading since the folk-jazz vein tends to prevail. The whole album is dedicated to the memory of Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla, so the art cover by painter, writer and poet Raffaele Bocchetti represnts a psychedelic version of the Wardenclyffe Tower, an early experimental wireless transmission station designed and built by Nikola Tesla on Long Island in 1901-1902... 

 

 

The instrumental opener “Red Six” sets the atmosphere. It’s a beautiful piece that blends classical music, melody and jazz and leads to the following “Pitch Black”, a complex track that tries to evoke in music and words the dreams and hopes of some migrants travelling on a fragile boat and looking for a better future in a foreign land. Soon dreams turn into nightmares in a black night on a raging sea that seems on the point to swallow them at any moment... What’s left is just a hint of regret and the need to breathe to survive. 

 

 

“Mediterraneo Prog” is a charming instrumental track blending jazz and Middle-Eastern influences. It starts softly by a piano solo passage, then the rhythm takes off and music veers to exotic territories: try to imagine a Cantalupe Island lost in the Mediterranean sea and let the notes show you the way... The following “Around The Universe” is a dreamy piece freely based upon a poem by Raffaele Bocchetti that tells of an oneiric journey through planets and stars in the sidereal silence while the instrumental “Danza dei due mondi” (Dance of the two worlds) is a wonderful celebration of Mediterranean colours that starts by a nylon string guitar solo pattern and gradually turns into a prog tarantella that could recall PFM... 

 

 

The long, complex “The Second Sun” tries to evoke in music and words the visionary experiments of Nikola Tesla. There’s a subtle aura of mystery, dark notes reflect the light as tension rises and time stands still, then you get lost in a labyrinth of magnetic fields with thousand echoes thundering in your mind at the dawn of a second sun... The instrumental “Samsara” every now and again reminds me of Noa and Gil Dor and closes the album with a burst of positive energy. The title refers to the endless cycle of life through birth, death and rebirth and the music flows cheerfully, blending prog and folkloric influences... 

 

On the whole, a successful experiment! 

 

You can listen to the complete album HERE

 

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/AliasBGF/ 

NATURAL FREQUENCIES

 La Stazione delle Frequenze are a young band from Benevento that try to blend the sound of historic Italian prog bands such as Osanna, Premiata Forneria Marconi, Banco del Mutuo Soccorso or Locanda delle Fate with prog metal and canzone d’autore. Formed in 2016, after a couple of years spent composing original stuff and performing live on the local scene, in 2019 they self-released an interesting debut album entitled “Physis” with a line up featuring Alberto Cervone (vocals), Angelantonio Donisi (guitar), Pierfrancesco Corbo (guitar), Andrea Tretola (keyboards), Luca Iorio (bass) and Andrea Passaro (drums). According to the band, the title of the album refers to a Greek philosophical, theological and scientific term that means nature and all the tracks follow a common thread, that of the human nature and its relationship with the environment, narrated through different experiences and stories. The art work by Adolfo Calandro tries to describe the conceptual content...

The dreamy opener “Dissolvenza” (Fading) is a short instrumental piece that sets the atmosphere and leads to the social committed “A Siria” (To Syria) that alternates raging passages where the music and lyrics describe a  land ravaged by war, where obscurantism and ignorance rule, and softer parts where there’s room for the hope you can find in the pure, sincere soul of a little baby named Siria like the tormented Middle-Eastern country... 

The following “Ombre sul mare” (Shadows on the sea) starts by a quiet piano pattern, then heavy guitar riffs come in, the rhythm rises and frenzied passages alternates with softer ones. It’s a piece full of hope in a hostile world where even the sea of fantasy hides hooks and baits. The music and lyrics praise the force of people who never give up their ideals and are always ready to accept new challenges, who refuse violence and proudly walk on the ruins of a gloomy past trying to be like rain falling in the arid desert of melancholy...

La Stazione delle Frequenze on stage, 2019

“Racconto” (Tale) tells in music and words a story set in an ancient castle that was freely inspired by an old Samnite legend. A mischievous imp called Mazzamauriello falls in love with the blacksmith’s beautiful daughter who runs away, frightened by his behaviour. Upset, all the people of the surroundings follow her leaving the castle desert. The imp then promises to change his way of life and the story comes to a happy end...

The dreamy “Non ci resta che aspettare l’aurora” (We just have to wait for the dawn) is a short piece that depicts a peaceful, pastoral landscape at the end of a beautiful summer day and leads to the epic “Il sentiero del vento” (The path of the wind), a long, complex track divided into two parts dealing with the eternal cycle of the seasons and the regenerating powers of Mother Nature, fears and expectations, the will to go on and overcome all the obstacles you can find on the steep paths of life just to breathe a fresh gust of happiness... Then the joyful “Nuovi Orizzonti” (New horizons) ends the album with its strong charge of optimism and hope for better days to come. 

On the whole, a very promising work that is really worth listening to.

You can listen to the album HERE

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/SDForiginal/

FROM AN ISLAND

Island Tales is the first full length album by La Rua Catalana, a band from Benevento formed in 2009. It was released in 2015 on the independent label Octopus Records with a line up featuring Leonardo De Stasio (vocals, guitars), Corrado Ciervo (violin, guitars, keyboards, synth, backing vocals), Vittorio Coviello (flute, backing vocals), Marco Coviello (drums, cajon, percussion, didgeridoo) and Carlo Ciervo (bass). After two EP and a good live activity on the local scene, the band had the chance to spend some time in the old monastery of Zungoli, near Avellino, to work on their compositions and the peaceful atmosphere and the good vibrations of this unusual location contributed to shape the overall sound of the album, influenced by bands such as The Beatles, Jethro Tull and many others...

After the pre-production, for the recording sessions in the studio they were helped by some guest musicians such as Daniele Pescatore (keyboards), Valentina Acca (backing vocals), Fabio Cesare (sax), Luigi De Cicco (guitar) and a string quartet, the Arechi Quartet featuring Lorenza Maio (violin), Federica Paduano (violin), Federica Bibbo’ (viola) and Alessandra Ercolani (cello). The result of their efforts is good, although at times I would have preferred they had used their native language instead of English...

La Rua Catalana 2015

According to the band, the title of the album, Island Tales, refers to a metaphorical island, a kind of shelter from the storms of life where time stands still and you can live your dreams. The music is not overtly complex but always well refined and the simple melodies are enhanced by intriguing parts of flute and strings. The opener, “Moon's Joke” is a dynamic ballad dedicated to the people in search for happiness that every now and again recalls Jethro Tull, then comes the jazzy “The Island” that tells of lost dreams and shining smiles opposed to a bleak reality...

The caustic “The Colonel” was inspired by the fictional character of Francis Ford Coppola's film Apocalypse Now, Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, portrayed by Marlon Brando, while the following, bitter-sweet “The clown” tells of a sad man who has to make people laugh for a living. Then comes “Song For Jeff”, inspired by the death of Jeff Buckley and musically a bit in debt with George Harrison…

The swinging, careless “Dreamland” is about an escape from reality, a visionary daydream where you can find an ideal world. Next come the cover of a Tunng’s song, “Bullets”, and the melodic, light “Escape! (Break!)”. The new romantic waves of the folksy ballad “Goodbye” bring other dreams under the moonlight while the following “Slow Down” is more complex and tells about the need to take a pause from the daily grind.

The nervous “And I'll Never Know” (about a difficult relationship) and the delicate, melancholic “Gold And Silver Wings” (about a solitary man who tries to escape from the gilded cage of his routine) close an album full of interesting ideas and light melodies that is worth listening to...

You can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/laruacatalana/