THE FACTORY OF DREAMS

In 2005 Sergio Lattuada tried to reform Maxophone gathering his old bandmates. His effort led to the release of a CD plus DVD documenting the history of the band but it wasn’t until 2008 that Maxophone really came back to life thanks to the contribute of some new musicians that joined the old creative core of the band. The new course led to new compositions and in 2017 the band released an excellent album entitled La fabbrica delle nuvole on the independent label AMS Records with a line up featuring along with founder members Sergio Lattuada (piano, keyboards, vocals) and Alberto Ravasini (guitars, keyboards, lead vocals) the new entries Marco Tomasini (electric guitar, vocals), Marco Croci (bass, vocals) and Carlo Monti (drums, percussion, violin). For the lyrics, the band collaborated with the Bolognese poet Roberto Roversi, best known for his works with singer-songwriter Lucio Dalla in the seventies. Unfortunately, Roberto Roversi passed away in 2012, well before the album was completed... Anyway, the beautiful artwork, elaborated by Eugenio Crippa developing an idea of Alberto Ravasini, tries to depict musical and poetical content of this impressionistic work... 

The opener “Un ciclone sul Pacifico” (A typhoon on the Pacific) starts by a classical inspired first part, decadent and melodic, where an emotional typhoon begins to build up from a sea of dissatisfaction and disenchantment. Then words turn into water and wind, the rhythm rises and the music becomes more complex and frenzied. When the rage storms out, nobody can say what’s true any more, nobody can say what can break the wall... Nonetheless, those raging, forbidden words are the words of the future!

Next comes “Perdo il colore blu” (I’m loosing the blue colour) that every now and again reminds me of PFM. It begins with a frenzied rhythm and describes the feelings of a man who dives into a busy life as an antidote to the poisonous consequences of a broken relationship, a man who works to forget...

 

“Il passo delle ore” (The pace of hours) is a melodic piece that underlines the importance of finding the right partner to share your time and your decisions. Those who have the bad chance to be lonely like stones are condemned to climb an endless stairway to the moon...

Then it’s the turn of “La fabbrica delle nuvole” (The factory of the clouds), a magnificent instrumental track that starts with the pace of a gentle giant in a glass house. Try to imagine a factory producing dreams and expectations through words and notes and listen to the sound of its cogs and wheels...

“La luna e la lepre” (The moon and the hare) is a beautiful track with a medieval atmosphere and excellent harmony vocals. It tells the story of a hare that was charged by the moon to bring a message to humanity... Unfortunately, the hare forgot the words of the moon and delivered a wrong message provoking sadness, shadows and ice...

 

The bitter-sweet “Estate ‘41” (Summer ‘41) evokes the image of two lives on the border. Dreams falls down and a magma of memories throws stones into a fragile heart... And yet, there’s still time to listen to strange sounds, the beating of the drums seems like the voice of screaming giants. The war is raging outside, it’s a difficult time for two lovers but their kisses are able sweep off all the words and the sense of distress...

The following “Nel fiume dei giorni i tuoi capelli” (In the river of days your hair) opens softly. It’s as if the arms of a clock would start to go back in time seeking for the memories of lost summer days, as in a hypnotic trance. Then the music becomes bolder and Gentle Giant could come to mind again while the notes begin to play hide and seek over a sea of a thousand words...

Maxophone, 2011

 

“Il matto e l’aquilone” (The madman and the kite) starts by a classical guitar intro, then the music goes through many changes in mood and rhythm while the lyrics conjure up the image of a madman in love who lives inside his desires and dreams to take off like a kite in the midst of a thousand colours and powerful sounds of thunders and bells. For him, life is just a flight beyond the sun, in total freedom...

The closer “Le parole che non vi ho detto” (The words I haven’t told you) is a melancholic song led by piano and violin where regrets pour down like rain on a man who’s thinking of the words he would say to his parents if he could meet them again...

On the whole, an excellent blend of poetry and challenging music and a great album that grows spin after spin.

You can listen to the complete album HERE

Maxophone: La fabbrica delle nuvole (2017). Other opinions:
Michael “Aussie-Byrd-Brother”: While it can't possibly live up to the status that the popular 1975 debut enjoys, `La Fabbrica delle Nuvole's strength lies in the fact that it's a real grower that impresses more and more with every listen. It's an eclectic, colourful and tastefully performed comeback with plenty to recommend about it, and another example that no country delivers better and more rewarding modern prog albums from older acts than Italy. Lovers of Maxophone and Italian prog fans in general should end up having a terrific time with this unexpectedly vital, highly surprising and greatly inspired work... (Read the complete review HERE)

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/Maxophone/ 

FROM THE VAULTS

Maxophone's From Cocoon To Butterfly is a special deluxe box set including a CD with 10 vintage tracks recovered from out-takes and alternate demo material from 1973-1976 plus a DVD with live footage from a 1976 concert at the RAI studios in Turin. The booklet is very rich and includes old pictures of the band, a complete biography and detailed information about the content of the CD and DVD (in Italian and English). 

 

All the recordings on the CD have been carefully remastered but even a good remastering can't perform miracles when the sources are demos or home-made recordings... Nonetheless you can find here four very interesting tracks never appeared before. Particularly good are the opening track "Kaleidophonia", a long instrumental where the band showcase their great musicianship blending classical influences and jazz, and "Dadaida". Both tracks had been composed for a second album that was never completed and, although they're just demos, the recording quality is good. "L'isola" and "Il lago delle ninfee" are two good tracks that didn't find room on their 1975 eponymous album and it's a pity that the sound quality of the original tapes was so poor... The other six tracks are just alternative versions (sung in English) of material originally released on their aforementioned 1975 eponynous album.

 

The DVD footage was professionally filmed by Italian TV in 1976 and there’s also a bonus video track of the re-formed Maxophone in 2005, playing one live track at Radio Popolare studios in Milano, an instrumental version of "Mercanti di pazzie". The DVD also includes bonus features such as interviews with all the members of the band (an English translation is available). The quality of the video is really good. Maxophone were one of the most interesting "one shot bands" of the Italian progressive scene in the Seventies. As you can read on the booklet, "Maxophone's first and only album matured over the years like a bottle of expensive wine, becoming exquisite in taste and has gradually gained prestige". This work is complementary to that album and its aim is to give you a full overview of the band's activity... If you like Maxophone this could be an excellent addition to your prog collection.

MERCHANTS OF BUTTERFLIES

Maxophone were formed in 1972 by six excellent young musicians who were able to blend rock with jazz and classical influences in a very personal way. The original line up featured Alberto Ravasini (vocals, bass, acoustic guitar, flute), Sergio Lattuada (keyboards, vocals), Roberto Giuliani (guitar, piano, vocals), Leonardo Schiavone (clarinet, flute, sax), Maurizio Bianchini (French horn, trumpet, vibraphone, percussion, vocals) and Sandro Lorenzetti (drums). Their music was well performed and rich in ideas but they were only able to release one eponymous album in 1975 before they split up on account of the financial troubles of their label. The lyrics of the album were not written by the members of the band but by some “friend-lyricists” who helped them to describe in words what they were trying to describe in notes and the overall result was great...

Maxophone 1975

The opener “C’è un paese al mondo” (There’s a country in the world) is introduced by a piano pattern and features many changes in rhythm... Good vocals and evocative lyrics draw the images of a fantastic country that “grows in the mind on roots of equality”, “without thieves of truth”, where “freedom dances”... The music keeps on swinging from classical to rock to jazz almost giving a sense of harmonic utopia...

“Fase” is an excellent instrumental track where the members of the band showcase their great musicianship performing a well balanced blending of jazz, rock and classical influences...

  

“Al mancato compleanno di una farfalla” (To the missed birthday of a butterfly) features a good classical guitar intro that leads to a bittersweet romantic atmosphere. The song is about the quest for ideals... In the lyrics dreams and the struggle for a better world are compared to the flight of a butterfly: “The butterfly goes / It shines of freedom / It swings and goes further / Next year what will remain of its colours? / Other butterflies will take its colours and will be flying in its place... If my strength to go further will fail at length / Take my colours and keep on going / By yourself, without me!”.

Organ and soaring desperate vocals drawing the image of an attack in the street for political reasons introduce “Elzeviro”, a song that evokes the “leaden atmosphere” of political confrontation in Italy during the Seventies and its “long hours” full of blind hatred... “They’ve fixed me / Six against one / Convulsions of a power / That is crumbling now...”. A good track where the music gives a sense of tension and impending drama...

The intro of the oneiric “Mercanti di pazzie” (Merchants of follies) is taken from Paul Hindemith’s Harp Sonata. The music is evocative and leads you into an “artificial” dreamy mood but, in my opinion, here the lyrics are not as inspired as in the other tracks...

The long finale “Antiche conclusioni negre” (old black conclusions) is a kind of tribute to black music (jazz and gospel) and features “a trumpet screaming new truths” and an Italian “gospel finale”. An excellent track concluding an excellent album...

The re-release on CD features two bonus tracks, the interesting “Il fischio del vapore” and the weak “Cono di gelato”. On the whole, “Maxophone” is a great album, released by a band that deserved more luck... Anyway, although the album didn’t have the success it deserved in 1975, as the years passed by it has become a “cult album” for progressive fans and I think it’s a must for every prog collector...

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

More info about the band:

http://www.maxophone.it/
http://www.myspace.com/maxophone
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Maxophone