THE FEELINGS OF A SPY

After the release of an EP in 2009, “Sprazzi di luce”, in 2010 Conqueror released on Ma.Ra.Cash Records their fourth full length studio album, “Madame Zelle”, with a renewed line up featuring Natale Russo (drums and percussions), Simona Rigano (vocals, keyboards and synth), Sabrina Rigano (flute and saxophone), Mario Pollino (guitars) and Gianluca Villa (bass). During the recording sessions they were helped by Ottavio Leo who contributed to enrich the sound with sitar and other instruments. The result is very good and the band confirmed here all the qualities of their previous works. “Madame Zelle” is a concept album inspired by the life and legend of Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, better known as Mata Hari. Simona Rigano's inspired vocals do not tell a story, they interpret with heartfelt empathy the feelings and emotions of an unabashedly independent, sensitive woman while the music is full of colours and nuances.

Simona Rigano

The long, complex opener “Margaretha” sets the atmosphere. It begins softly, the mood is dreamy and the music features an exotic flavour. Memories from the childhood and the formative years of the protagonist emerge as little isles in the North Sea. Margaretha Geertruida Zelle was born in the Netherlands in 1876. After her father went bankrupt, in 1989, she went through a very difficult period that marked her rebellious beauty and this nice suite honours the everyday battles of her growing up... “Where the tides break in through the borders of an incomparable land / Where starfishes emerge from the seabed, playing with nature / That's where my memories recall the smell of every single day I passed at the mercy of a youth long time gone / That's where my thoughts tell the ingenuous but extrovert smile of an already prohibited charm...”.

Madame Zelle: art cover

The following “Indonesia” begins with percussion and sitar. It's a beautiful instrumental track where the music conjure up mysterious Oriental charms. Margaretha got married with a captain of the Dutch Colonial Army and followed him to Java. She was unhappy in her marriage but during this period of her life she learned a lot about local culture and about the art of seduction...

Next comes “Occhio dell'alba” (Eye of dawn) that describes the birth of a legend. Margaratha and her husband went back to the Netherlands in 1902 where they separated. In 1903 she moved to Paris where she began her artistic career as an exotic dancer under the name of Mata Hari, an Indonesian name that means “eye of dawn”. Her provocative style and her free-willed attitude made her a very popular woman... “The last veil of sin sets my wings free / Upon me, upon me, only upon me / Endless shapes alight upon me...”.

The excellent “Fascino proibito” (Prohibited charm) describes in a poetical way the mystery of Margaretha's charm. The music and lyrics evoke perfumes and colours, wonderful flowers and falling leaves, the whirling game of senses... “It's desire that condemns and hurts the soul...”. Next comes “Eleganza perfetta” (Perfect elegance) where the emphatic vocals of Simona Rigano draw the amazing portrait of a sensual woman, fragile and strong in the meantime... “I'm waiting for your fragile instinct / I'm getting lost in the sunrise that lights my eyes / And in the silence that surrounds me I can shine again... Venus no longer rules my senses / It was Venus who was caressing my smile, my face...”.

“H 21” is titled after the code name that the German secret services gave to Margaretha during World War I. Charm is a key that can open many doors, there's richness and madness in this track where tension and sensuality shine through all along the way... “In the apparent perfection I will deceive the most attentive eye / Please, let me dance once more / Let me hide the cold loneliness behind my fragile body...”.

“Doppio gioco” (Double-crossing) describes the feelings of Margaretha on the last night before the end of her career as a spy... “Two scraps of velvet cover my body / One is black, soft and elegant / Its colour is defined by a subtle embroidery / The other is red, worn and torn / By the fierce flames that fate has thrown at me... This is the last dance / This is the last night...”. “Da sola” (Alone) is a suggestive, reflective track that describes the feelings of Margaretha with reference to the change in her fate and to the charges against her... “I live in the infinite space of my ideas / I turn away from me the fear of the dark, of apparent loneliness...”.

Madame Zelle: inner picture

The last track, “Ad occhi alti” (With a proud look), closes the circle. Margareth is alone in her cell before the execution. She has been condemned and in a few hours she will be killed by a French firing squad. Her thoughts go back in time, her life has flown away like a raging river but she's not ashamed of what she's done. She can go to her randez-vous with the death with a proud look... “As the evening falls, so cold and dark / Ice takes hold of my body, once charming / I get ready for the last act / After all I was just... Mata Hari”.

Conqueror: Madame Zelle (2010). Other opinions:

Jim Russell: If you enjoyed the previous work of Conqueror this album is a slam dunk. If you've never heard them, this is a good time to start. "Madame Zelle" will give you 9 tracks of lovely contemporary progressive rock as graceful as the Mata Hari herself... (read the complete review HERE)

Paul Fowler: Madame Zelle is a lovely album at the more melodic end of the RPI genre. The band certainly have plenty of experience having been around since the mid-nineties in one form or another and it shows as they turn in a classy performance of well-constructed and tuneful Italian prog with a contemporary sound, though with roots in the seventies tradition of the genre... Despite having an instant liking for Madame Zelle, no doubt down to the tuneful nature of the material, repeated plays reveal more layers, something often lacking in more immediately accessible music. Not so here as I've grown fonder of it with each play and it's well on track to make my top 10 albums of the year. A really lovely record... (read the complete review HERE)

More info:

http://www.conqueror.it/

http://www.myspace.com/conqueror1

THE RAFT AND THE KILLER WHALES

In 2007 Conqueror released “74 giorni” (74 days), their third work, with a line-up featuring founder members Natale Russo (drums and percussions) and Simona Rigano (vocals, keyboards and synth) along with Sabrina Rigano (flute and saxophone), Tino Nastasi (guitars, bass) and Daniele Bambino (bass). It’s a concept album that was inspired by Ambrogio Fogar’s book “La zattera” (The raft) and describes a journey that turned bad... Ambrogio Fogar was a sailor, rally driver and all-round adventurer. In 1978, when he was sailing from Mar del Plata to Cape Horn along with his friend Mauro Mancini, his ship the “Surprise” was wrecked by a killer whale attack. Ambrogio Fogar and Mauro Mancini survived for seventy-four days on a life raft in the South Atlantic until they were rescued by a Greek cargo ship. Journalist Mauro Mancini died of pneumonia two days after the rescue...

Conqueror 2007

With this work the band seem to have attained a full maturity. The sources of Conqueror’s “musical inspiration“ range from PFM to Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, from Pink Floyd to the Alan Parsons Project, from Italian melodies to classical music... Nevertheless it would be extremely unfair to define them as a clone of any other band since their song-writing is personal and they show they are able to find an original way to express themselves. “74 giorni” is conceived as a musical and poetical journey, as the description of a quest for self-knowledge where you need to fight against adversity and never give up the struggle to reach your goals, to follow your ideals...

“Masks of men / Portrayed in catalogues / Conditioned by the symptoms of regularity...”. The lyrics of the opener “Maschere di uomini” (Masks of men) suggest that you can choose a model which is worth following, you can set off and look for something else, far from hypocrisy and from the models of life that the media tries to impose, even if your choice could lead to a dangerous journey... All you have to do is make up your mind and the journey can quietly begin. The mood of this track is dreamy and the voice of Simona Rigano soars light and melodic upon a piano arpeggio...

The instrumental “Il viaggio” (The journey) features a good guitar solo and leads to “Orca”, where the band try to describe the effect of the killer whale attack against the “hunters of emotions”... “Looking at time passing by / Hidden by the night / Forgetting just for a while / To be men in such an unknown world / Sons of a noble Earth without mercy...”: the need for knowledge and insight is “captured” by a whimsical destiny... On this track the melodic side of Conqueror still prevails but the sweet dream is going to turn sour...

The shipwreck can be also seen as a metaphor of every misfortune in everyday life. On “Limbo” the soaring voice of Simona Rigano is ethereal, as if suspended in a dream that is becoming a nightmare and asking for help...



Conqueror 2008



The impending tragedy is suggested by the change in mood and atmosphere on “Non maturi per l’aldilà” (Not ready to die). From this track on the music becomes quirky, with shifting rhythms suggesting the struggle for life in the middle of an Ocean of solitude and fear... “Non maturi per l’aldilà” along with the short instrumental “Cormorani”, “L’ora del parlare”, “Preghiera” and “Miraggi” form a kind of long, beautiful suite... “Nebbia ad occhi chiusi” is outstanding, one of the best moments of an excellent work!

The name of the sailor who first helped Ambrogio Fogar and his friend was Eleutherios and the name of the Greek cargo ship that rescued them was Master Stefanos... “Northern winds... Blow softly, talk with my words! / Keep on dancing on the icy mantle of the desert!”... "Eleutherios" and the instrumental "Master Stefanos" are both tracks thick with emotion, full of hope...

The final “Cambio di rotta” (Change of route) is a kind of requiem for a lost friend... “We sail on the sea pushed by the wish for knowledge, by the need for an unconditioned freedom... We sail on the sea because we have to and many times the sea wants to keep his sons...”. Well, on stage the band introduce the songs taken from this album by reading some passages of the book that inspired the concept and it’s a pity that you can’t find them in the booklet...

(From Rock Progressivo Italiano: an introduction to Italian Progressive Rock)

Conqueror: 74 giorni (2007). Other opinions:

Jim Russell: The arrangements are very good, each song moves along well with multiple sections of interest within. The downside of the album is that while each track has pretty moments, there is a certain politeness to this material that makes it just a little too easy going for me at times... (read the complete review HERE)

More info:

http://www.conqueror.it/

http://www.myspace.com/conqueror1

INSTINCT AND FAIRY TALES

Conqueror come from Sicily and began life in 1994 in the small town of Santa Teresa di Riva, in the province of Messina, on the initiative of drummer Natale Russo. After many problems, in 2003 they finally released an interesting debut album, “Istinto”, with a line up featuring Natale Russo (drums, backing vocals), Simona Rigano (keyboards, vocals), Gaetano Scarcella (guitar) and Tony Rose (bass). “Istinto” was self-produced by the band and the sound quality is not flawless but you can find here some very good ideas and an undeniable freshness. The music draws on the Italian “prog-masters” of the Seventies but the song-writing is good enough and the soaring melodic voice of Simona Rigano gives a touch of “lightness” to the compositions. Well, the lyrics are maybe a bit “naive”, as if the words were just hanging on a dream, but they perfectly fit a music that seems desperately trying to “break through the barriers of time”.

 

Conqueror 2003



The opener “Storie di favole” (Stories of fairy tales) explores the borderline between imagination and real life. The lyrics conjure up icy waves that wash away pale memories of ancient lores and fairy tales while timeless, mysterious shadows melt in the dark. Next comes the dreamy “Quartar”, where the memories of a crumbling utopia get lost in games of lights and shadows and ironic ghosts mock your madness. “Pensieri fragili” (Fragile thoughts) begins with a nice piano pattern, then the other instruments come in. The lyrics evoke immortal dreams and confused fantasies, arcane melodies and mysterious harmonies while some electric guitar riffs take off like Zeppelins in the sky... “Imagines, fragile thoughts disperse into overwhelming vortices of masks without identity that cover the face of reality...”.

“La strada del Graal” (The road to the Grail) is another dreamy track featuring cryptic lyrics and exotic aromas. Despite the English title, the following track “In The Cave” is sung in Italian and evokes the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice... “Into the bare earth / Hidden to our sight / Lies the gate of Love / Let's remove this mantle / And she will appear...”. The melancholic, reflective “Cristalli di solitudine” (Crystals of solitude) depicts a sad, rainy day in May when you can breathe an air full of ancient memories while the light sound of the water on the river banks follows the rhythm of the wind. Then comes the intense, quirky “Porte straniere” (Foreign doors) that evokes stolen desires and obscure clouds of vanity effacing your fantasies. To find what's true in your heart you have to cross many unknown doors while your worries conceal the path you're walking on... The long, excellent instrumental “Entropia” concludes the album.

Conqueror: Istinto (2003). Other opinions:

Bob Moore: Conqueror is a relatively new band and seems to have successfully fused the best of modern rock, some nuances of symphonic prog arrangements, and Italian expressiveness into a pretty appealing album. Kudos to them for that... Recommend for neo-prog fans and Italian proggers who are willing to look beyond PFM and the seventies for some decent Italian prog... (read the complete review HERE).



Conqueror 2005



Conqueror's sophomore album, “Storie fuori dal tempo”, was released on the independent label Ma.Ra.Cash in 2005, two years after the good debut work “Istinto”. The line-up features here the veterans Natale Russo (drums and percussions) and Simona Rigano (vocals, keyboards and synth) along with new members Sabrina Rigano (flute, sax), Tino Nastasi (guitars) and Fabio Ucchino (bass). The sound quality of the recording is excellent and the new members seem to get along perfectly with the rest of the band. The song-writing is good and the band did a good job combining their own ideas and feelings with sources of inspiration ranging from classical music to Italian prog bands like PFM, BMS, Le Orme or Goblin...

The opener “Ouverture”, featuring well balanced changes in rhythm and melodic passages, is an instrumental that grows like a blossoming flower. It leads to the dreamy “Mosaico di colori” (Mosaic of colours), where Simona Rigano's voice soars weaving a beautiful melody... “My light thoughts travel and blow away as eagles / In a free wind they run and foreign memories write the epilogue... White clouds get lost in a coloured mosaic...”.

The hypnotic, suggestive “No Photo” features an Oriental flavour. Here you can lose yourself under “a ray of moonlight” that seems popping out from “The Book Of One Thousand And One Nights” while Simona Rigano’s vocals could remind you of an ethereal modern Scheherazade... “Now I see again a shadow beside me / It is something I have known for a long time / It grazes me and then it looks at me, here it is, near me / But what’s reality? / If we are prisoners of the world where we live / That decides for us, solitary shipwrecked persons who sail without being free...”.

“Pagine di poesie” (Pages of poems) is another good track that in some passages reminds me of PFM’s “Impressioni di settembre”. The lyrics describe in a poetical way a meeting with an old fisherman. Next comes the beautiful instrumental “Klaus” where quiet melodic passages are well intertwined with more pulsing moments, as if “sounds and voices were looking for an illusion in the silence”.

The final track “Morgana” is a long suite inspired by Sicilian folklore where you can find a blending of Celtic and Mediterranean elements. It tells the story of Morgan le Fay (Fata Morgana), a sorceress who escaped from Camelot on a ship and landed on the Sicilian shores where she built a crystal palace... “The dream lives once again, it renews spells, love and madness...”. The music flows dreamily with many changes in atmosphere and the band showcase great musicianship and inspired song-writing skills. Well, on the whole I think that this is really an album that is worth listening to!

Conqueror: Storie fuori dal tempo (2005). Other opinions:

Tarcisio Moura: It´s the kind of album you hear from beginning to end with the same pleasure. Of course the last song, the 30 minute epic Morgana is the highlight, with its shifting moods and rhythms, nice solos and overall working concept. But the whole CD is actually very good and it will please any prog lover who enjoys melodic music... (read the complete review HERE).

More info:

http://www.conqueror.it/

http://www.myspace.com/conqueror1

SICILIA

It’s time now to challenge Scylla and Charybdis crossing the Strait of Messina. We begin in this way our visit to SICILIA, an island and an autonomous region of Italy. First we visit the city of MESSINA, where William Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing is set. Here we can listen to Addamanera (MySpace), a band that blends folk and psychedelia in an original way, then to the solo project of Antonino Rampulla (MySpace), to the young Moon Fire (MySpace) and to some post rock bands such as Denied Light (MySpace) and The Morning Light (MySpace). Not far from Messina lies the town of Milazzo home to Taberna Mylaensis (MySpace), a band that should be of interest to folk prog lovers and active since 1975.

Then we head south along the coast until we arrive at the small town of Santa Teresa di Riva, near the beautiful ancient town of Taormina, where we can listen to Conqueror (MySpace), an excellent contemporary prog band that in 2010 released a beautiful concept album, Madame Zelle, inspired by the adventurous life of a woman called Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, also known as Mata Hari.

Still heading south, we pass through the town of Acireale, almost at the foot of Mount Etna, where an interesting emerging band called Mechanical Butterfly (Facebook) come from. In another town near the volcano, Belpasso, we can listen to an excellent band called Malibran (MySpace). Malibran began life in 1987 and in 2010 they released a very good new album entitled Trasparenze.

Next stop is CATANIA, the birthplace of opera composer Vincenzo Bellini. This is where prog artists and bands as Franco Battiato (Official Website), Renato Moretti (Bandcamp), the neo prog Edith (MySpace), the psychedelic Alcàntara (Facebook), Time Haven Club (Facebook) and the emerging Bill In The Tea (MySpace) come from. Still heading south we pass through SIRACUSA, a city founded by the ancient Greeks and rich in history. Its most famous character is the inventor Archimedes. Here we can listen to a particular, theatrical “folk metal” band called Fiaba (MySpace), to Anèma (Bandcamp), to Ancient Oak Consort (Facebook), to Ologram (Facebook) and to the promising ArcaMiri (Facebook).

Then, heading south west we reach RAGUSA, the ancient Hybla Heraea, where we can listen to Randone (MySpace), an excellent band that in 2006 released an amazing concept album inspired by the history of this city, Hybla Act I. Our next halt is in the nearby town of Modica, in the Hyblaean Mountains, where we find an interesting folk prog band formed in 1994, Mas-Nada (MySpace) and te jazz rock Ostinàti (Facebook).

We head north west now directed to the heart of Sicily, to CALTANISSETTA, where we find an emerging prog band called Neamatis (MySpace) while in the nearby small town of Mazzarino we can listen to Viola Drunken (MySpace), a band that blends hard rock and psychedelia with Italian “canzone d’autore” and touches of seventies prog. Their second album was released in 2009 and it’s a conceptual one, Di fate e streghe (Of Fairies and Witches).

Then we set our course south west, to AGRIGENTO, best known for an archaeological site, the Valle dei Templi, which inspired an album by prog jazz band Perigeo, La Valle dei Templi, featuring a beautiful art cover. This area, in the imaginary city of Vigata, is the setting for the crime stories of Commissario Montalbano, a character created by the famous Italian writer Andrea Camilleri. This is where a dark and “catacombal” prog project called Ultima Missa (MySpace) come from.

We head north west now, to the seaport town of Marsala, a place usually associated with Giuseppe Garibaldi and his Expedition of the Thousand and best known for its Marsala wine. The town is home to two prog bands, Braindead and Il Castello delle Uova (MySpace), while in the nearby city of TRAPANI we find a prog project called TP Overdrive (MySpace) and Un Certo Jhò (Facebook). Then we head east and conclude our visit to Sicily in its capital, PALERMO. In the seventies the city gave us Era di Acquario while today here we can listen to two very interesting contemporary prog bands, Bright Horizon (Facebook) and Coral Caves (MySpace). Worthy of mention are also the Canterbury inspired Homunuculus Res (Facebook), Chester Gorilla (Facebook), Silver Nightmares (Facebook), The Smuggler Brothers (Facebook) and the young Indicative (MySpace) while the nearby town of Bagheria is home to Atti Pubblici in Luogo Osceno (Facebook).