A BLACK AND WHITE STATION

Il Viaggio (The journey) is the third album by Murple, a Roman band whose roots date back to the seventies. It was released in 2014 on the independent label AMS/Btf with a renewed line up featuring historic members Pier Carlo Zanco (piano, keyboards, vocals), Duilio Sorrenti (drums, percussion) and Mario Garbarino (bass) along with the new recruits Mauro Arnò (guitars) and Claudia D'Ottavi (vocals). After a long hiatus, the band came back to life in 2007 and in 2008 released a long awaited second album, Quadri di un'esposizione, followed by a good live activity. In my opinion this new work is better than the previous one, here the mix between vintage and modern sounds is more calibrated and all the new compositions are convincing and well performed. Forty years have passed since the wonderful 1974 debut album Io Sono Murple, but the band is still alive and kicking and the new members are able to give new energy to the overall sound with excellent results.

The opener "Il viaggio" (The journey) begins by a short acoustic guitar intro. The guitar is played with a bottleneck and this is rather unusual for an Italian prog album... Then the other instruments come in and conjure up the black and white images of an old railway station. The lyrics compare life to a metaphorical journey where everyone has a train to take. There are so many rails, stations, connections, the other passengers are ever changing, someone gets out while others come in... No one can know where his journey will end but one day you will hear your train slackening and you'll arrive in a black and white station lost in the mist, from where you won't set off any more...

Next comes the beautiful, mysterious "Alejandra". The title seems to refer to a charming woman of Hispanic ancestry while the music blends dark keyboards passages with more solar parts where electric guitar and synthesizer bring a touch of joyful lightness evoking the suggestive evolutions of a dance under the full moon.

According to the band, the following "Nani e clown" (Dwarfs and clown) was composed in 1973 and performed live at the Be-In festival in Naples. Starting from an old tape, the band re-arranged and properly recorded it in the studio breathing a new life into this piece that describes in music and words an acrobat who walks on a tightrope during a circus show. Dwarfs and clowns are his only family and he enjoys the spotlight when he puts his life at stake for the delight of the public... The music goes through many changes in mood and rhythm underlying the acrobat's feelings and the emotions of the crowd gathered below him... Excellent!

Next comes the calm, dreamy "Angelika", an instrumental track that could make you think of a wonderful woman in the ethereal, breathtaking atmosphere of a Nordic landscape. It leads to the melancholic "Per una volta" (For once) where the music and lyrics depict a proud, vain man without ideals who is wasting his days looking for something that does not exist... The charming voice of Claudia D'Ottavi warns him to change and to break down the wall that he has built around him before it's too late.

Murple on stage 2012

Then it's the turn of "La battaglia" (The battle), a sumptuous instrumental track with baroque echoes and a lively pace that conjures up the image of an army on its way to the battlefield... Then the ironic "Sirene" (Sirens) ends the album. A beautiful voice warns you that nowadays sirens are not half-women and half-fish as in the old lores and legends but they can still threaten and kill evil men with their spells. They were born from a beautiful woman in love, cheated by her husband who pushed her from a high cliff. Instead of dying into the sea, the woman was transformed into a siren... Now her spawn look like every other woman but they're hungry of vengeance: beware! If you listen to their singing you'll die!

On the whole, this is a very nice album that's really worth listening to (despite the dangers evoked by the final song!). The art cover by Cesare Pietroiusti portrays the shapes of three men, three ghosts coming from afar but still able to give us some excellent music. I really hope that this will not be the last leg of their journey and I'm looking forward to Murple's next work.

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/iosonomurple 

http://www.murple.eu/

A PENGUIN ON THE RUN

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

Murple were formed in Rome 1971 on the initiative of two young musicians, drummer Duilio Sorrenti and bass player Mario Garbarino, two very close friends. The band was completed by keyboardist Pier Carlo Zanco, who was studying piano, double bass and composition at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia and by guitarist/singer Pino Santamaria. The name of the band was inspired by an American friend who imagined talking to an invisible penguin. This original idea was also exploited on stage with a gigantic plastic penguin which was inflated during performances and penguin logo placed on the equipment.

 

Murple in the seventies



In 1974 they released their debut work, “Io sono Murple” (I am Murple), a concept album about the feelings of a penguin compelled “to bow and act as a juggler... like a reed bowed by the wind, among the threads of a world of dwarves and clowns that penetrates your bones promising to be faithful without knowing any faith”. Well, I quoted part of the lyrics in an attempt to explain the subject in words while the wonderful album cover tries to explain it in the images.

According to an interview with Pier Carlo Zanco, the album was conceived as a long suite telling the story of a penguin called Murple who is dissatisfied with his life on the ice and begins a fantastic voyage that takes him to a man who fascinates him and has him work in a circus. Obviously this became a negative experience, but in the end he is happy because he got what he wanted, to change his destiny. Well, now all you have to do is close your eyes and listen, because even if the subject is rather strange the music is excellent...

Pier Carlo Zanco in the seventies

Side A begins softly, but after two minutes there’s an interesting drum solo leading to a short rock section with a good interaction between the instruments. “Antartide”, “Metamorfosi” and “Pathos” are tightly bound together, there are many changes in rhythm and moods and no room for boredom in an album where classically inspired patterns blend with rock influences in a personal way and with a great musicianship...

Then, after seven minutes, on “Senza un perché” (Without a reason), over a delicate piano part, shy lead vocals appear... “Poor creature, in the wreckage inside you the prayer rises / It’s sincere but after that you’ll be wishing promised lands, all the great dreams / Without a reason...”. The melodic lines are good but the lead vocals in my opinion are the weak point of the album (actually Murple didn’t have a real singer and the vocal parts were shared between the guitarist Pino Santamaria and the keyboardist Pier Carlo Zanco). After 10:30 an amazing church-like choir introduces the following section “Nessuna scelta” (No choice) with remarkable keyboard patterns in the background... “You will teach me how to bow like a juggler who always says yes / If you want, if you like you’ll change me without telling me what you’re doing / I will be the clay without shape / I can’t make any choice...”. The closing section of side A is the instrumental “Murple Rock” that features a remarkable guitar work...

Side B begins with “Preludio e scherzo”, an amazing classically inspired “solo-piano section”... After 2:55 the lead vocals appear on “Tra i fili” (Among the threads) that was chosen as a single to promote the album (but in my opinion this is not the best moment of this work). After 5:26 a good instrumental “Variazioni in 6/8”, with keyboards in the forefront, reminds me of BMS tracks as “Garofano rosso” or “Fino alla mia porta”. After 7:35 the lead vocals come back for “Fratello” (Brother) and “Un mondo così” (A world like this)... In my opinion on this album the lyrics are not particularly inspired and a little naïve but luckily the vocal parts are short and almost all the sections of the suites also feature interesting instrumental interludes. The final section is the instrumental “Antarplastic” that is just a short reprise of the opener “Antartide”...

You can read about Murple reunion and find out more about this band HERE

PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION

Murple was one of the many “one-shot bands” of Italian prog scene of the early seventies. After the release of an excellent debut album “Io sono Murple” (I am Murple) in 1974 they disappeared... until 2007, when three of the original members, Pier Carlo Zanco (vocals, piano, keyboards), Duilio Sorrenti (drums, percussion) and Mario Garbarino (bass) reformed the band and, with the help of some guest musician such Sabina Gagliardi (vocals) and Edoardo Massimi (guitar), recorded a brand new album that was released on the independent label BTF in 2008. The album features good packaging and an interesting booklet where you can find the explanation of the “conceptual work“...

Murple live 2010

In 1874 took place in Saint Petersburg an exhibition dedicated to the work of the Russian painter Viktor Hartmann. Modest Mussorgsky, who was a friend of the painter, composed his piano suite “Pictures at an Exhibition” on the emotional wave that was provoked by the paintings... Well, Murple’s work is not a rock interpretation of Mussorgsky music (like EL&P’s), but an original work inspired by the same paintings. In the booklet you can find the images of the paintings with a short commentary, so you can match the music and images and for a guided tour, a “promenade”, through the tracks of the album. “Quadri di un’esposizione” is a good work, although in my opinion it’s not outstanding. Sometimes vintage and modern sounds are mixed together a bit clumsily, but the music flows away smoothly enough all along the album, track after track, during its less than 34 minutes length.

The first painting, “Promenade & Gnomus”, represents a wicked dwarf wondering in a forest and a sound of spacey keyboards introduces a beautiful short symphonic track... “In the deepest dark of your wood / The meeting with that hidden being / Twisted limps spread fear...”. The second scene “Promenade & il vecchio castello” (Promenade and the old castle) is set in Italy where a troubadour sing his song in front of the walls of an old medieval castle in a sad landscape. The dreamy and baroque atmosphere here is enriched by female vocals and by a good instrumental break in “Seventies style”. The third scene “Tuileries” is set in Paris where some happy children play in a garden. It’s a short and joyful instrumental led by classical guitar and piano... The fourth painting, “Bydlo”, represents an heavy Polish chariot towed by oxen and here the music curiously swings from vintage sounds to a definitely more “synthetic atmospheres”... 

The fifth painting, “Il ballo dei pulcini” (The dance of the chicks), represents some dancers disguised as chicks coming out from their eggs, while the music reminds me slightly of some works of Rondò Veneziano and Lucio Battisti. The next painting “Samuel Goldenberg & Schmuyle” represents the meeting of two antithetic men and the music is built upon a “dialog” between piano and synthesizers. The following “Promenade & Limoges” represents a noisy scene in the market square of Limoges and here pop sounds are intertwined with a short drum solo and a “vintage organ flavour”... The eight scene, “Catacombae”, depicts a visit to the catacombs of Paris and the music features a church choir and a good gothic atmosphere... The ninth painting represents “Baba Yaga”, a bizarre witch, and the music inspired by this image in my opinion is by far the weakest track on the album, definitively too “poppish” (some melodic lines reminds me of a song by Zucchero Fornaciari, “Solo seduto su una panchina del porto...”). Tha last painting, “La grande porta di Kiev & Promenade”, represents a project for a gate in city of Kiev while the music reminds me of Le Orme’s “Verità nascoste” and features strings on a marching beat and a delicate piano outro.

Well, on the whole, although non essential, this album should be interesting for Italianprog lovers. After the release of the album the band played some gigs with a line up featuring Pier Carlo Zanco (vocals, piano, keyboards), Duilio Sorrenti (drums, percussion), Mario Garbarino (bass), Maurizio Campagnano (guitar) and Claudia D’Ottavi (vocals). I hope Murple won’t wait too long for their next work!

Read the interview with Murple at Progarchives. Click HERE


More info:

http://www.murple.eu/ 

http://www.facebook.com/iosonomurple