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)

A CASTLE MADE OF SAND

Osanna's fourth album, “Landscape Of Life”, was released in 1974 and is the last album recorded by the original line up featuring Lino Vairetti (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Danilo Rustici (guitars), Elio D'Anna (sax, flute), Lello Brandi (bass) and Massimo Guarino (drums, percussion) although during the recording sessions they were helped by Corrado Rustici, Danilo's younger brother and Cervello's guitarist, and by percussionist Enzo Vallicelli. At the time there were contrasts inside the band about the musical directions to follow and as soon as “Landscape Of Life” was released, Osanna disbanded: Danilo Rustici and Elio D’Anna joined forces with drummer Enzo Vallicelli and went to England forming a new band called Uno, while Lino Vairetti and Massimo Guarino reformed their old band called Città Frontale with new musicians. In some way the music and lyrics capture the spirit of doubt and incertitude hanging over the recording sessions...

The long, complex opener “Il castello dell'Es” (The castle of Es) begins softly, then turns into a wild jazzy finale expressing doubts and fears about life and future and a strong need for freedom, freedom to love, freedom to dream, freedom to live and to believe in God... “I am fire / I am Time / I am water / Perhaps I am nothing...”. 

Next come the title track, an acoustic ballad featuring English lyrics and a nice flute work... “The long road before me / Lie ragged watchin’ my body die / Feel like dying / My mind is overcrowded with fat thoughts...”. Well, I think that this could be a wonderful track but the vocals and lyrics do not match the beautiful music. Well, this album was conceived for the foreign markets but in my opinion Osanna seem not at ease when they sing in English and I prefer by far here the two tracks sung in Italian.

The following “Two Boys” is a hard rock track with English vocals and a strange flute and sax work and in my opinion it’s not completely convincing. The lyrics are about diversity and tell of two twins who painted their faces to differentiate one from each other. One of them painted his face in green, the other in yellow and as time passed by the colour of their skin changed too... “Two boys, they lived in the garden of the world / One day they were playing...”. 

The long, complex “Fog In My Mind” begins with just organ and English vocals in “Motown style”, then the rhythm rises and turns first into “hard jazz-rock”, then into samba with a great percussion work and finally back into hard rock... “I hate my hands / I hate my voice / I hate everything / That has created / Fog in my mind...”. The following “Promised Land”, features Corrado Rustici on vocals and guitar and is a short, weak acoustic ballad with English lyrics describing the hope for a happier world where children can grow up in peace and everyone can sing. In my opinion this is the weakest moment of the album.

Then comes “Fiume” (River), a wonderful, dreamy ballad with vocals in Italian and a great flute work... “Cathedrals of rocks / Horizons of lights and sounds / A landscape of white snow / Spaces without limits, smell of grass / Colours of hope: joy...”. The music melts in the instrumental conclusive track “Somehow, Somewhere, Sometime”, featuring a guitar sound that reminds me a little bit of Carlos Santana. 

Well, on the whole I think that “Landscape of Life”, though not at the same level of Osanna's previous album “Palepoli”, is a good work and could be an excellent addition to any Italian prog collection. Not only is it worth listening to but it features a remarkable art work as well. The album cover was painted by Massimo Guarino and the inner gatefold drawing by Lino Vairetti.

You can listen in streaming to the complete album HERE

More info:

http://www.osanna.it/

THE MAN, THE EARTH...

Osanna were formed in Naples in 1971 by musicians coming out from other bands as I Volti di Pietra, Città Frontale and the Showmen. In the same year they released an excellent debut album, “L’uomo” (The man), with a 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). In this work they tried to blend many different influences (from Jethro Tull to Jimi Hendrix, from classical music to Italian folklore) in a “theatrical way”. In fact they used to perform their music on stage with painted faces and particular costumes, as shown on the album cover. All the tracks are bound together as in a long suite with continuous changes in rhythm and mood...

The instrumental “Introduzione” starts with a gentle acoustic guitar pattern and synthesizers, then come in bass, electric guitar, flute, drums and harmonica in an aggressive crescendo that leads to the title track... “The man, the earth, the sky and the sea / To create, to create, to create everywhere / The sun, the light, the cold and the heat / Love, love, there’s love everywhere... Man, tell me, who are you?”. Vocals soaring from a carpet of acoustic guitars lead to an “explosion”, then to harmony vocals chanting “Osanna”...

Suddenly the “steamy” rhythm of “Mirror train” breaks in and the singing turns from Italian to English. After some swinging, bluesy passages “Mirror train” ends on the notes of the communist anthem “Bandiera Rossa” (Red flag) played by a distorted guitar (that recalls a little Jimi Hendrix). The album goes on with the rocky, complex “Non sei vissuto mai” (You never lived)... “Mind where you’re going, if you want to do it / Never look back! / You can’t tell what you want / You have already given all away / You have lost everything and the void is around you / Your life is nothing…”. This piece fades out with an instrumental reprise of “L’uomo”. Well, the first side of this album is almost a “manifesto” of Osanna’s musical and political “credo”!

Side two starts with the energetic “Vado verso una meta” (I’m going towards a goal”), full of frustrated hope... “I’m going towards a goal / That is more distant than me / It is always one step beyond / I can see it but I know that it doesn’t exist...”. Then comes the bittersweet, committed ballad “In un vecchio cieco” (In an old blind man) featuring strummed acoustic guitar and good vocal harmonies... Rainy days recall evasive answers to the questions about the sense of life and when you look at an old blind beggar all the certitudes of the wealthy society of consumerism crumble and your way of life changes, you can’t come back... “I let the rain pour down on me / It wets me but I know it’s nothing...”.

The track ends with a jazzy sax solo introducing the delicate, dreamy “L’amore vincerà di nuovo” (Love will win again), featuring lyrics half in Italian and half in English and remarkable harmony vocals... “If in the dark I hear an ageless voice, death will win again / If a light will shine in your love for me, life will win again... Love will win again!”. The last two tracks, “Everybody’s Gonna See You Die” and “Lady Power”, though good, are not at the same level of the previous ones (personally I don’t like Osanna very much when they sing in English). The first one is a blues rock piece featuring harmonica and electric guitar riffs while the last one is a powerful track with an electric guitar in the forefront that could recall Jimi Hendrix...

Although “L’uomo” is not a perfect album (sometimes its “conceptual thread” seems to get lost - especially because of the singing switching from Italian to English and vice-versa - and sometimes the music is not completely defined and too heterogeneous), it is historically important and it contributed to the development of the Italian-prog style.

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

More info about the band:
http://www.osanna.it/

SPREADING THE DISEASE

Città Frontale began life in Naples in 1970 with a line up featuring four future members of Osanna (Lino Vairetti, Massimo Guarino, Danilo Rustici and Lello Brandi) plus Gianni Leone who later joined Il Balletto di Bronzo. Anyway they did not release any album in their early days. In 1974, after Osanna’s first split up, Lino Vairetti (vocals, guitar, mellotron, harmonica) and Massimo Guarino (drums, percussion, vibes, vocals) reformed Città Frontale along with Gianni Guarracino (guitar, synth, vocals), Enzo Avitabile (sax, flute, vocals), Paolo Raffone (keyboards) and Rino Zurzolo (bass). Città Frontale released only album in 1975 before disbanding, ”El tor”, that was originally conceived as a rock opera. It’s a concept album that tells the story of a fantastic character called “El tor” and of his mad revolutionary plans. By the way, El Tor was the popular name of the vibrio cholerae, the bacteria responsible for the disease that raged in Naples in 1973.

The opener “Alba di una città” (Dawn of a city) is a soft and delicate instrumental intro describing a city that wakes up. It leads to the melodic “Solo uniti” (Only united), a joyful song about a dream of revolution... “It’s only together that we can give a dimension to reality / It’s only united that we can change this society...”. The political commitment is evident in the lyrics but the music is very distant from the sound of Osanna and more in the vein of a Brodway show (or, if you prefer, in the vein of an Italian commedia musicale by Garinei and Giovannini). Nevertheless the drumming of Massimo Guarino is brilliant and in this track you can appreciate the remarkable bass work of Rino Zurzolo as well.

The title track is a ballad introduced by acoustic guitars. The lyrics depict the protagonist of the story, a dreamy boy who makes a deal with the devil: “El Tor” sells his soul to the devil and in exchange he obtains the power of muting his body at will. In this way he can travel all over the world muting himself millions of times and - disguised as an eagle, an elephant, a snake, a microbe or a butterfly - he can listen to the voices of the suffering and oppressed people. Although the lyrics provide a suggestive imagery the overall structure of the songs on this album is simpler if compared to Osanna's previous works and, despite the excellent musicianship showcased by all the members of the band, the music never really takes off.

“Duro lavoro” (Hard work) in my opinion is by far the best track on this album, but it is an exception. This piece features shifting tempos and moods and here the atmosphere is closer to Osanna’s standards than in every other track on this work. The lyrics describe the protagonist’s growing awareness of a world where there’s a “wicked power” exploiting poor people work while the music goes from the delicate classical guitar intro to quotes from Frank Zappa.

Next comes “Mutazione” (Mutation), a good instrumental track that tries to describe the change in attitude of the protagonist of the story that leads him to a bursting rebellion against the political system. This track is the only one on this album that could be described as close to jazz rock and features an excellent sax work intertwined with guitar and keyboards lines soarting from the suggestive and dynamic background provided by the rhythm section.

On “La casa del mercante Sun” (The house of Sun the merchant) the music comes back to simpler structures and melodic lines, while the lyrics describe the protagonist who is concocting his plans for a revolution.

“Milioni di persone” (Millions people) is a ballad almost in “West Coast” style featuring acoustic guitars and blues harp. Here the lyrics try to describe the bitterness of a revolution leader corroded by the power that has to impose his will on millions people who don’t share his ideology...

In the last track “Equilibrio divino” (Divine balance), another melodic ballad with an interesting finale in crescendo, the protagonist ends up killing people in the name of God, “aiming to put their devotion under state control”. A sad end for a revolutionary dream!

Well, on the whole, despite the intriguing concept, in my opinion “El tor” sometimes lacks a coherent musical direction. Anyway it’s a nice album and I'm sure that Osanna's fans and those who love the melodic side of Italian prog will enjoy it.

You can listen in streaming to the complete album HERE

ROOTS AND BRANCHES

The present incarnation of Osanna took off on the initiative of founder member Lino Vairetti, who gathered around him a bunch skilful young musicians such as Gennaro Barba (drums), Fabrizio Fedele (guitar), Nello D’Anna (bass), Sasà Priore (keyboards) and Lino’s son Irvin Vairetti (synth). In 2008 they were in tour, with David Jackson as an additional member, performing new versions of their best pieces. I had the chance to attend one of their shows and I was struck by the vitality and the enthusiasm of all the musicians on stage.

Osanna 2008

Osanna could have tried to capture the energy of their performances in a live album, instead... They chose to record the new versions in studio looking for the best sound quality available and received the precious help of friends such as David Cross, Tim Stevens, Gianni Leone, Oderigi Lusi, Sophya Baccini and others... Well, this album is not a simple collection of old stuff and the result is absolutely good (far better than their previous work “Uomini e miti”). Osanna’s family tree has got deep roots and the “hot gold” of their music still glitters, although reshaped with a modern taste. All the tracks are linked as in a long suite and every track fades imperceptibly into something else...

The opener and classical inspired “Tema”, from the OST of “Milano Calibro 9”, melts into a fiery “Animale senza respiro” (from Palepoli) that ends into a nervous “Mirror Train” from the debut album “L’uomo”... Osanna and David Jackson perfectly work together giving new life to pieces of music that are part of the history of Italian progressive rock, the music flows for more than seventy minutes without weak moments and the sound is perfect. Less known episodes as “’A zingara” and “Ce vulesse ce vulesse” from the album “Suddance” or “Il castello dell’Es” from “Landscapes Of Life” here are brilliant and convincing like the tracks taken from “Palepoli” or “L’uomo”. There are many changes in atmosphere and rhythm, from classical to traditional “canzone napoletana” (you can even find quotes of “Funicolì Funicolà” and “O sole mio”), from the bluesy and Mediterranean “Neapolitan Power” to the British prog of VDGG’s “Theme One”. It’s like a long breathless running from the start to the finish line where you can’t stop!

The packaging is very good as well, featuring a funny art cover design by Lino Vairetti himself and a booklet featuring many pictures and all the lyrics.

More info:

http://www.osanna.it/

http://www.myspace.com/osannamusic