ON THE MAGIC BUS

The Iz Quartet come from Zoppola, a little town in the province of Pordenone. They began life in 2012 as an acoustic trio under the name Izchis Zorfena’s Trio on the initiative of Denis Ronchese (keyboards) and brothers Paolo Jus (bass, guitar) and Pietro Jus (drums, percussion). In 2013 Aurelio Tarallo (guitar) joined and later the band changed their name into Iz Quartet. In 2015 the band self-released an interesting EP entitled Lebannen featuring five original compositions for a total of 29 minutes length. The overall sound is influenced by jazz, fusion and progressive rock and bands and artists such as Snarky Puppy, Greg Howe, Chick Corea, Weather Report, Frank Zappa, Jaco Pastorius, Marcus Miller, Jamiroquai, Herbie Hancock or Miles Davis. Anyway, the musicians managed to put also all their passion and some good ideas into the mix and in my opinion the final result is really worth listening to.

Iz Quartet 2015

The opener "Geesy Ku" begins softly, then the rhythm rises and the music drives you through dreamy realms and exotic islands. For a first demo version of this track the band shot a nice video where you can see some toys coming to life in a workshop to explore a new world where creativity rules and where the music is the charm that makes things roll all around the place...

Next comes "Magic Bus" that takes you on a journey across the ocean and with its funky grooves conjures up an American dream along wide highways and busy streets, between lights and shadows... The following "Levity" features some Latin flavours and a lighter pace, so you can relax and dream of a special holiday, at least for a while...

The title track is an evocative piece with a mysterious atmosphere. Who is "Lebannen"? He might be the strange character portrayed on the art cover... Well, to begin the art cover reminds us that Zoppola is not for from Spilimbergo, another town in the province of Pordenone, best known for its Friuli School of Mosaic, so Lebannen might be an Oriental king or a Byzantine general with a double personality... Lebannen is also the name of a character in a fantasy saga written by American novelist Ursula K. Le Guin, but I don't know if this piece was really inspired by the deeds of the king of Earthsea... All in all, it doesn't matter! Let the music drive and take you away on the wings of your own fantasy...

The calm, acoustic "La rana di vetro" (The frog of glass) closes an album with some really good moments... Have a try, you can listen to the complete work HERE

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/izquartet

FRIULI - VENEZIA GIULIA

Until 1918 Trento, Bolzano, Gorizia and Trieste were part of the Austro–Hungarian Empire. So, now we cross an inmaginary bridge and go to TRIESTE, the far east of Northern Italy, on the border with Slovenia, a city loved by the Irish writer James Joyce who taught English here between 1904 and 1920. From Trieste, that now is the capital of the Italian autonomous region FRIULI-VENEZIA GIULIA, there comes Gino D’Eliso (MySpace), a singer-songwriter who in 1976 released a very interesting album with strong prog influences, Il mare. He is still active today and is working on a new album.

This city is also home to composer and guitarist Alfredo Lacosegliaz, who in the late seventies played in a short-lived project called Ensemble Havadià closely related to the Stormy Six’s label L’Orchestra. He’s still active with a solo career and a new project called the Alfredo Lacosegliaz Patchwork Ensemble (Official Website) that should be of interest to prog folk lovers. In 2010 they released an album called Pan duro and in 2011 another interesting one, Hypnos.

The most famous contemporary prog band from Trieste are Rhapsody Of Fire (Official Website), influenced by heavy metal and classical music. There are also other interesting prog bands here such as the metal influenced Sinestesia (MySpace) and Notturna (MySpace) or the more original J’Accuse..! (MySpace) who in 2008 released an excellent debut album on Mellow Records, Abbandono del tempo e delle forme.

Other local prog bands and artists are the prog-pop Proteo (MySpace), the “klezmer prog” Passover (MySpace), the neo prog of the young multi instrumentalist and composer Luigi De Santi (ReverbNation), the experimental solo project of composer Sandro Glavina called L’Uomo e l’Ombra (ReverbNation), the prog-jazz Funambolique (MySpace) and Frequency On Border (MySpace) and the heavier Soundrise (MySpace).

Not far from Trieste heading north along the border with Slovenia we reach GORIZIA, on the banks of the river Isonzo, home to Cooperativa del Latte, the psychedelic I Salici (Reverbnation) and a very interesting emerging band called Il Fauno di Marmo (Facebook), formrly known as The Rebus (MySpace). We can now cross the old border between Austria-Hungary and Italy and go to UDINE which in the past gave us a project called Nascita della Sfera. The current prog scene of this city features bands such as the jazz-rock Assolo di Bongo (Official Website) and So What (MySpace), the classically influenced Quasar Lux Symphoniae (Official Website), the folk prog La Munglesa (MySpace), the metal influenced Syderal Overdrive (MySpace), the instrumental jazz folk Démodé (MySpace), the the psychedelic Aiperion (MySpace) and Haab Cycle (MySpace), who were born from the ashes of another psychedelic band called Astral Loom (MySpace).

South of Udine, there is Cervignano del Friuli, near the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Aquileia, home to the neo prog Linea Nazca (MySpace) and two metal influenced bands, the young Azure Agony (MySpace) and the veterans Garden Wall (MySpace), a band that have been active since the late eighties. In 2011 Garden Wall released a very interesting new album on Lizard Records, Assurdo.

We conclude our visit to Friuli-Venezia Giulia in Pordenone with the symphonic prog band Barrock (Official Website), the prog jazz pianist Remo Anzovino (Official Website) who in his latest album Igloo collaborated with PFM’s drummer Franz Di Cioccio, the jazz prog Iz Quartet (Facebook), the psychedelic Iperico (MySpace), the experimental, raw Inter Nos (MySpace), the prog metal Pathosray (MySpace) and the folk prog Tarantàs (MySpace) and Orchestra Cortile (MySpace).