CHILDREN OF THE STARS

Nuove dimensioni is the second album by Sezione Frenante, a band from the province of Venice whose roots date back to the early seventies. It was released in 2019 on the independent label Ma.Ra.Cash Records with a renewed line up featuring Sandro Bellemo (bass), Alessandro Casagrande (drums, percussion), Luciano Degli Alimari (lead vocals), Mirco De Marchi (piano, keyboards) and Antonio Zullo (guitars) plus the guests Deborah Barbiero (backing vocals), Mauro Martello (flute) and Francesca Rismondo (cello). According to the band, this is a concept album about the origins of the universe, the depths of space, the nature of time and the fate of black holes with lyrics inspired by quantum physics, astronomy, ancient history and mythology. The beautiful art work by Walter Marin tries to describe its musical content...

The instrumental opener “Kosmos” sets the atmosphere. It starts softly, the mood is dreamy, then the rhythm rises evoking a long, epic journey across the mystery of the universe. There are no lyrics, but the liner notes give a clue of what the music is about... From ancient times, man has turned his gaze to the sky, hoping to steal its secrets, marvelling at the alternation of light and dark. Now, thanks to previously unavailable technologies, he can hear, see and study the harmonies coming from the depths of space... If the world is just a teeming of ephemeral quanta, an immense interplay between space and elementary particles, what place do we human beings have in all of this?

The title of the following “L’era di Planck” (Planck epoch) refers to an era coming immediately after the Big Bang, the event which began the known universe. The music and vocals conjure up the image of a little seed, dynamically balanced, silent and motionless in the absolute void. Since remote times it blossoms breathing in the nothingness. By chance, a magnetic current runs across that nothingness and unchains a reaction, pressure surges and you can imagine an empire of gas where protons, neutrons and photons randomly collide one against each other in an infinite chaos, creative furnace of new elements, planets, life... 

 

Sezione Frenante, 2020

An explosion leads to the next piece, “Fuso delle necessità” (Spindle of necessity) whose title refers to a model of the workings of the universe elaborated by the ancient Greeks where the sun, moon, five planets and fixed stars revolve around the earth. Here the music and lyrics evoke the Myth of Er, a legend about the cosmos and the afterlife that ends Plato's Republic. Er, dead in battle, rises from his funeral pyre to tell about his journey through the cosmos where he could see the souls of the dead in march towards their fate. Then he describes shining columns of light and the celestial spheres of the astral plane revolving around Ananke’s spindle...

“Principe del vuoto” (Prince of the void) starts softly, by acoustic guitar and flute, then the vocals evoke an ever present music expanding in harmonic planes where space and time blindly follow the rhythm and notes, soundtrack of ancestral events... But the harmony is disturbed by a different kind of notes, the notes that form the aura for the prince of the void, a merciless, hungry black hole that swallows the stars and breaks the astral fabric...

 

The dark, threatening “Orizzonte degli eventi” (Event horizon) conjures up the image of a lonely, breathless star and its explosion in an immense field of forces that suddenly invades the void. Other stars, old planets and comets are scared and try to escape from the dark monster that swallows everything around him, the black hole where gravity pulls so much that even light can not get out. The feared boundary of no escape is called the event horizon...

The mood of the following “Venere” (Venus) is definitively lighter. Here the music and words give voice to a jealous planet with a female name, the name of a Goddess. Venus looks enviously at a celestial stone full of life, the Earth. She can’t give birth to any living being and so, during the night, she listen to the dreams and hopes of terrestrial lovers that at dawn she handles to the sun... All in all, aren’t we all children of the stars, children of the night that turns around us? 

 

The long, complex “E’ nata una stella (Giostra a catene)” (A star was born - Swing ride) is a charming track that depicts in a very original, surreal way the birth of a star and the formation of a galaxy. Here the lyrics are like brush strokes of colour on a black canvas conjuring up rainbow arches and column of light, shining creatures, little lively spheres, living stars... The new star is compared to a rotating Chair-O-Planes that travels across the galaxy, dancing with its sisters in a perpetual motion. This star is not the most beautiful nor the brightest one but it could be a source of life, your life!

“Nomadi velieri” (Nomadic sailing ships) ends the album with a funny description of the solar system with all the planets that turn stealthily around the sun hiding mysteries, drawing ellipses, rotating lightly but remaining always together like a deployed fleet of nomadic sailing ships in the sea of the universe. Their evolutions are like the paces of a baroque dance...

On the whole, a wonderful album full of excellent music and sense of humour where boredom has no place.

You can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:

https://sezionefrenante.eu/ 

https://www.facebook.com/sezionefrenante/ 

 

FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT

Hailing from the province of Venice, Sezione Frenante began life in the early seventies under the name Le Nuove Dimensioni, later changed into the current name. During the seventies they hadn't the chance to record an album and split up in 1978, when the interest for progressive rock was fading. In 2006 the band reformed on the initiative of three founder members and in 2014 Sezione Frenante finally released a debut album on the independent label Ma.Ra.Cash Records with a line up featuring Alessandro Casagrande (drums, percussion), Sandro Bellemo (bass), Doriano Mestriner (gutars, vocals), Mirco De Marchi (keyboards, vocals) and Francesco Nardo (lead vocals) plus the guest Antonio Zullo (acoustic guitar). This long awaited album is entitled Metafora di un viaggio - Arditi voli di cervelli attenti and is a conceptual work, vaguely inspired by Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, that describes in music and words a cathartic journey from darkness to light, from despair to hope... The overall sound draws on vintage atmospheres and could recall bands such as Le Orme, Metamorfosi, Procession or Alphataurus but the musicians managed to put into the mix all their passion, their experience and their personality with excellent results and the album is really worth listening to.

The opener "La quiete in un attimo" (Peace in a while) starts by pulsing bass lines and dreamy passages that seem to mark the transition into an hypnotic state of unconsciousness. The music and lyrics evoke a moment of quiet where you can think and get lost into your dreams. Now you're almost floating on the current of your thoughts, between life and death... The dark organ surge of the following "La meta non trovata" (The unfounded destination) announces a dangerous journey through a realm of shadows where you're surrounded by shapeless things and faded visions. Eventually, your aimless wandering takes you in front of a high white door that blocks your way... Then a surreal calm comes down and "La meta non trovata (curiosità di essere)" (The unfounded destination - Curiosity of being) describes curiosity and fear seizing your throat. Your brain doesn't work, you can't think anymore...

Next comes "Attesa" (Waiting), a short instrumental that describes the time you pass in doubt, waiting in front of the white door while the following "Passaggio" (Passage) is another short instrumental describing the moment of the crossing of that strange threshold. It leads to "Viscido ambiente" (Slimy place) that describes a gloomy world inhabited by icy shadows without brain, a world where there's no peace. You can feel a sense of void spreading all around you and even inside your heart, there's nothing but hate here, you have to feed on it... The following "Pace immaginata" (Fancied peace) describes the crossing of this bleak world with its threatening panoramas. Every now and again some flames break through the darkness and shapeless beings disappear into the void, swallowed by black waves. You can perceive unknown shadows sucking your blood like parasites, driving you insane... At last you see a corridor and something pushes you in the right direction, towards the light at the end of the tunnel, towards a shelter...

At the sound of a bell, "Quattro stelle" (Four stars) welcomes you to a very different world of ethereal lights and sapphire skies. The four stars of the title refer to the four cardinal virtues that now show your way: prudence, justice, temperance and courage. Then a church-like organ passage drives you on the footsteps of a Love song while delicate melodies blow away the shadows of hell and their gloomy omens. A new hope is beating in your chest, you can see around you sinners who repent and start climbing a steep hill leading to a better dream...

Next comes "Nota stonata" (Discordant note) that describes in music and words a kind of Garden of Eden where you can find a perfect harmony. But someone is singing out of tune in the angelic choir, there's a soul down below that, pushed by human virtue, seeks for something that is not perfect at all. This soul is looking for the unknown, for great passions inspired by pagan muses, for never ending adventures and strong emotions...

Sezione Frenante 2014

The long, complex closer "Svegiati luce" (Wake up light) conjures up apocalyptic visions of exiled souls that have been waiting for a thousand years on the banks of the river Lethe. They're still waiting for boarding on the divine wooden ship that would take them across the river. It's a long, silent queue of uncertain spirits looking for a guide to lead them to a place where peace rules, a kingdom of light that will melt the shadows and dry the tears, where the sun rises like a blade of fire spreading its thaumaturgical strength all over creation...

On the whole, this is a very interesting album. Of course, seventies influences loom large over this work and it might not shine for originality but its mystical lyricism and its powerful and engaging musical colours make of it a real treat for Italianprog lovers. So, if you like modern progressive rock that’s based on classic Italian prog, you really have to check this band out.

Sezione Frenante: Metafora di un viaggio (2014). Other opinions:

Michael "Aussie-Byrd-Brother": "Metafora di un Viaggio" gets Sezione Frenante's belated studio recording career off to a great start, and the results have been more than worth the wait. A mix of pleasing melodic tunes and subtle, restrained but quietly thrilling instrumental moments, with a very joyful quality constantly present really makes this album shine brightly. Hopefully we see the band build on their efforts here with more recordings in the near future! (read the complete review HERE)

More info:

http://www.sezionefrenante.eu 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sezione-Frenante/160637350667011