MUSIC AND THEOLOGICAL THEORIES

Teodicea is a band from Livorno that came to life in 2020 on the initiative of keyboardist and composer Enrico Filippi after he stepped out from Aliante with whom he had previously recorded two albums. The band's name refers to a theological theory (Theodicy) that shows that it is reasonable to believe in God despite evidence of evil in the world and offers a framework which can account for why evil exists. In 2024 they released an excellent debut album entitled Il mondo esausto (The exhausted world) on the independent M.P. & Records label with a line up featuring Enrico Filippi (keyboars, piano), Jacopo Morandi (bass) and Giacomo Putrino (drums, percussion, keyboards). It's a completely instrumental work that might recall some Italian bands of the seventies like Le Orme, Goblin or il Banco del Mutuo Soccorso but that blends vintage sounds with a contemporary musical landscape. The drawing on the cover is by Luca Di Pietro while in the booklet you can find some pictures that offer a glimpse of the music's inspiration...

“777” is an excellent track that at times recalls Le Orme and, above all, Aliante. The title could be a reference to the model of a passenger plane. In fact, the 777 is the world's largest twin jet and the most-built wide-body airliner. Are you ready for a musical journey to new territories to discover? Well, get ready for take-off...

“Gioia e risoluzione” (Joy and resolution) is another wonderful track beginning gently with a dreamy piano intro and then progressing through numerous changes in rhythm and mood. Although the title seems to paraphrase a well-known Area piece, the music is devoid of edgy experientialism and avant-garde overtones. Rather, it's in line with the previous track, cinematic and dreamy...

“L’ineluttabile” (The inevitable) begins with a subdued rhythmic pattern that then intersects with restless melodic lines. The dark central section, with strong classical overtones and prominent piano, precedes a final part in crescendo...

“Weltschmerz” opens with a melancholic atmosphere and the piano in the foreground. The title refers to a literary concept describing the feeling experienced by an individual who believes that reality can never satisfy the expectations of the mind, resulting in a mood of weariness or sadness about life arising from the acute awareness of evil and suffering. According to an interview with the band, "this piece was born to attempt to represent in music that malaise, so common today, caused by the dissatisfaction of living in a society where injustice and violence of every kind, both physical and mental, are everywhere. Those who identify with this malaise are unfortunately aware of their inadequacy in the face of the world's evils and suffer for it"...

“Ripresa di coscienza” (Regaining consciousness) brings back a bit of positivity. After a dreamy start, the rhythm becomes more intense and fast-paced, almost as if to mark a reconciliation with life and reality...

The following “Intro 442” is instead slower and darker, with the keyboards and piano weaving almost hypnotic textures that can bring to mind Goblin...

Teodicea, 2024

“Lofoten” is calm and dreamy. In fact, the title refers to an archipelago and a traditional district in the county of Nordland, Norway. The Lofoten Islands boast unique landscapes, with towering mountains and peaks, open seas and sheltered bays, beaches and unspoiled lands. Landscapes that somehow inspired this piece...

“Punto di fusione (Fusion point) is a beautiful track that recalls Banco del Mutuo Soccorso with some classical inspiration, a lot of energy and a remarkable melodic touch...

“Il viaggio del Moro” (The Moro's voyage) closes the album with a cinematic and evocative atmosphere that recalls the opening track. The title seems to refer to the Moor of Venice, a famous regatta vessel, but this voyage proves far more adventurous and unpredictable than a simple sailing competition...

On the whole, an excellent work!

You can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/p/Teodicea-61565908830080/

IN A STRANGE KINGDOM

Le Porte Non Aperte took form in Florence in 2010 thanks to the initiative of Daniele Cancellara and Jacopo Fallai and their passion for the Italian Progressive Rock of the seventies. After a period dedicated to composition, rehearsals and some concerts on the local scene, in 2013 they released their debut album, entitled Golem, on the independent label Ma.Ra.Cash Records, with a line-up including Sandro Parrinello (vocals, piano, acoustic guitar), Marco Brenzini (flute), Jacopo Fallai (electric guitar), Filippo Mattioli (organ, synth, backing vocals) and Giulio Capitano Sieni (drums, percussion) plus the guests Daniele Cancellara (bass), Maria Paula Calderon (vocals), Saeed Aman (vocals) and Sanaz Partow (vocals). According to the liner notes, it is a conceptual work inspired by the "Imprevedibili" movement, a group of anarchist intellectuals rooted in Tuscany in the 60s and 70s and tells the story of a man who, through an introspective journey, tries to free himself from his own conditioning. The colourful art work by Silvia Brullato try to give a visual form to the musical and lyrical content...

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The album begins with a beautiful solo piano passage and background voices. “Preludio al sogno” (Prelude to the dream) is a just a short instrumental introduction that, according to the liner notes in the booklet, codifies the passage into the dream world of the subconscious and serves as an impromptu prelude to the story. The joyful yet decadent atmosphere depicts a fractured human condition within which the story of the Golem is set...

“Il re del niente” (The king of nothing) introduces us to the story's protagonist, played with remarkable energy and strong theatricality. He is a man who feels like a king, but whose kingdom exists only in his mind. His imposing castle has walls made of wind, his loyal subjects are figments of his imagination, but he still feels like a king, albeit a king of nothing. A king who wanders alone in his gardens, a prisoner of his madness...

“La città delle terrazze” (The city of terraces) describes the surreal landscape of the city where the king of nothing rules. Monuments, shopping malls, a breathtaking view that can be enjoyed from the terraces of the houses. However, the inhabitants have lost their joy in life, suffocated by the cumbersome presence of their lord. There are no riots, but the colours fade, the inhabitants have lost their memory and the ability to laugh at themselves. The atmosphere created by the music and lyrics here is truly sharp and neurotic...

“Binario 8” (Platform 8) depicts a crowded train station where long lines of people can be seen waiting to depart towards the unknown to forget their future. After some hesitation, the protagonist trades his dream for a ticket and dashes through the crowd to find a seat on the departing train. On endless tracks, he is following a mirage in search of new emotions and his reality...

A brief drum solo takes us into the hypnotic atmosphere of the next track, “Il vicolo dei miracoli” (The alley of miracles), which leads into the dark alleys of the mind. A voice reminds the protagonist that unpredictability is what separates man from beasts and machines, and that unpredictability is the path to freedom from the slavery of those who speculate on mass opinion. If statistics are used to make predictions, unpredictability makes them go haywire...

Harsh electric guitar riffs and flute notes over a frenzied rhythm introduce “Rigattiere dei sogni infranti” (Junk dealer of broken dreams), a description of the delirious and visionary encounter between the protagonist and his alter ego. This new character offers illusions in exchange for dreams and demands fragments of dream matter from the protagonist in exchange for freedom. The result is a clash between memory and the consciousness of the ego, resulting in a punishment for disrupting the order of the universe...

Le Porte Non Aperte, 2013

The disquieting short instrumental piece that follows, “Nemesi” (Nemesis), according to the liner notes, describes precisely this punishment. Here the liner notes also cite the Isaac Asimov's novel Nemesis as a source of inspiration...

In the long, complex “Oceano - Nel canto della sirena” (Ocean - In the singing of the mermaid) the protagonist finds himself on a creaking wooden boat, sailing aimlessly on the ocean of memories, filled with regret and melancholy. Lost and confused, always searching for an impossible dream and haunted by a siren song that torments and intoxicates him, forgetting all logic, the protagonist finally finds the strength to scream for his freedom...

The atmosphere in “Giardini di sabbia” (Gardens of sand) becomes calm and relaxed with just piano and flute to back the vocals. The protagonist finally lands on a distant island where he can rest. There, in the sand gardens, dreams are free but the ego must face the solitude of thought. The protagonist feels traversed by emptiness, unable to grasp his dream. He has finally arrived where wings still beat, but the landscape rapidly changes...

The following track is divided into three parts, “Animale del deserto Part I” (Animal of the desert, part I), “La rivolta della tartaruga Elsie” (The revolt of Elsie the tortoise) and “Animale del deserto Part II” (Animal of the desert, part II). The rhythm is tense and nervous as the protagonist finds himself walking and running on sandy paths. All he can see is himself. Time, behind him is smiling. It's a place that, according to the liner notes, is in the meantime ever-changing and contradictory, with a technology that, dominated by man, escapes beyond the limits of emotion. There's room for an encounter with Elsie the turtle, a rarely talkative devourer of light, and amidst contradictions, disjointed conversations, and sudden emergences of the subconscious, the protagonist finally seems to reach the point where he can take off...

Then, the last track, the instrumental “Imprevedibilità” (Unpredictability) describes the protagonist at dawn. He wakes up tiredly and soon discovers that only unpredictability exists...

On the whole, an excellent album, even if the concept might seem a bit convoluted. Anyway, that's exactly what dreams are...

You can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100066665148487#

FROM THE SEVENTIES

Live, as you can guess, is a live album by Genfuoco, a Siena-based group linked to the Gen movement, that was self-produced and released by the band in 2001, over twenty years after the release of their only official studio LP, Dentro l'infinito (1979). It collects some live recordings made between 1976 and 1978 by the line-up comprising Tarcisio Bratto (vocals, acoustic and electric guitar, bass, flute), Franco Cecchi (keyboards, acoustic guitar, vocals), Paolo De Luca (electric guitar, harmonica, vocals), Marco Naldini (drums), Marco Scala (percussion), Marco Borgogni (vocals, flute, acoustic guitar, harmonica), Marco Masotti (drums) and Giovanni De Luca (bass). None of the songs presented were included on the 1979 studio work and here you can listen to them for the first time. The quality of the recordings is far from perfect, but it is nevertheless a good document of the band's experience that will be of interest to fans of Italian prog...

The opener “Solo per poco” (Just for a while) is a simple ballad with vaguely Latin flavours that describes a young man feeling sad and lost after a party, but only briefly. Indeed, the young man soon returns to dance on a green meadow for an adventure in the sun: that's where the real party is, a celebration of the communal ideals of peace and freedom...

“Canzone da leggere” (Song to read) is a longer piece, with a more complex rhythm and an interesting interweaving of electric guitar and flute. The atmosphere is dreamy while the hermetic lyrics invite you to follow the path that leads beyond your dream and your walls to seek for stones sculpted by time. You follow it, continuing to retrace your steps on the fallen leaves in a dance of a thousand sounds. Without words or shouts, you untie the ropes that bind your wrists and wash away the dust that dulls your face...

“Dolce momento” (Sweet moment) is a soft ballad led by guitars and vocals that tries to evoke a moment of peace and love lost in memory while the following “Favola vera” (True fairy-tale) is a piece with vague Renaissance references that portrays an old man who told stories and children who listened to those stories to make them the game of life. It reminds me slightly of the Italian singer-songwriter Giorgio Laneve...

Genfuoco in the seventies

“Piccolo sole” (Little sun) is a dreamy, melodic piece that depicts the image of a small flower in the middle of a meadow. The flower, bathed in dew, almost seems to be crying, but once its smile is set free it shines like a little sun...

“Dentro” (Inside) is another slow and dreamy song full of nostalgia where hermetic lyrics juggle between regrets and memories to find people and sensations lost in a day out of time and space...

The album closes with two long instrumental pieces. The first, “Jam Session”, lasts nearly twenty minutes and features influences from ethnic and folk music, tinged with psychedelia and blues. Soft, relaxed atmospheres alternate with more rhythmic, edgy passages... The second, “La suite del vento” (The suite of the wind), features an ethereal atmosphere and some good flute parts. At times, it reminds me of Delirium's first album, Dolce Acqua...

On the whole, a still immature work, but not lacking in interesting ideas.

You can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/Genfuoco/

INVISIBLE FIRE

Genfuoco are an Italian prog band that was formed in Tuscany in the early seventies. The members of the band were linked to the Gen Movement, a Christian movement founded in 1967 by Chiara Lubich to promote among young people from all over the world a peaceful revolution able to change hearts first and then to change society bringing everywhere the spirit of the gospels. Genfuoco started playing covers of other bands linked to the Gen Movement as Gen Rosso but later they managed to shape their own sound writing original songs in a progressive rock style that could recall bands as PFM, BMS or Le Orme, with a good use of flute and sax. The line-up featured Marco Borgogni (vocals, flute, guitar), Tarcisio Bratto (sax, guitar), Franco Cecchi (keyboards), Paolo De Luca (guitar), Giovanni De Luca (bass) and Marco Naldini (drums). They had a good live activity all over Europe in the “Genfest circuit” and, after a self-produced demo-tape called “Antichi confini”, in 1979 they released an interesting album for the Catholic label Città Nuova, “Dentro l’invisibile” (Inside the invisible). The album was mainly distributed through Catholic bookshops and almost completely “out of the market”. Luckily the independent record label Mellow Records re-released the album on CD in 1992. The sound quality is not perfect, nonetheless the music is really worth listening to...

The calm, dreamy instrumental opener “Ouverture” sets the atmosphere. It begins with a solemn marching beat, then pastoral acoustic passages and delicate melodies played by keyboards, electric guitar, sax and flute follow in a perfectly balanced way...

“Dalla tana” (From the burrow) is darker and disquieting. It describes a strange dream, a stroll through a blurred past where ancient scimitars on the stones of a temple reflect the light and mummies lurk in the shade. “I painted with my thoughts / What the dark lacks...”.

The reflective “Traspare” (It shines through) is about the ephemeral values of everyday life and the need to look for a more spiritual way of life... “Who are you? / Things turn around you... It shines through / Night and day / You leave your footprints on the sand / Well, they are already vanishing into eternity / Forever...”.

“Terra promessa” (Promised Land) is a complex track in two parts, inspired by the Holy Bible... “On the sand / In the silence / The infinity is a breath that goes / A few men are staring / They are walking on their footprints / The night is falling / Slow steps, hopes and distress / Tears in the void / Many years have passed by / And sweat dug the faces / But they keep on walking...”. Never give up! Beyond the hills a virgin land and a new story is waiting... A percussion passage with a Latin flavour seems to set a happy end for people who don’t lose hope...

Next comes the meditative “Galassie” (Galaxies). The music starts softly, featuring acoustic guitar and a soaring sax solo, then the rhythm takes off. The lyrics invite you to the contemplation of the stars and constellations under a sky of glass. Just try to think about the mysteries of the cosmos... “Lost in paradise / Hanging in space / We’re walking in a fabulous reality... Now we’re gliding below / We fall into a vortex / We’re getting lost in the dark / The dream is coming to an end... Let’s take back our time!”.

“La serenata del fiume” (The serenade of the river) is a beautiful acoustic ballad that streams away in a fairy tale atmosphere. Once upon a time the Earth was generous and the water pure... “Like water that flows relaxed on the river / And dance while carried away / He will gather all the flowers for you / The flowers on the bank that have the same colour as the moon...”.

Last comes the title track “Dentro l’invisibile” (Inside the invisible), my favourite piece on this album. It begins with a spacey flavour, as if coming from the dark side of the moon... “Here you are / The King is there / Fragile flower in a muddy desert / In the night, alone, without anything / Hanging in the emptiness of the cosmos... It’s the absurd, the separation, the cry, the scream / Loneliness, moments of death... Who will be able to read in the invisible? / Who will sit on the throne of deliverance? / Who will dig beyond the abyss of the ego / And then will find himself inside us?”. Well, the influence of Pink Floyd here is clear but the band managed to shape an original, intense track full of spirituality.

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

You can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/Genfuoco/

FLYING ABOVE THE BORDER

 Sul confine is the second studio album by Aliante and was released in 2019 on the independent M.P. & Records label with a consolidated line up featuring Jacopo Giusti (drums, percussion), Enrico Filippi (keyboards, piano, Moog) and Alfonso Capasso (bass) plus the guest Marianna Vuocolo (violin). It confirms all the good qualities of its predecessor while the art cover by Jacopo Giusti and the liner notes signed by Alfonso Capasso give us a clue about the atmosphere and the subject matter of this work: “When you live in a borderland, you meet different languages and cultures that mix in a universe of contrasts and proximity. Staying on the border is not just a geographical issue and is not always a choice. There are people who play their whole existence with it, while others seek refuge in safe hinterlands, made of balance and certainty, from where they will never see the thin line that separates smile and sadness, wealth and poverty, pain and joy, dialogue and silence, understanding and indifference. The border does not protect those who live there but opens up a range of possible alternatives, where the night of the fear of making choices surrenders to the breaking of the light of courage. Therefore, if there is a place where I want to stay, it is on the border…”.

 

 

 

 The album opens with the long, articulated eponymous suite divided into seven parts, a kind of instrumental travelogue that takes you on a musical journey across the world, following ancient maps. The first section, titled “Viaggio nel vento” (Journey in the wind), sets the atmosphere and with its dreamy mood leads you to “Metzada” for a gaze towards the sky. The title of the second section refers to a mountain-top fortress complex in the Judaean Desert that became the final holdout of the Jewish rebels during the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 AD). Here the rhythm rises while the music every now and again reminds me of Le Orme and evokes epic rides and endless wars in a ravaged country... The third section, titled “Ai confini del mondo” (To the limits of the world), is dark and slow with the notes of violin painting melancholic shadows on a desolate road while on the following one, “La rana” (The frog), the light turns up again and the rhythm takes off. Then it’s the turn of the section titled “Il cigno nero” (The black swan) where you can hear echoes of classical music suggested by delicate piano parts, Mediterranean flavours with moments reminiscent of the Concierto de Aranujez and jazzy passages. Th title of this section refers to the figure of Odile, the Black Swan, a character of the famous ballet Swan Lake who perfectly embodies seduction and deception... Next section, “Il quadrato” (The square), is a frenzied spacey ride through the dark latitudes of the universe and leads to the final beautiful section, “Tenente Drogo” (Lieutenant Drogo) whose title refers to the main character of Il deserto dei Tartari (The Tartar Steppe) a novel published in 1940 by Italian writer Dino Buzzati that tells the story of a young officer, Giovanni Drogo who spent his life guarding the Bastiani Fortress, on the border with a desolated desert.

 

 

 

After the long, complex 48 minutes suite, a shorter track closes the album. “Nel cielo” (In the sky) begins by a delicate, dreamy piano solo passage, then synthesizers and rhythm section take over and gently lift you up to the sky as a prelude to a new musical journey...

 

On the whole, an excellent work!

 

You can listen to the complete album HERE

 

More info:

https://www.aliantemusic.com/ 

MOMENTS OF TRANSITION

Merging Cluster took form in Florence in 2010 on the initiative of two former members of Biofonia, Gabriele Marconcini and Emiliano Galli, both in love with modern prog and psychedelia. In 2014 the band managed to release a self produced demo EP with a line up featuring Gabriele Marconcini (vocals), Emiliano Galli (keyboards), Marco Casalini (drums), Gianfilippo Innocenti (guitars) and Roberto Manzani (bass). Then the project went through a long period of hibernation. Ten years after, with the same line up, Merging Cluster woke up and finally released their first official studio album, entitled Peak Of ephemeral Light, on the independent Lizard Records label. It contains the four tracks of the demo EP remixed and remastered and four brand new pieces. According to an interview with the band, it is not a concept album in which a story is told but there are some recurring themes in the various pieces. All of them, in one way or another, tell of the moments of transition that make a person different from what he was before, or from what he believed or hoped he could be... 

 

The opener “Dysrationalia” every now and again could recall Marillion and is a long piece about the difficulty of thinking and behaving rationally when faced with even the most banal facts of life. The music and lyrics invite you to keep your eyes and mind open and vigil so as not to become prisoners of your emotions or victims of the conformism...

The title track, “Peak Of Ephemeral Light”, comes from the old EP. It’s a nice spacey piece that tells about the awareness that a man is nothing if compared to the immensity of the universe. The course of the galaxies in their race to the unknown can’t be reversed and a human being is not immortal, he’s just a kind of peak of energy soon destined to vanish into the void...

“Subjective Doubles Syndrome” is another old track from the 2014 EP. The atmosphere is disquieting and tense as the lyrics describe the feelings of a man on the brim of madness who believes that there’s someone going around with his body and face, someone who is speaking with his voice. In fact, the title refers to a rare delusional misidentification syndrome in which the patient experiences the delusion that he has a double with the same appearance, but usually with different character traits, that is leading a life of its own... 

 

From the 2014 EP is also the introspective, visionary “Gift Undeserved” that begins softly with guitar and bass that could recall Pink Floyd as the music and lyrics take you through fantastic landscapes. According to an interview with Gabriele Marconcini in the magazine Prog Italia, this piece describes states of consciousness suspended between dream and reality and how we do not feel adequate or deserving of what is given to us by chance or by superior forces...

The last track from the 2014 Ep is the beautiful “The Shadow Line”. It was inspired by a novella of the same name by Joseph Conrad that depicts a young man becoming an adult, in particular a young man who boards a ship for the voyage of his life. He will become a captain and the shadow line of the title represents the threshold of this development. The tide is turning, the sea and the sky are changing while the protagonist approaches the line, his eyes are burning. Will his heart keep on pounding when he’ll cross that line? Here the lyrics tell of the moment of transition between two phases of life...

“Planning The Renaissance” is a piece full of positive energy that kicks off with a hard electric guitar riff supported by the hammering rhythm section. It is an urgent request for change in individual and collective consciousness. The vocals express anger and indignation screaming the vital need for a new resolution. How can we plan a rebirth? We should find a way to learn how to create a new light, a new heart and find a new way of living in harmony with mother nature...

 

Merging Cluster 2022

“Land Of The Wait” opens by a delicate piano intro, then the vocals evoke blind days that pass, one the same as the other, leaving behind empty promises and regrets. The atmosphere is melancholic, but then the perspective changes and old memories of seasons full of expectations come to the surface. In fact, this piece tells of the reality that clashes with expectations destined to never materialize and was inspired by another seminal novel, The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati. The novel tells the story of a young officer, Giovanni Drogo, who spent all his life guarding the Bastiani Fortress, a remote stronghold overlooking a desolate desert. He waits for a war in which to obtain power and glory, but the enemy hordes never arrive...

The final track, “Over (You)”, is dark and hypnotic. According to the band the lyrics are hermetic and esoteric but always focused on the experience of the passage. Sometimes we feel a strong sense of loss. Sometimes we lose our battles, sometimes our wars, sometimes we lose our body, sometimes our mind and identity. Then there comes a time when we feel that our future is over and we need a serpent kiss...

On the whole, a good work that deserves a try.

 

You can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/mergingcluster 

THE EYE OF THE LAKE

La Cruna del Lago took form in 2021 in Barberino Val d'Elsa, near Florence, Tuscany, on the initiative of four experienced musicians previously involved in other projects: Andrea Bruni (drums, backing vocals), Matteo Tuci (bass), Pino Polistina (guitars, vocals) and Carmelo Junior Arena (lead vocals, keyboards). In particular, Andrea Bruni, Pino Polistina and Carmelo Junior Arena were part of Il Rovescio della Medaglia’s line up that in 2018 recorded the live album Contaminazione 2.0, so it’s no wonder that the sound of this new project mainly draws on seventies influences although with a modern touch. The band soon started composing original pieces and in 2022 they self-released a very interesting debut album entitled Schiere di sudditi (Hosts of subjects) showcasing great musicianship and good songwriting skills. According to the band, it’s a committed concept album dealing with the consequences of a declining society where there are still people who refuse the conformism and keep on fighting for their freedom. The art work by Carmelo Junior Arena and Piera Arena tries to give an idea of the musical and lyrical content...

 

The excellent opener “Giostra” (Carousel) evokes an irrepressible desire of freedom. The music and words conjure up the image of an inner carousel that spins inside the mind of the protagonist pushing him to take the long path of the time to come. The wind is blowing through steps and dust and he tries to see beyond the limit, between continents of fear and madness, where dark shadows hide hosts of subjects chained to a new reality...

“La mantide agnostica” (The agnostic mantis) depicts in music and words the desire of jumping boldly up like a green mantis to fly over a world that’s going wrong, suffocated by falsity and oblivion, where dignity gives way to madness. From the sky, the protagonist now can see a strange panorama below him. Freedom is in ashes, tyranny and hypocrisy rule, people blindly follow old formulas and there’s no room for poetry but the protagonist can still sing and look for happiness and feels that the hope of a new humanity is going to rise...

 

The melancholic “Illogica distanza” (Illogical distance) is an acoustic, reflective piece that depicts the crepuscular atmosphere of a cold, silent winter night where the protagonist is filled with a strong sense of nostalgia while thinking of his distant sweetheart. The gloomy present seems crucifying his desires as the wind makes the fallen leaves merrily dance, then his dreams take off and get lost in the clouds over the roofs...

The calm “Interludio” (Interlude) is a delicate instrumental track that leads to “ElettroDrama”, a piece tinged of electronic sounds that evokes gloomy visions from a future without freedom. Signals from the heart, spectral waves and cerebral blackouts are breaking the thoughts as men are falling into pain, faithless...

 

La Cruna del Lago 2022

The aggressive, almost threatening “Stato” (State) features lyrics revolving about the many meanings of the word state while the following “Acqua da Marte” (Water from Mars) depicts in music and words an eternal battle for freedom against a resilient enemy. Under a pouring rain the protagonist wonders if the raindrops were just tears from the sky or water from Mars that can give hope...

A radio edit version of “Stato” ends this interesting work that is really worth listening to.

You can listen to the complete album HERE

 

La Cruna del Lago: Schiere di sudditi (2022). Other opinions:

Jim Russell:  Their 2022 debut is another interesting entry blending a crisp modernity to the more traditional progressive rock tendencies. Their sound is often closest to "heavy prog" to my ear. I think they would appeal to fans of early '90s Rush or even Wilson's Insurgentes blending heaviness with atmospheric mood... (read the complete review HERE)

More info:
https://www.crunadellago.it/
https://www.facebook.com/lacrunadellagoofficial/

 

FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF FREEDOM

Aliante come from Pisa, Tuscany, and took form in 2017 on the initiative of two former members of Egoband, Jacopo Giusti and Alfonso Capasso. The same year they released an excellent debut album, entitled Forme libere, on the independent M.P. & Records label with a line up featuring Jacopo Giusti (drums, gong, percussion), Enrico Filippi (keyboards, piano, Mellotron, Moog) and Alfonso Capasso (bass) plus the guest Serena Andreini (narrative vocals). It’s an almost completely instrumental album where the musicians experiment and express their own ideas and musical formulas freely inspired by bands such as Le Orme or Emerson, Lake & Palmer. According to the band, the art cover by Jacopo Giusti, an oil on canvas painting, tries to describe the idea that there’s no need of something pre-conceptually established in any kind of artistic creation...

On the short opener “Forme libere” (Free forms) you can hear the narrative vocals of Serena Andreini introducing the subject matter. Life teaches us how to know shapes, colours, emotions, how to love them and make them our own, it also gives us the opportunity to invent new ones, to mix new shades but we always have to change perspective in order to have new forms to observe, free forms to model and paint... The short introduction fades into the following “Kilowatt Store”, a powerful track full of energy and dizzying keyboard rides...

Next comes “Tre di quattro” (Three of four), a beautiful piece with a spacey tinge that begins by soaring melodic lines and a dreamy atmosphere, then a pulsing rhythm section and more experimental keyboard sounds evoke dark, lunar landscapes and fantastic voyages towards far stars and unknown planets...

“Etnomenia” is sprinkled with exotic flavours and opens with ethnic chants in the background and a drum solo pattern, then the keyboards backed by the rhythm section draw dreamy melodies evoking far savage landscapes and adventure films of explorers and travellers...

 

“Kinesis” starts by a slow pace and a mysterious atmosphere, then the rhythm gradually rises for a nocturnal ride through the empty streets of a modern metropolis (at least it’s what the picture in the booklet associated with this piece might suggest) while the short “Coda: Marea 03” evokes a sense of impending change...

“L’ultima balena” (The last whale) conjures up scenes from whaling and could be a perfect score for a film about a dangerous voyage on a sail ship across forbidden seas and lands on barbarous coasts. Get ready for harpoon shootings and bloody fights against terrible creatures, imaginary or real...

The last track, “San Gregorio” (Saint Gregory) was inspired by the life of Gregory of Utrecht, follower of Saint Boniface and abbot of St. Martin's Monastery. Three years before his death in 776 he was hit by a paralysis that gradually spread over his entire body. At the approach of death he had himself carried into church, where he passed away. This excellent piece is divided into five parts - “Ottava nota”, “Utrecht”, “Il convento di San Martino”, “La paralisi” and “Kinesis (Reprise)” - but the plot, of course, is up to the music and your imagination...

On the whole, an excellent debut work.

You can listen to the complete album HERE

Aliante: Forme libere (2017). Other opinions:
Michael “Aussie-Byrd-Brother”: Running a welcome vinyl length of around forty-seven minutes which ensures it will be easy to re-spin often, here is an album that basks in its soloing-heavy proudly `proggy' heritage without being a mere uninspired or lazy vintage remake. `Forme Libere' calms and dazzles in equal measure, is intelligent instrumental music with endlessly memorable themes and full of warmth, colour and movement, and it's an album that reveals Aliante to be a group of talented musicians of restrained skill and great taste... (read the complete review HERE)

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/Aliantemusica/

ZERO AND THIRTY

Concerto Zero is a double album by Campo di Marte that was released in 2003 on the independent label Vinyl Magic - Btf with a beautiful packaging and extended liner notes about the history of the band. Soon after 1974 Campo di Marte split up, guitarist Enrico Rosa, main composer and lyricist of the band, left Italy and relocated in Denmark. It wasn’t until 2003 that Campo di Marte came to life again for some concerts in Tuscany and for the recording of this live album with a new line up featuring Enrico Rosa (acoustic and electric guitar, vocals), Eva Rosa (recorders, WX5 wind synth), Mauro Sarti (drums), Maurilio Rossi (bass - from Goad) and Alexandr Matin Sass (piano, organ, keyboards).

The first CD contains four tracks taken from a 1972 concert recorded at a venue in Florence, The Space Electronic. According to the liner notes, it was conceived as a demo recording and it’s nothing but a document of the early days of the band, before the release of their eponymous album. Four tracks for little more than half an hour music where you can hear in nuce from the original line up many ideas that will be developed on the debut album. Listening to “Prologo parte 2 (Settimo Tempo)”, “Alba (Secondo Tempo)”, “Epilogo (Quarto Tempo)” and “Prologo parte 1 (Quinto Tempo/Sesto Tempo)” could be interesting for fans of the band but the sound quality is really awful and I fear that all the efforts to recover the music from the original source (an old test pressing LP) were almost pointless...

The second CD was recorded “live in studio” in 2003, a good way to warm up for the concerts of the thirtieth anniversary of the band... Of course, the sound quality is definitely better. “Primo - Settimo Tempo”, a medley from the eponymous album, is a great opener where it can be seen that the magic is not gone even after the long hiatus. Enrico Rosa here shows to be still alive and kicking and the new line up is up to the task... The following “Back In Time” is a dreamy instrumental track with a medieval flavour that could recall The John Renbourn Group. It gives way to “Bluesy Rocky”, where the rhythm rises and the band mix delicate jazzy passages and harder parts with gusto, then it’s the turn of “Italian Irish”, a calm acoustic ballad turning into a kind of tarantella that reminds me slightly of BMS (in particular of Non mi rompete finale).

After three interesting new tracks the old repertoire comes back for the new arrangements of “Secondo Tempo” and “Terzo - Quarto Tempo” with another short new track, “Rock Barock”, that ends the set with a burst of positive energy. A live recording, considered a bonus track, “Outro: July The 12th 2003” closes the second CD.

On the whole, a good appetizer that unfortunately did not lead to the release of a brand new studio album featuring only new original prog stuff from Campo di Marte. But you never know, Enrico Rosa is still active and maybe, if someone asks him, for the fiftieth anniversary of the band...

You can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:

https://www.campodimarte.dk/

TURKISH DELIGHT

Campo di Marte was one of the many one-shot bands of the Italian prog scene of the early seventies. It was mainly the brainchild of composer and guitarist Enrico Rosa who gathered around him a bunch of talented and “classical trained” musicians as Alfredo Barducci (horns, piano, organ, vocals), Richard Ursillo aka Paul Richard (bass, vocals), Mauro Sarti (drums, percussion, flute, vocals) and Carlo Felice Marcovecchio (drums, percussion, vocals). They were based in Tuscany and the name of the band was inspired by a suburb of Florence. Campo di Marte means Field Of Mars, and Mars was also the Roman god of war so, according to Enrico Rosa, “the name was used as an excuse to write lyrics on the stupidity of wars, and a picture of Turkish mercenary soldiers stabbing themselves with all kinds of weapons to demonstrate their strength and receive higher wages was chosen for the cover” (Quote from an interview on the site italianprog.com).
 

The original concept was in some way distorted by the label in 1973 and the band had to change the titles and the order of the tracks for commercial reasons. The remastered re-release by AMS Vinyl Magic (BTF) (AMS 101 CD) in 2006 restored the original project and the result is wonderful. The sound quality is excellent and the original project is explained in the booklet through comprehensive liner notes in Italian and in English...

On the restored version, the album opens with the instrumental “V° Tempo” (originally named “Prologo Parte I”) where you can find a pastoral atmosphere that could recall bands as Amazing Blondel and Gryphon. The piece is introduced by acoustic guitar and flute and the mood is peaceful and joyful...

 

 

On the second track “VI° Tempo” (originally named “Prologo Parte II”), the sound of the electric guitar and a heavy marching beat tries to evoke the effects of a marching army with horns and drums “playing war anthems”. Peace is broken and war is raging but on this piece there’s also a short lyrical interlude where dreamy vocals invite you to search for the truth and to give credit to the people... “You will touch with your hands / Days full of sweetness / You will discover in everyone else / Another one like you...”. The “black magic” of war keeps on storming on the third track, the long instrumental “VII° Tempo” (originally named “Prologo Parte III”), where frenzied rhythms and gloomy atmospheres prevail...

The fourth track, “I° Tempo” (originally named “Riflessione Parte I”), begins with the electric guitar in the forefront and heavy rhythms, but after awhile the “storm” gives way to a tense, bitter reflection about the effects of war... “I remember that lawn / Covered with flowers / I was happily running / In the light of the sun... Now I can see that place again / Thousands of crosses / Cover the lawn / Blacken the sun... Unaware men / Get the bones / The only harvest / Of so many crazy sowings...”.

 

“II° Tempo” (originally named “Riflessione Parte II”) is a short, soft and dreamy instrumental that leads to “III° Tempo” (originally named “Epilogo Parte I”), where hope seems to be born again along with vocals soaring upon a delicate piano pattern... People fed up with war are making war against war... “Listen, a scream is rising / Look, the crowd is already moving / They’re calling you...”. The rhythm becomes frenzied again as the revolution starts... The classically inspired organ fugue of “IV° Tempo” (originally named “Epilogo Parte II”) and the final acoustic guitar arpeggio that marks the restored peace concludes a great album...

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

You can listen to the complete album HERE

Campo di Marte: Campo di Marte (1973). Other opinions:
Jim Russell: All in all this is a tasty morsel that is probably essential if you're building an Italian genre collection. For the wider site it's a recommended title for fans of early 70s rock mixing acoustic and electric guitars and flute like Tull... (Read the complete review HERE)

SPLENDID ISOLATION

Opra Mediterranea come from Empoli and took form in 2010 on the initiative of musicians previously involved in other projects who teamed up following their common passion for progressive rock. They soon started working on original compositions but it wasn’t until 2019 that they finally managed to self-release their interesting debut album entitled Isole with a consolidated line up featuring Michael Aiosa (piano, keyboards, synth), Mattia Braghero (vocals, harmonica), Federico Ferrara (electric and acoustic guitar), Manuele Mecca (drums, percussion) and Lorenzo Morelli (bass) plus the guests Francesca Della Vecchia (backing vocals), Francesco Pipia and Marco Giampieretti (who both contributed to the intermezzo on the title track with sound effects). It’s a fine conceptual work dealing with solitude and incommunicability that blends melody, complex musical structures and poetry in a very effective way. According to the liner notes, “We are the islands, agglomerations of experiences and memories stuck into the sea. Navigating in sight of the archipelago of relationships, in an alienating everyday life, that same space that seems to keep us apart binds us irremediably”. The artwork, taken from a picture by Katrin Korfmann, tries to express the concept in a visual form...

The opener “Lettera” (Letter) starts by strummed acoustic guitar and soaring synth sounds then the soaring vocals begin to paint images of dusty urban labyrinths in a cosmos of electric shocks, pulsations and sexual impulses... It’s the world where lives a man who browses the skies and reattaches the tesserae of a mosaic picked up on the street, a man who is an island wherever he goes carrying his burden of dreams and discomfort... The music and the poetical lyrics draw emotional landscapes where the survival instinct might show you a way out from chaos and invite you to listen to the others, to speak the language of soul and to dig the bottom of your humanity to reach the deepest sense of Love...

Then the dramatic “Marionetta” (Marionette) conjures up the image of a solitary puppet hanging by an invisible and motionless thread and looking for another reality... The music starts softly, as if the puppet was waking up from a long sleep. He’s alive and wonders who he is the maker of the false world that surrounds him, who is moving his muscles and destroying him like a synthetic dizziness... The tension rises, the rhythm becomes heavier as the marionette realizes he’s just the slave of an emotional void, the chrysalis of a man without imagination. He will never know who the architect is, where the world runs or if hell is comfortable. But something overcomes the din and floods his soul, something burns in his veins now. He screams, tears off his chains and breaks through... It’s never too late, you have to switch off the power and connect your soul to the heart to be free...

 

A delicate acoustic guitar passage introduce the following “Numeri primi” (Prime numbers), a bittersweet piece that deals with a problematic relationship between a man and a woman... Two twin souls trapped by fate into unknown bodies, two parallel lines, two solitudes divided by the wall of normality. Step after step they get closer and closer but are never able to reach each other... This track was inspired by Paolo Giordano’s novel La solitudine dei numeri primi (The Solitude of Prime Numbers) that narrates the childhood and early adulthood of a boy and girl whose relationship is compared to prime numbers: always together, but never touching.

The long, complex “Isole” (Islands) paints in music and poetry a desperate tableau of alienation and solitude where a man is portrayed like a wreck in the mess of his room, in front of his flat screen world where there’s no time nor space. He’s like an island lost in the middle of the sea while from the screen a diabolical voice snakes out suggesting that the island where he’s stranded is just an idea. The voice is trying to sell him a new universal logic with a thousand gadgets, the eye on the screen is like a cynical passepartout, there’s no place to escape. The protagonist is overwhelmed by advertising... Litres of fake sea to give out to the beggars or a pinch of America to have more fun... His island is like the final destination of an endless journey, beyond the boundaries of time and identity where even loneliness is clouded by a freezing inner void...

Opra Mediterranea, 2019

The introspective “Oceano Mare” (Ocean Sea) was inspired by a 1993 novel by the Italian writer Alessandro Baricco of the same title that tells about the lives of a group of people gathered at a remote seaside hotel. The music and words evoke memories coming back from the past in front of the sea while the music alternate dreamy melodic passage to harder parts. Your thoughts can fly free on the surface of an infinite sea, but they could drown as well...

The closer, “Fammenti di una via distesa tra la terra e il mare” (Fragments of a road stretching between the land and the sea), recalls PFM and invites you to follow a hypnotic path across a nightmarish world fallen to pieces where men experience reality as if it were a video game by accumulating points and where happiness is being able to earn more than you spend... The music and words evoke the fragmented, distorted images of a dream and the faint reflections of lost memories. Time is running away as a strange music falls down from the sky like snow covering the city... At last the sound of an alarm clock and the echo of the bells of a distant church resound in the air and you can open your eyes...

On the whole, a wonderful work that grows spin after spin.

You can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/opramediterraneaband 

THROUGH THE PAGES

Lifestream came to life in Prato, Tuscany in 2006, influenced by bands such as Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes, Kansas, Pain Of Salvation, Porcupine Tree or Marillion. After a first demo Ep and some line up changes, in 2018 they released an interesting full length debut album entitled Diary on the independent label Lizard Records with a line up featuring Alberto Vuolato (guitars), Andrea Cornuti (bass, backing vocals), Andrea Franceschini (piano, keyboards, backing vocals) and Paolo Tempesti (lead and backing vocals, drums, percussion). According to the band, it’s a concept album sui generis where all the tracks follow a common thread drawing the listener inside the lives of different characters like a wind flipping through the pages of a book. The art work by Alessandro D’Aiuto tries to give an idea of the subject matter... 

 

The opener “Dreamer” starts by background keyboards, a strummed guitar and soaring melodic lines, then the rhythm section enters bringing darker atmospheres. It’s a piece that depicts a man fed up with his daily routine and wants to break free following his dreams. At night he fills the blank pages of his diary with his plans and desires but the morning after the change is always postponed... 

Next comes “Built From The Inside” that features the backing vocals by the guest Marta Guerrini and deals with a man who gets lost in the virtual reality of his self-made world. This piece fades in the following “The Shy Tree”, a beautiful ballad with a Gothic flavour that conjures up sweet memories from the past, ghosts and regrets. 

 

 

“Sound Of The Earth” deals with environmental issues and evokes a kind of call of the wild. It’s the reflection of a man who wants to live in harmony with earth and nature. He feels like a grain of sand in the hourglass of life, a leaf beaten by the howling wind but he still stands up looking for the truth in an empire of lies... Then it’s the turn of the long, complex “Discoveries” that is divided into four parts and tells of a man attracted by forbidden theories who tries a dangerous experiment to find a way to explore the afterworld and discover the truth of all things... 

 

Lifestream on stage, 2019

 

The soft, melancholic “Whispers” evokes spirits and voices from the past coming out from the pages of a diary and invites to not fear the changes because the road that leads to peace and harmony is full sacrifices... It is linked to “Over The Rippling Waters”, an excellent, complex suite divided into five parts that every now and again could recall Marillion and tells of a nightmare where ashes dance in a mad, frozen reality during another journey through the unconscious... Then the beautiful title track, “Diary”, marks the moment where the nightmare fades out and a new awareness rises. It depicts a diary where you can write down your sorrow and disappointment, a diary that can have a therapeutic role... 

A cover of Il Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, “E mi viene da pensare”, closes the album with a tribute to the memory of Francesco di Giacomo and Rodolfo Maltese... 

On the whole, a really good work! 

You can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/lifestreamproject/