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Live in Castel Mella (BS)
May 22, 2015
More info:
FABIO ZUFFANTI AND Z BAND
Live in Savona
May 8, 2015
More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/886506524729606/
Find out more prog concerts in Italy:
Monday, 6 April 2015
Saturday, 4 April 2015
A NEW MOON AND OLD MEMORIES
Aurora
Lunare come from Livorno and began life in 1978 on the initiative of
a bunch of friends in love with the music of bands such as EL&P,
Yes, Premiata Forneria Marconi, Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, Le Orme or
Area just to name but a few. In that period progressive rock was on
the wane but the band went against the tide and remained active on
the local scene until the end of the eighties. In those years they
hadn't the chance to release an album and it wasn't until 2006 that
Aurora Lunare could manage to self-release a double CD with their
non-professional old recordings to keep the memory of the band alive.
In 2007 a real reunion followed and after years of hard, passionate
work in 2013 the band finally released an official eponymous debut
album on the independent label Lizard Records with a line up
featuring Mauro Pini (vocals, keyboards), Luciano Tonetti (bass),
Marco Santinelli (drums) and Stefano Onorati (piano, keyboards,
electric guitar). During the recording sessions they were helped by
many guests such as Tolo Marton (guitar), Gianluca Milanese (flute),
Alessandro Corvaglia (guitar, vocals), Corrado Pezzini
(synth-vocals), Graziano Di Sacco (vocal effects), Nicola Santinelli
(classical guitar), Greta Merli (vocals) and Valentina Cantini
(violin) who contributed to add more colours to the musical palette
of the band. The result is excellent and I'm sure that Italian
progressive rock lovers will not be disappointed by this album. By
the way, in the booklet you'll find many pictures and some paintings
by Luciano Tonetti that describe the content of the music and
lyrics...
 |
| album cover |
The
beautiful opener "Evasione di un'idea" (Escape of an idea)
begins by a marching beat that seems coming out from the mists of the
past. In fact, according to the liner notes, the first part of this
track is taken from an old tape containing a live recording from 1980
but after a minute and a half the mist gives way to a brilliant
symphony of lights and shadows evoking the eternal struggle between
dreams and reality, youth and maturity. As a gust of wind blowing
away the cry of a man, an idea rises over the void that surrounds
you. It shouts, trying to erode heavy metaphorical stones and
negative memories and you can feel that soon a song of joy will break
through, one day or another...
The
following "Eroi invincibili... son solo i pensieri"
(Invincible heroes... They are just thoughts) is in the same mood and
begins by a piano solo pattern, then soaring melodic lines and
heartfelt vocals lead your through indescribable landscapes where you
can find lost temples and wide meadows burnt by the fire of a
thousand emotions. You have to walk the beaten tracks, crawling on
layers of madness and taking the risk of drowning in the sea of your
lost chances... A church like organ solo passage ends this track and
introduces the next one, the wonderful instrumental "Mondo
fantasmatico" (Phantasmatic world) where you can let your
imagination run free following the notes of a magic flute until you
get lost in time and space.
"Riflessi
indicativi" (Indicative reflexes) draws in music and words a
surreal tableau reflecting images of distant worlds in the morning
light. You can see black corals, crystal nets and strange buildings
all around you while your memories start to get blurred... Then comes
the dark, crazy experimentalism of "Corsa senza meta"
(Running without a goal), an instrumental digression where dreams
seem to turn into nightmares.
 |
| Aurora Lunare 2013 |
On
"Secondo dubbio" (Second doubt) the rhythm rises again and
the atmosphere is definitively brighter. The music and the hermetic
lyrics conjure up images of hope shining through an suffucating mist
and old memories from a tormented past. The following "Interlunio"
is a short instrumental track for organ and flute that leads to
another beautiful instrumental, the dreamy "Sfera onirica"
(Oneiric sphere). The final track, "All'infuori del tempo /
Ritorno al nulla" is a cover taken from Le Orme's masterpiece
Felona e Sorona and represents a tribute to one of Aurora
Lunare's most important sources of inspiration. It's enhanced by the
presence of former Le Orme's guitarist Tolo Marton and by the female
vocals of Greta Merli.
On
the whole, this is an excellent album where historic pieces from the
old repertoire of the band and some new tracks have been arranged and
performed with painstaking care and great musicianship for the
pleasure of the listener: a must-have for every Italianprog fan!
Aurora
Lunare: Aurora Lunare (2013). Other opinions:
Michael
"Aussie-Byrd-Brother": 'Aurora Lunare' is everything a
symphonic progressive rock fan could ask for, and with setting the
bar so high for a debut release, one has to wonder where the band can
can go from here. Not bad for a group already over thirty five years
into their career! Better late than never, and if this is what the
band could have achieved back in the vintage era of the 70's, they'd
possibly be being talked about as something very special from the
heyday of the RPI genre now... (read the complete review HERE)
More
info:
Sunday, 8 March 2015
PLANET WOMAN
I
Dik Dik were formed in Milan in 1965 by Pietruccio Montalbetti
(guitar, bass vocals), Giancarlo Sbriziolo (guitar, vocals), Erminio
Salvaderi (guitar, vocals), Mario Totaro (keyboards) and Sergio Panno
(drums). They
have been active for more than forty years and were very successful
in Italy during the late sixties and early seventies thanks to their
collaboration with Lucio Battisti and Mogol and thanks to the Italian
versions of songs like “A Whiter Shade Of Pale” by Procol Harum
or “California Dreamin’” by the Mamas And Papas. They have
always been just a beat and pop band and “Suite per una donna
assolutamente relativa” is their only true progressive effort. The
album was released in 1972 (a period when almost everybody in Italy
seemed to go crazy for prog) but it was a commercial flop so, after
this album, the band turned back and took another musical direction.
“Suite
per una donna assolutamente relativa” is a concept work featuring
lyrics by the eclectic artist of Jewish origins Herbert Pagani. It
was conceived as a musical and poetical journey through “planet
woman”: the female body here is compared to an unknown world to
explore, both physically and spiritually... The music was composed by
keyboardist Mario Totaro and it’s an excellent mix of progressive
rock and Italian melody.
The
opener is the melodic, light “Donna paesaggio” (Woman Landscape).
A man is flying over a strange planet, “Woman landscape / I’m
flying over you with caresses / And along my journey I can see lands,
lakes, mountains and the mirage of my happiness / I will sing of you
/ Like a Greek poet of the ancient times... And my voice will be a
hymn to your naked freedom...”. The music is rich and features
beautiful touches of church-like organ and mellotron...
 |
| I Dik Dik |
On
the second track “Il viso” (The Face) our “hero” comes down
with his parachute landing in a forest of “hair-trees”, then he
explores the brows surrounding “two lakes of blue water” (the
eyes), then the nose, the ears... “I can already see your lips on
the horizon / Your mouth is smiling to me / And your smile reveals a
city / Atlantis of light that kills me... And to know a little bit
more / I breathe awhile / Then I dive and go down...”.
The
sound of the moog marks a change in atmosphere that becomes darker in
the next track “Il cuore” (The Heart). “Like a cast-away on his
raft / I’m sailing down, along your veins...”, our hero is now
flushed away by brooks of phosphorescent blood... “I hear the
thunder of a factory / The central engine of the heart appears
enormous to me / I can see red Niagara falls swallowing me...”. The
rhythm becomes frenzied, the mood dramatic but our “explorer”
awakes alive, wet and out of danger because the heart let him break
through...
A
short interlude leads to the “Cathedral Of Love”... “I’m
climbing stairways of placenta / As if by magic I feel a body who is
singing for me unknown Ave Marias / Cathedral of Love, cathedral of
love / My heart beats fast but I go on...”. Well, the lyrics
describing the womb are a little bit bizarre (to say the least!) but
the music is really good, here almost mystic I dare say, featuring
excellent harmony vocals...
Next
track, “Gambe” (Legs), describes the dizziness provoked by a
“walking continent” on the streets of a city. “The earth is
trembling / New danger / Legs of woman / White vertigo... When you
walk in the city / It’s like a forest / That goes in a desert of
concrete...”. Here the rhythm rises sprinkled with flashes of moog,
then melts into a nice short pastoral interlude (the instrumental
“Suite relativa”).
“Monti
e valli” (Mountains and Valleys) is a bright, happy ballad and the
subject matter is, as you can guess, the bosom... “I see pyramids
and coliseums... Mountains and valleys of the youth / My hands are
caressing you / Like ocean waves / My fingers are like horses
breaking into gallop upon you...”.
Next
comes the delicate, sweet “I sogni” (The dreams) that tries to
describe in music and words the dreams of a woman as the souvenirs of
a childhood, the nightmares of the war, the wounds of past lovers
that consciousness tries to hide. “I dream your dreams...”. In my
opinion this is the best track on this album.
The
next track “La notte” (The night) tries to describe the act of
procreation. Tense vocals soar over a beautiful piano pattern counter
pointed by the sound of the moog... The poetry of the lyrics is
perhaps a little bit clumsy and naive but the overall result is not
so bad.
“Sintesi”
is a reprise of the opening theme and it concludes a particular,
interesting album... “Woman poetry / You are a miracle of rhythm
and harmony / You are the most fragile fortress on earth / You resist
the world but love will open you / And from the country of your body
new lives will blossom / Until life will be...”.
I
don’t think that this is an essential album but it is a very good
one and it would have deserved a better destiny. On the whole I think
that this work is more ironic than pretentious, as the funny art
cover, and it’s really worth listening to. It was re-released on CD
in 2003 by BMG with a nice paper sleeve reproducing the original LP
jacket and I’m sure that Italian prog lovers will love it...
Saturday, 28 February 2015
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
Pollution
is Franco Battiato's second
album and was released in 1973 on the independent label Bla
Bla Records. During the recording sessions Franco Battiato took
charge of vocals and synthesizers and the line up was completed by
Gianni Mocchetti (bass, vocals), Gianfranco D'Adda (drums,
percussion), Roberto Cacciapaglia (synthesizer, piano) and Mario
"Ellepi" Dalla Stella (guitars, vocals). This album, as its
predecessor Fetus, features a provocative art work by Italian
graphic artist and cultural agitateur Gianni Sassi. The inner
sleeve contains a picture of the band with Gianni Sassi and his wife
and the mysterious copy of a manifesto of an imaginary agency, the
International Centre of Magnetic Studies, announcing an experiment
that would have switched off for twenty-four hours all the internal
combustion engines circulating in Italy...
 |
| art cover |
As
you can guess the content of the music and lyrics involves
environmental issues and a poignant criticism against the
industrialized world. Anyway, despite the subject matter, this is
probably the most easy and accessible album of Franco Battiato's
"prog period". Here all the tracks are bound together and
form a long suite with recurring themes holding it together. The
opener "Il silenzio del rumore" (The silence of the noise)
begins by the echoes of a Viennese waltz by Strauss, then comes
Battiato's recitative voice that in some way tries to wake you up
from a sleepy, passive life-style characterized by addiction to noise
and where people don't think with their own head and can't perceive
the importance of being free and independent... "Have you ever
been wondering / What is your function?". A "percussive"
rhythm guitar and a church organ follow and lead to the sonic
explosion of "31 dicembre 1999 - ore 9", just a few seconds
of musique concrete. In the aftermath the sound of keyboards
introduces the theme of the following "Areknames", that
goes on with strange vocals and "experimental" lyrics
written in "reverse style" (for example Areknames = Se
mancherà).
It leads to "Beta", where you can listen to
sound effects and recitative vocals that conjure up a "mystical
mood" while the piano plays some notes of the previous theme.
The lyrics are based upon the novel Brave New World by Aldous
Huxley. In the novel, from birth, people are genetically designed to
fit into one of five castes, which are further split into 'Plus' and
'Minus' members and designed to fulfil predetermined positions within
the social and economic strata of the World State. Fetuses chosen to
become members of the highest castes, 'Alpha' and 'Beta', are allowed
to develop naturally and are given stimulants while maturing to term
in 'decanting bottles'. Fetuses chosen to become members of the lower
castes of 'Gamma', 'Delta' or 'Epsilon' are subjected to in situ
chemical interference to cause arrested development in intelligence
and physical growth. Here we can listen for a moment to the voice of
a happy Beta, interpreted by Franco Battiato with poignant irony. A
short orchestral passage taken from a symphonic poem by Smetana ends
the first side of the original Lp while a question arises... "Inside
of me some micro organisms live my identical life without knowing
that they belong to my body / I, what body do I belong to ?".
 |
| inner sleeve |
The
second side of the original album is divided into three tracks. The
first is the dark, surreal "Plancton" that describes in
music a words a kind of evolution in reverse, a regression from the
human form to the shape of a strange sea creature. Hands become
scales, hair become algae... Then a weird "space tarantella"
passage leads on a solitary beach where you can hear the sound of the
waves... Here you can listen to a nice, dreamy melody and to a
strummed acoustic guitar, then soaring vocals evoke formulas used in
physics and engineering, fluids dynamics and hydrometry... In fact,
on the next track, "Pollution", the music and lyrics
conjure up magnetic fields and expanding gas in a world formed by
atoms and molecules that follow the rules of physics. The melancholic
instrumental "Ti sei mai chiesto che funzione hai?" (Have
you ever been wondering what is your function?) ends the album mixing
regretful laments and whining with echoes of classical music. It
seems to forecast a gloomy fate for a human race victim of his
knowledge and technology...
Franco
Battiato: Pollution (1973). Other opinions:
Michael
Berry: A
step forward here? oh yes.. take an afternoon and listen to his
albums chronologically. Fetus was mainly a showcase and a first draft
if you will for Battiato and his minimalist aspirations for
composition and instrumentation. His VCS3 was the 'star' of the
album... other instruments were mainly for texture other than the
violin of Cariocinesi. Here, both compositionally and of curse in
instrumentation Battiato has stepped forward... A
wonderful album with some POWERFUL moments and I find the contrast
this album represents fascinating. Highly recommended and may be the
best place for new fans of Battiato to start... (read the complete review HERE)
Jim
Russell: This
is pure RPI (in spirit, if not in peer conformity) with all of the
experimental flair so common in the genre, influenced by spacey
English psych and Krautrock I would guess. Battiato's first three
albums are all very high quality but different enough to make each
essential listening for RPI fans in search of a deep collection. He
is certainly more eccentric and weird than the symphonic giants like
Orme, so if you are an RPI noob, be warned he may take some getting
used to. But if you like outlandish sounds and trippy aural
festivities, Battiato will not disappoint you... (read the complete review HERE)
Sunday, 22 February 2015
SICKLE, HAMMER AND GUNS
Area
had been one of he most important bands of the Italian prog scene of
the seventies. Their debut album, “Arbeit Macht Frei”, was
released in 1973 on Cramps with a line-up featuring Demetrio Stratos
(vocals, organ), Patrizio Fariselli (piano, keyboards) Giulio
Capiozzo (drums), Patrick Djivas (bass), Paolo Tofani (guitar,
synthesizers) and Victor Eduard Busnello (sax and reeds). The
musicians came from different experiences and the overall sound of
the band was an incredible and “revolutionary” cocktail of
influences ranging from Mediterranean folk to free jazz and rock,
always characterized by a strong political commitment. Their producer
and advisor Gianni Sassi, co-founder of the independent label Cramps,
took care of the lyrics and of the art cover and could be considered
a kind of guru for the band, almost an additional member. Thanks to
him the band could meet and collaborate with some exponents of the
artistic avant-garde as John Cage. Area’s music is challenging and
never banal, the lyrics are strong and in some way shocking but never
vulgar...
The
“explosive” opener “Luglio, agosto, settembre (nero)” (July,
August, black September) deals with the Palestinian issue and
terrorism and was inspired by the Munich massacre during the 1972
Summer Olympics. It’s a seminal, controversial track, but it’s
not exactly a song against terrorism. It begins with female narrative
vocals in Arab (1).
“Forget your rage / Forget your pain / Drop your weapons / Come
with me my darling / Come with me, let’s live / Our cover will be
the peace...” (2).
Then, on a progression of organ chords the particular voice of
Demetrio Stratos soars describing the horror of powerful politicians
playing dangerous games and the consequences of their acts... “To
play with the world / Smashing it into pieces / Children that the sun
/ Has already turned into old men...”. Then follows a section
inspired by a Balkan melody where the vocals state the refusal of
resignation and of an unbearable peace that is the equivalent of
submission... “It’s not my fault if your reality / Compels me to
move war to this guilty silence / Perhaps one day we will know / What
it means / To drown in the blood the whole humankind... Read in
history all my pain / Look at my people / Who do not want to die...
It’s not my fault if your reality / Compels me to move war against
humankind...”. A chaotic section follows before a more melodic part
and an instrumental reprise of the previous “Balkan” melody. In
the early seventies Area supported the extreme left wing Italian
movements that were characterized by strong anti-Americanism and
anti-Zionism. In the lyrics what prevails is a feeling of empathy
with terrorists. Times have changed and today former members of Area
point out that they are now against every form of violence but also
that the problems generating the hate leading to terrorist attacks
are not solved. To complement comprehension of this track I could
suggest seeing Seven Spielberg’s film “Munich”...
“Arbeit
macht frei” (Work makes you free) is a track against capitalism. In
the booklet you can see a picture which portrays an elegant
businessman with the head of a bird of prey and the words “Arbeit
macht frei”. This slogan was placed at the entrances of a number of
Nazi concentration camps but here it could refer to modern factories
where workers are employed on assembly lines and treated as slaves.
The piece opens with a drum solo and experimental sounds, then a
repetitive bass pattern comes in. Try to imagine Charlie Chaplin in
“Modern Times” while listening to the frantic rhythm section and
to the sax evolutions... “In your miseries you will recognize / The
meaning of an Arbeit macht frei / Bleak economy, daily humility /
Always push you towards an Arbeit macht frei / Awareness will make
you see / One more time / What is Arbeit macht frei...”.
“Consapevolezza”
(Awareness) is a dramatic call to revolution. Jazz rock and exotic
atmospheres lead to a hypnotic rhythm pattern from where suggestive
vocals soar inviting you to take a lift and go up in the sky, open
your eyes and see what’s happening on earth... “You will see all
the bleak reality... All the love reduced to nothing... Smash
merciless against the wall / Your morality that wants to keep you
imprisoned among mediocrities... Start up and take power!”.
“Le
labbra del tempo” (The lips of time) is another great, complex
track featuring jazz and Mediterranean suggestions where the voice of
Demetrio Stratos is perfectly at ease. It’s an obscure reflection
about life, time and the need to fight for your rights overcoming
fears and superstitions... “Inside me / I feel that a deaf rage is
rising...”.
“240
chilometri da Smirne” (240 kilometres from Izmir) is an
instrumental jazz rock track where all the musicians are allowed to
showcase their great musicianship.
The
last track, “L’abbattimento dello Zeppelin” (The shooting down
of the Zeppelin), is conceived as a criticism against the music
business and depicts conceited, haughty bands flying through the sky
swollen by the wind, drunk with power. Here the vocals are ironic and
theatrical... “Everyone says that it’s my fault / Everyone plays
with the body deflated by the wind / That has no memory / Everyone
says that it’s my fault / The wind says that I will die...”.
(1) In the booklet they say that the voice was “stolen from a Museum
in Cairo” although some other sources say that the voice was that
of an Arab girl, a strip-tease dancer who used to work in Milan near
the studios where the album was recorded. See
D. CODUTO, Il libro degli Area,
Auditorium, Milano, 2005, p. 70
You can listen to the complete album HERE
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