BERGHEM PROG FESTIVAL

 

 

HIGH CRIME

Anonima Sonora came to life in Turin in 2019 with the aim of playing original music inspired by the soundtracks of Italian crime action seventies B-movies (a genre known as poliziottesco), concocting an explosive cocktail of funky and prog in the vein of bands such as Calibro 35, La Batteria, Strato’s, L’Attimo del Dubbio or Apollo Beat. In May 2021 they self-released an interesting eponymous debut EP with a line up featuring Stefano Ruggero (bass), Marco Cerrato (sax), Carlo Peluso (keyboards), Matteo Pagliardi (drums) and Giovanni Peluso (guitar). The art cover gives an idea of the musical content...

The first track, “Titoli di testa” (Opening credits), starts by a short narrative part, a threatening dialogue between two men that sets the atmosphere. Then the music takes off with a frenzied funky rhythm and a perfect interaction between all the instruments. To leave is to die a little... In fact, the four tracks of this EP include some short quotes taken from their sources of inspiration, short dialogues from films such as Il cittadino si ribella (Street Law), directed in 1974 by Enzo Castellari, Milano trema, la polizia vuole giustizia (The Violent Professionals), directed in 1973 by Sergio Martino and Poliziotto solitudine e rabbia (The Rebel), directed in 1980 by Stelvio Massi, all proudly credited by the band.

The following “Asfalto” (Asphalt) begins by a keyboard pattern and a nervous rhythm section building up a tense atmosphere. Then the music gives way to a narrative quote describing a hold-up in the street and the consequent police reaction. When music starts again, the rhythm is tight and there are some jazzy passages underlining a car chase and a shooting...

“Un altro giorno per morire” (Another day to die) starts with a fast pace and pumping bass lines adding adrenaline. This piece has strong jazz rock flavour with the sax in the forefront. In the middle the rhythm calms down and on a dramatic organ background you can hear the hurried footsteps of a fleeing man and those of his pursuer, bursts of machine gun fire and groans of pain. After the murder the rhythm takes off again...

“Il cerchio nero” (The black circle) opens with an ominous warning about the risk of hiring a professional hitman who is too stupid, then the music takes you on another ride across a dangerous metropolitan landscape for a kind of safari where you don’t know if you are the hunter or the hunted...

On the whole, a very promising debut!

You can listen to the complete EP HERE

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Tutti i dettagli in cronaca, the second EP by Anonima Sonora, was released in 2024 with a renewed line up featuring Stefano Ruggero (bass), Marco Cerrato (sax), Carlo Peluso (keyboards, percussion, glockenspiel, melodica), Anna Truglio (vocals, samples, percussion), Enrico Beltrame (drums) and Giovanni Peluso (guitar). In particular, the voice of Anna Truglio, used as an instrument and that might recall Edda Dell'Orso, expands the musical palette of the band in a significant way. In my opinion, this work marks a step forward for the musicians involved in this project and sounds more personal and mature if compared with the eponymous debut EP. The vocalist took also charge of the graphic part...

This time the short film excerpts that the band used to add touches of colour to their music come from Milano violenta (Bloody Payroll), directed in 1976 by Mario Caiano, La polizia incrimina, la legge assolve (High Crime), directed in 1973 by Enzo Castellari and La malavita attacca... La polizia risponde! (The Criminals Attack, The Police Respond), directed in 1977 by Mario Caiano. According to an interview with the band, those grim films are a legacy to be valorised since they convey a certain vision of society and its dynamics and there are many analogies with the present beyond the obvious historical changes. Above all the coexistence of good and evil as opposite points of the same curve, dimensions so close that they almost no longer have boundaries...

The title track, “Tutti i dettagli in cronaca” (All the details in the crime news), opens the EP and starts by a dark solo organ passage, then there’s a sudden burst of energy and the rhythm rises. Vocals rising wordlessly and frentic instrumental parts lead to the following “Margot (Vedova di mala)” (Margot - crime widow) that opens with a dialogue between a bad girl and a bandit. The atmosphere is calm and dreamy, the man and the woman discuss about their future and the possibility to an existential redemption, leaving for another place where to begin a new life. Echoes of Piazzolla and tangos might suggest that a change is possible but in the middle section you can hear a wild shooting and a desperate, anguished attempt to escape as the music veers in another direction. Maybe the change is not for the better...

“Chi di noi due sono io?” (Which of us am I?) is an excellent jazz rock piece that leads to “Marsiglia” (Marseilles), a track that seems to drive you across the pages of a Jean-Claude Izzo novel. It starts by a slow pace and a strong Mediterranean flavour, the mood is dreamy but soon the dreams turn to nightmare with a powerful sax solo and raging drums in the background. You’re not in an exotic paradise and you may have to deal with a violent detective asking questions in a vicious way and without a warrant. In short, violence is what we breathe here...

On the whole, a very interesting work that is really worth listening to.

You can listen to the complete EP HERE

More info: 

https://www.blogdellamusica.eu/anonima-sonora-intervista/

FIRST AND LAST MIRAGE

 Frammenti is the first (and, for now, the last) album by Mirage, a band active in the early nineties and based in Genzano, a town near Rome. It was released in 1994 on the Mellow Records label with a line up featuring Marco Di Benedetto (piano, keyboards), Giuseppe Iampieri (piano, synth), Roberto Cesaroni (bass), Stefano Cupellini (drums) and Walter Cimoroni (vocals, flute) plus the guests Massimo Frittella (vocals, backing vocals), Diego Confortini (drums), Paolo Mari (guitar) and Rodolfo Maltese (guitar). Their style was mainly influenced by bands such as Genesis, Yes, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, Banco del Mutuo Soccorso and the other progressive rock masters from the seventies...

 

The opener “Madre dei pensieri” (Mother of thoughts) might occasionally recall Jethro Tull and takes you on an inner journey across dark, cold landscapes. As in a dream, on the raging waters of an unknown sea, the protagonist longs for a harbour where he can feel safe and put the pieces of his broken personality together. Finally he finds the right place and he can listen to some strange songs during an evening celebration. There he asks the priestess to shout up his name while she sings his fate...

The dreamy “Prisma” (Prism) evokes a precious gift falling from the sky, the end of the winter and the return of spring. In the night the protagonist can already see the light of dawn and, as in a kind of trance, he can breathe his own thoughts as if they were nothing but air. Now, outside every form of reality, he feels happy...

The complex “Il suono del tempo” (The sound of time) depicts with notes and hermetic lyrics the relationship between man and time, the desire to be reborn after death and the search for the truth behind useless appearances. As the protagonist unsuccessfully tries to stop the movement of the golden pendulum that marks the rhythm of life, infinity gathers his thoughts...

 

 

“L’eco dei sorrisi” (The echo of smiles) opens softly with vocals on a church like organ background evoking a game of memories, then the rhythm rises dragging you into a vortex of visions... It leads to the epic “Il giardino del re giullare” (The garden of the Jester King) that depicts in music and words a surreal, timeless inner shelter where you heal your wounded pride and recover your dignity, shout for your joy and cry for your pains without fear, aware of all your mistakes and doubts...

“Le cose del nulla” (The things of nothingness) starts by a short bass solo and tells about an otherworldly and cathartic experience, a hypothetical meeting with Cerberus and an infernal journey to find where the fears and all the things that never arrived are hidden... Then the dreamy, acoustic “Illusione” (Illusion) ends the album with an ethereal atmosphere.

On the whole, an interesting work that deserves a try.

You can listen to the complete album HERE

After the band split up keyboardist Giuseppe Iampieri continued his musical career under the pseudonym of Mistheria turning to metal but he has never denied his first love for Italian prog. Giuseppe Iampieri a.k.a. Mistheria: You might not know that, before to begin my career as a classical/metal soloist and before launching my Vivaldi Metal Project, I got started with an Italian Prog-Rock band called "Mirage". The one shot work "Frammenti" is the album that was released in 1994, the first ever album of my career, an album for which I wrote five songs out of seven, both music and words. It's an album that I therefore remember with great affection even though my musical journey went elsewhere later on...

More info: 

https://www.mistheria.com/

 

FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

Ambigram came to life some years ago in Piacenza on the initiative of two experienced musicians such as Beppe Lombardo and Max Marchini who gathered around them a kind of super-group to give form to their musical ideas mixing seventies influences and up to date sounds. In 2021 they finally released an excellent eponymous debut album on the independent Ma.Ra.Cash label with a line up featuring Francesco Rapaccioli (lead and backing vocals), Beppe Lombardo (guitars), Gigi Cavalli Cocchi (drums, percussion) and Max Marchini (bass) plus the guests Annie Barbazza (vocals), Max Repetti (piano, keyboards), Marco Rancati (backing vocals), Paola Folli (vocals), Camillo Mozzoni (oboe) and Paolo Tofani (guitar). By the way, an ambigram is a word or drawing that retains meaning when viewed from a different direction or perspective and the art work by drummer and graphic artist Gigi Cavalli Cocchi gives an idea of this concept, with the name of the band on the cover that can be read the same way if viewed upside down...

 

The opener “A Mediterranean Tale” starts softly, the atmosphere is dreamy as the music and lyrics evoke ancient legends and myths related to the Mediterranean sea under a starry sky. From the images of Troy to a charming singing of mermaids, the sea seems to bring its secrets up to the surface and the wind carries them away on the changing rhythm of the waves...

Dreams turn into nightmare in the following “Cerberus Reise” that describes in music and words the meeting with an infernal three-headed beast raising from a concrete rock to angrily rape and kill. But the protagonist is a poisonous, lethal prey that wields a sword of light and is ready to fight back the evil creature...

 

“Pig Tree” starts by an aggressive electric guitar riff, then the music and lyrics lead you on the frontier between good and bad, where there are deep, dark waters under your feet and flashes above still clouds. It might be just a matter of points of views but we live in a world where money rules and where even Alice gives no pills for free to let you enter in wonderland, a world that hides many moons and where many suns shine...

“Sailing Home” every now and again could recall Yes in the first part while the middle section features the female vocals of the guest Paola Folli and recalls Pink Floyd. Your destination is still hidden by the horizon but, as you sail on a calm sea, you can already smell the air of home and dream of the end of your journey...

 

The reflective “Imaginary Daughter” portrays with visionary lyrics and nervous notes a rebellious girl who follows her wild nature and dreams of being a mother in a hostile, poisoned world... Then comes the dramatic “L’absinthe”, a piece dealing with the problem of alcohol addiction. The protagonist wrongly believes that alcohol can destroy his nightmares and help him fighting his inner ghosts. The absinthe sings with voice of a gentle giant lighting the candles of illusion and bringing lost songs from the sky. But eventually the protagonist’s soul cries as he’s led away by madness, broken down...

The introspective “Patchwork” depicts in music and words snowy landscapes and a frozen lake reflecting your thoughts. In just thirty seconds you breathe on curved air, it’s a time with no space nor meaning to create, the moment in which you must begin your personal search to love... Then it’s the turn of “Pearls Before Swine”, a short piece about the cruelty of pig killing: did God create a paradise for them?... A radio edit version of “Cerberus Reise” ends the album...

On the whole, a very interesting work.

You can listen to the complete album HERE

Ambigram: Ambigram (2021). Other opinions: 

Kevin Rowland: These guys should be considered crossover in its truest sense as they are mixing together loads of different styles, and while they often are in neo they definitely bring in other elements while never going to the style often associated with Italian bands of huge banks of keyboards. This is a debut prog album well worth discovering, which repays repeated listenings... (read the complete review HERE)

 

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/ambigramband/ 

IN AND OUT OF FOCUS

Bokeh is a double album containing the remixed and remastered version of Logos’ eponymous album from 1999 and the remastered version of the following Asrava, from 2001. It was released in 2023 on the Andromeda Relix label and distributed by Pick Up Records. According to the liner notes, this is a photograph of the early years of the band, when their artistic identity was still out of focus but their project was full of fresh energies and enthusiasm. As you can guess from the art cover, the aim of the band was to look back at their youth and save those memories from oblivion trying to improve the sound quality of the old tapes but avoiding re-recording and overdubbing to let the magic of the moment linger...

 

The eponymous debut album was recorded in the spring of 1998 and self-released in a few physical copies the following year with an art cover by Luca Zerman inspired by the style of the painter Giorgio De Chirico. According to the official website of the band, it was recorded live in the studio with an old 8-track deck, with all the members playing together, except for the overdubbing of the voices and some guitar solos. From a sound quality point of view the result was very far from perfect, but the band is still very proud of it, in particular of the long suite “Il grande fiume”, inspired by Herman Hesse's novel Siddhartha and of “Sentiero nel prato, porta nell’universo”, which tells of the meeting between a child and an alien. Given the quality of the sources, the band couldn’t do miracles but, in my opinion, the result is remarkable...

 

Logos’ second album, Asrava, was recorded in Verona between August 2000 and January 2001. The art cover by Luca Zerman tries to describe the musical and lyrical content, harder and darker if compared with their previous work. The overall sound quality is better since the band spent a lot of time in the studio working painstakingly to properly record all the pieces in a satisfactory way. Originally it was self-released in a few physical copies and, unfortunately, in 2001 it went under the radar but it’s an excellent work and the new version offers to possibility to fully appreciating it...

On the whole, I think this double CD is an excellent chance to complete your Italianprog collection with two very interesting albums in a restored version and a beautiful packaging. It’s a kind of gift the band made to their fans and I’m happy about it.

Judge by yourselves, you can listen to the complete album HERE

More info:

https://www.logosprog.it/