RACCOMANDATA CON RICEVUTA DI RITORNO (often shortened to RRR) formed in Rome, making their live debut in 1972. Like so many progressive bands in Italy in the seventies, they released one album and split up until an unexpected reformation in 2010. Vocalist/guitarist, Luciano Regoli had played with IL RITRATTO DI DORIAN GRAY, and drummer Francesco "Froggio" Francica and flute/sax player Damaso Grassi spent some time in PANNA FREDDA. Their live debut was at the Villa Pamphili pop festival, and they became regulars on the festival circuit between 1972 and 73 until splitting up due to little interest in their album, "Per... Un Mondo Di Cristallo." Regoli and guitarist Nanni Civitenga then helped form SAMADHI. Francica, Grassi and keyboardist Stefano Piermarioli--without bassist Manlio Zacchia--recruited additional players (Roberto Gardin on guitar, Gianni Colaiacono on bass, Massimo Balla on sax and Mandrake playing percussion) and continued a while longer using the band name in a more jazz orientated direction. Unfortunately there is no recorded output of this line up. Francica would also play on "Fiaba," the second album from PROCESSION and later with KALEIDON. Regoli was later to drop out of music and became an artist."Per... Un Mondo Di Cristallo" was released in 1972 and like many great RPI albums drew its sound from many contrasting styles. This includes hard rock, jazz, classical, melodic pastoral and even eastern influences. There is a generous usage of flute, sax, keyboard (especially organ), and acoustic and electric guitar. Both the music and the subject matter (an astronaut who returns after a long voyage, discouraged by the horrible earthly scenes he observes from a cliff) call to mind the more adventurous RPI bands such as OSANNA, SEMIRAMIS and IL BALLETTO DI BRONZO, although not quite to their level in either quality or edginess. Line-up / Musicians Luciano Regoli/vocals,guitar Nanni Civitenga/guitar Stefano Piermarioli/keyboards Francesco Froggio Francica/drums Manlio Zacchia/bass Damaso Grassi/saxophone,flute Discography(Album)
Per... Un Mondo Di Cristallo 1972
1.Nulla 2.Su Una Rupe 3.Il Mondo Cade 4.Nel Mio Quartiere 5.L'Ombra 6.Un Palco Di Marionette 7.Sogni Di Cristallo
This album offers a pleasant instrumental musical voyage to the world of classical psychedelic progressive rock elements. Neat walls of raw organs, guitars, bass and furiously rolling drums summon forth a pleasant realm of acid rock where one can relax by escaping troubles of logical reasons. Violin fits marvelously as a supporting solo instrument to the sound context, strengthening the sound perfectly. Fast grooves are counterbalanced with quieter sequences and short pieces building up from guitar chord progressions and flute interludes. In the middle of the record jazzy lounging for fuzzy guitar in a relaxed hippie glade follows, allowing to be enrichened with dialogues for violin and keyboards. In the later part of the album are discovered very beautiful classic music melodic tunes, first with flute and harpsichord madrigal, then followed with a piece for violin accompanied with organs and bass guitar. Hollow calls indicate return to more atavistic levels of surreal rock poetry, leading to strongly riffed heavy acid jazzy groove. Funky and vital turns twist a delightful trip in progressive rock styled treatments of jazz standards, giving associations of early German art rock bands sound. After a traditional chamber quickie, the album closes to a melancholic tune with beautifully weeping violin and subtle support from the group. Line-up / Musicians Hiro Yanagida/organ,harpsichord Kimio Mizutani/guitars Hiro Tsunoda/drums Hiroki Tamaki/violin Keiju Ishikawa/bass Nozomi Nakatani/flute Discography(Album)
Milk Time 1970
1.Love St. 2.Running Shirts Long 3.When She Didn't Agree 4.Happy, Sorry 5.Yum 6.Love T 7.Fish Sea Milk 8.Fingers Of A Red Typewriter 9.Milk Time 10.Me And Milk Tea And Others
The name of the band alone tells you what you're in for with this one. In Greek Mythology, a cornucopia was the horn of the goat that suckled Zeus and when it broke off it became filled with fruit and in subsequent folklore it became full of whatever its owner desired. In this case we get an overflowing abundance of the culmination of really everything musically psychedelic and this album is in a way the pinnacle of the Krautrock scene in the early 70s.CORNUCOPIA released this one album in 1973 that, despite being one of the better albums in the genre, has fallen off the radar of most progressive music listeners into obscurity. The band is quite ambitious with this release with seven musicians and every idea under the sun peeking in and out of the musical flow never really going anywhere in particular but always delivering a pleasant sonic route on the way to wherever they wish to steer us, but always remaining true to the Krautrock experience.The album has an epic feel with two longer tracks and two shorter tracks. The album begins with "Day Of A Daydream Believer." No Monkees influences here, this track begins with a demented organ that slowly fades in and then takes us on a psychedelic roller coaster ride that lasts almost 20 minutes. After the first track we get a little breather from the heaviness of the opener with a throwback to a simpler 60s psychedelic pop song "Morning Sun." It's a mere bump in the road as the next epic track "Spots On You Kids" picks up the frantic and unpredictable pace of the first track. Line-up / Musicians Wolfgang Bartl/bass,vocals Wolfgang Gaudes/drums,percussion,guitar Christoph Hardwig/keyboards,guitar,vocals Rudy Holzhauer/percussion Wolfgang Kause/vocals Harry Koch/percussion,vocals Kai Henrik Moller/guitar,vocals Jochen Petersen/saxophones,flute,guitar Discography(Album)
Full Horn 1973
1.Day of a Day-Dream Believer 2.Morning sun 3.Spots on you, kids 4.And the madness
Opera Prima is a fairly obscure Italian symphonic prog album from the duo of keyboard player Paulo Rustichelli and drummer Carlo Bordini. Sadly this album released in 1973 remains their only collaborative effort. Bordini is perhaps better known to RPI fans for playing in the pre- Goblin outfit Cherry Five. Rustichelli following in his father Carlo's footsteps has gone on to compose Italian film scores amongst his achievements. This is a keyboard dominated record; in fact the duo are the only musicians to play on the album. The music ranges from sublime passages of restrained piano to more bombastic Hammond fuelled moments, the sound palette widened with the use of synths and often reminiscent of ELP. The standard of playing is not surprisingly excellent as in the main are the compositions, surprisingly mature considering the young age of Rustichelli, the only downside being some decidedly rough vocals. Line-up / Musicians Paolo Rustichelli/organ,pianos,mellotron,vocals Carlo Bordini/drums,percussion Discography(Album)
Opera Prima 1973
1.Nativita 2.Icaro 3.Dolce sorella 4.Un cane 5.E svegliarsi in un giorno 6.Cammellandia
Probably the most charismatic figure of all the Italian prog scene, Antonio Bartoccetti (ANTONIUS REX) began his career going to Milan from the Marche, forming JACULA, "Dietro Noi Deserto" (even with a single on Decca in 1971!), and "Invisible Force" (another lonely single in 1971). Not real bands but just a group of musicians working beyond the leading figures of Bartoccetti and Doris Norton (aka FIAMMA DALLO SPIRITO).Their first album, in 1969, was recorded in London and only released in a strictly limited number of copies (300 + 10 promos) that were only partly distributed by the producer and label owner to sects. An album full of dark atmospheres, mainly based on guitar and church organ and with no drums. In 1971 two singles were released under different names: first as "Invisible Force", with two tracks that later reappeared in "Tardo Pede In Magiam Versus" and "Zora"; the B-side 1999 mundi finis, later re-released as U.F.D.E.M. and "Morte Al Potere" is one of their classics. The second single that year appeared under the name of "Dietro Noi Deserto", this time Bartoccetti was the bass player and composer of both tracks; this seems to be the only proper group which he has played with, and the style is closer to late 60's psychy beat than progressive.Second album, and usually considered their first proper release, was "Tardo Pede In Magiam Versus", also released in limited number of copies for an unknown label (this seems to be a constant in all the Bartoccetti production) and housed in a cover sporting the same design as the previous one, but coloured instead of the original black and white.The medium Franz Parthenzy is also listed in the line-up along with the three official members Antonio Bartoccetti, Fiamma Dallo Spirito and Charles Tiring. Long instrumental spectral organ parts are the main ingredient of this album, that has in the suggestive U.F.D.E.M. (also on the "Invisbile Force" single) probably their best track. Dark atmospheres abound and some tracks, like the spoken (in bad english) Long black magic night can be boring for many listeners.In 1974 a new name change to ANTONIUS REX and an album called "Neque Semper Arcum Tendit Rex". Despite a contact to release it on Vertigo, the label considered it to be too outrageous, with the black and white cover reproducing a 17th century "diabolic" letter and strong lyrics, especially in the Devil letter track. The album was planned for release on drummer Albert Goodman's Darkness label, but it never went over a promo issue. So the first real commercially released ANTONIUS REX is "Zora" from 1977, on the small Tickle label and, again, with an outrageous cover that was replaced with a different one a year later. "Zora" is not a great album, despite its collectibility, and includes some reworkings of tracks from JACULA's "Tardo Pede In Magiam Versus" (Morte al potere is a third revised version of U.F.D.E.M.); their main elements are as usual church organ, dark atmospheres, lyrics dealing with occultism. The four tracks on the album were all composed by Bartoccetti along with Franco Mussita and Angelo "India" Serighelli from I Raminghi, both also listed among the LP contributors. The second issue includes an extra fifth track. "Ralefun" is definitely much less dark than anything else they made, more varied and the sound is richer with the addition of flute and bass guitar (with guest appearences by Marco Ratti and Hugo Heredia), but some ventures into different music styles don't always work very well.Very mysterious characters, JACULA/ANTONIUS REX never liked concerts, their only live appearance ever as JACULA has been made in Milan in front of a 45 people audience while AANTONIUS REX apparently had a tour in 1979, and have always liked to do what they wanted, without the record companies restrictions and obligations. 2001 has seen the official re-release of two of the rarest JACULA/ANTONIUS REX productions, "In Cauda Semper Stat Venenum" and "Anno Demoni", both by italian independent label Black Widow. An official reissue of AANTONIUS REX' 1974 first album "Neque Semper Arcum Tendit Rex" has just been released in late 2002, while a reissue of "Praeternatural" is finally out in late 2003. Line-up / Musicians Antonio Bartoccetti/guitar,vocals Doris Norton/keyboards,vocals Albert Goodman/drums Discography(Album)
Zora 1977
1.The Gnome 2.Necromancer 3.Spiritualist Seance 4.Zora 5.Morte al Potere
Som Imaginário (Imaginary Music) is a Brazilian band from the 70s. They joined together to support Milton Nascimento in his first record and shows. Their style comes from jazz, classic and rock until popular Brazilian music and bossa nova, with strong Beatles influence. They recorded three albums in the 70s and an album live with Milton Nascimento in 1974 releasing them in a boxset in 1997, but it was limited edition. Famous people were Imaginary Music: Naná Vasconcelos, Robertinho Silva, José Rodrix, Toninho Horta, Wagner Tiso, Tavito and Marco Antônio Araújo. This last person recorded four very progressive albums later, but unfortunately died in 1986. The first and second Som Imaginário albums follow the psychedelic line with Beatles and pop influences. José Rodrix left the band, and Wagner Tiso (ex W-Boys jazz band) leaded the band for the new album. The third album "A Matança do Porco" (The slaughter of the pig) is an all instrumental album (with voices but no lyrics), following the fusion and symphonic direction. Some people prefer their first phase, others the third album. Line-up / Musicians Wagner Tiso/keyboards Luis Alves/bass Robertinho Silva/drums Tavito/violin Fredryko/guitar Ze Rodrix/keyboards,vocals,flute Laudir de Oliveira/percussion Nana Vasconcelos/percussion Discography(Album)
This italian band from Parma (Rocky's Filj is from their leader Rocky Rossi's name) gained a contract with Ricordi label after a tour with BANCO DEL MUTUO SOCCORSO.Their only album, Storie di Uomini e Non (1973) is jazz-rock oriented with original vocals and very well made instrumental parts, symphonic touches and sax in evidence, sometimes a la KING CRIMSON. The opening track "L'Ultima Spiasggia" (13:15) is really wonderful with its jaz-rock orientated style maximizing the talented musicians to perform their own instruments from alto sax, baritone sax, clarino, electric guitar, flute, "Fender" bass, trombone, and drums. Not in typical any band where each musician focuses only on one instruments with its similar instrument - this band, like Gentle Giant, plays multi instruments. The primary lead, in addition to sax, is guitar and there are a lot of moments where the themes are doubled by both in a manner also similar to that of OSANNA's early period. The music even has room to jam and give the chance for some solos over the top, including also flute. However, these instrumental segments don't last for long before another full ensemble or vocal segment takes their place. Some critic see in their method of stringing together disparate segments of music some references to PHOLAS DACTYLUS.Rocky's Filj really deserved more consideration, but, unfortunately one of the members was jailed, and the band reappeared only in 1979 with a commercial single recorded with help of ACQUA FRAGILE former member Pier Emilio Canavera. Rocky Rossi sadly died in 1985 in a car accident. Line-up / Musicians Rocky Rossi/sax,clarino,vocals Roby Glabrovitz/guitar,flute Luigi Ventura/bass,trombone Rubino Colasante/drums,bass Discography(Album)
Raminghi were a proto-prog band from Bergamo Italy near Milano. The group was led by bassist and vocalist Franco Mussita. Mussita apparently began his pop career in the early 60s as the CD booklet has great photos of his early band I Nomadi. According to the bio he is "a blend between visionary and stubborn genius combined with a little bit of madness." It is said he arrived on the music scene when the stars of the Italian progressive movement were little more than children. After many years of playing live and paying dues, Nomadi became Raminghi and found a record deal with the Bentler label. Mussita was smitten with the likes of Deep Purple, Vanilla Fudge, Blue Cheer and Uriah Heep and wanted to record music in this vein. They did a couple singles for Bentler before recording Il Lungo Cammino dei Raminghi which translates to "The Long Way of the Rovers." They ended up rather unhappy with Bentler, because the label delayed for too long, insisted they soften their energetic sound a bit, and of course did little to provide promotion.The bands sound varies from quite unique in places to typical in other places. Certainly some sections sound incredibly dated and very 60s, imagine listening to the Italian version of Quicksilver Messenger Service. Some of their music sounds like the theme song to a 60s spy tv show while others sound like bands from the early Haight scene in San Francisco. Swirly organs in the background, thin acid-drenched electric leads, lots of psych moodiness, and some bluesy hard rock influence too. Mussita wails a bit like the singer in the Spanish band Ibio with a big dramatic bellow at times. The drummer is quite good with an understated style. The guitar playing is raw in rhythm mode with a real scrunch to it. Raminghi are not any more "prog" than The Doors are but it is interesting to hear the changes happening right in front of you from the Italian perspective instead of through the California lens of Doors, Airplane, Grateful Dead. Line-up / Musicians Franco Mussita/bass,vocals Angelo Sartori/keyboards Angelo Serighelli/guitar Romeo Cattaneo/drums Discography(Album) Il lungo cammino dei Raminghi 1971
1.Donna Hai Ragione Tu 2.La Nostra Verita 3.Cose Supperate 4.Partire 5.Every day Jesus 6.Non Moriremo Mai 7.Buio Mondo Nero E Giallo 8.Guarda tuo Padre
French band formed in the 70's by guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Richard Pinhas (sometimes called the 'French Fripp'), synth player Patrick Gauthier, drummer François Auger and scores of other musicians dropping in and out over the course of six albums between '74 and '79. Their sound could best be described as a mixture of Frippian guitars with the cold, icy prog of KING CRIMSON and the hypnotic drones of CAN over a harsh, aggressive electronic background.Their six first albums range from fairly spacy and quiet ("Allez Teia") to brain-searing sonic attacks ("Interface"). The easiest one to get into and most recommended to neophytes is "Stand By", their strongest effort to date. It is the least chaotic and most CRIMSON-like of the lot yet still features Pinhas' frenzied/tortured guitar play that verges on heavy metal in spots, complete with growling bass and guttural vocals. In 1998, Pinhas has tried to revive the band with an album called "Only Chaos Is Real", featuring French SF-writers Maurice Dantec and Normand Spinrad (their voices digitally treated) as well as trash singer David Korn. This album isn't quite in tune with the rest, sounding more like 'punk meets techno'. Overall, the music of the original six albums is dark and cold, yet fascinating and intense. It combines the elements of the French and German schools of electronic into something uniquely. Line-up / Musicians Richard Pinhas/synthesizers,guitar Alain Renaud/guitar George Grunblatt/synthesizers Patrick Gauthier/piano,synthesizers Coco Roussel/drums Pierrot Roussel/bass Gilles Deleuze/vocals Discography(Album) Electronique Guerilla 1974
1.Zind 2.Back to Heldon 3.Northernland Lady 4.Ouais Marchais mieux qu'en 68 5.Circulus Vitiosus 6.Ballade pour Puig Antich
RICORDI D'INFANZIA is a real mystery group of the seventies Italian scene. The line-up is unknown but all tracks in the album liner notes are credited to Sica and Budano. Supposedly all members of the group were studio session men. Musically they were rather similar to better-known groups such as METAMORFOSI and L'UOVO DI COLOMBO.The only album "Io Uomo" was released in the pinnacle phase of Italian progressive in 1973. It is a very good album in the heavy progressive style. The music is hard rock with great keyboard (Hammond and piano) work on top of that. The production quality is also very good. After the album the group released a single "Latte e Rhum" with two non-album tracks but after that it was sadly over. Line-up / Musicians Emilio Mondelli/vocals Tino Fontanella/bass Antonio Sartori/drums,percussion Franco Cassina/guitar,vocals Maurizio Vergani/keyboards,vocals Gianni Bari/saxophone Discography(Album) Io Uomo 1973
1.Caos 2.Creazione 3.L'Eden 4.2000 Anni Prima 5.Pregheria 6.Morire O Non Morire 7.2000 Anni Dopo 8.Uomo Mangia Uomo
TROYA is a quite obscure symphonic krautrock inspired german band that was formed in 1972 in Werne an der Lippe by Elmar Wegmann, Klaus Pannewig, Wilhelm Weischer. The band was first called Drastic. They changed the name and the line up to record symphonic psychedelic influenced music based principally on electric guitar, mellotron and vocals. The band disbanded during the end of the 1970s.Influenced by classical and baroque music, in 1976 they released their unique self-financed album; Point of Eruption, with very little means. This album was originally pressed in a quantity of 200 and sold at concerts. It features enchanting melancholic music with long instrumental passages, mainly guitar and organ.The music is symphonic prog and sounds like Camel of Eloy. Line-up / Musicians Elmar Wegmann/guitars,flute,vocals Klaus Pannewig/drums,vocals Wilhelm Weischer/bass Peter Savelsberg/keyboards,Mellotron Discography(Album) Point of Eruption 1976
1.She 2.Battle Rock 3.Chromatik 4.Festival 5.Sinclair 6.Choke
Original release 1972 and recorded Löwe-Studio, Köln (Sept-Nov 1971).Originally released by Zebra records and the sound is strongly keyboard-dominated (organist Volker Plitz composed all the tracks), but there are enough furious guitar leads to satisfy the psych-lover. Similar to other Germans prog outfits like Frumpy, Subject Esq. - Freak EmporiumPinguin's only release, though they had previously made a record under the name of Talix. This is organ-based prog, though with enough guitar leads and saxophone jamming and flute breaks to keep everybody happy. The vocals are in German. All in all this is a very appealing album, highly recommended, an unheralded Krautrock classic! However, Pinguin's sole album for some odd reason avoided the reissue (even non-legit), and it seems unfair, since many far less talented bands (like Grave or Arktis to name but a few) has been already re-released on CD in beautiful packages with archival bonus-tracks etc.The band began in early 1970s as Talix and released one album under this logo, entitled Spuren. With switching from Vogue to the just founded label Zebra (actually a "progressive" sub-label of Polydor), the band changed their name to Pinguin to record the album Der Grosse Rote Vogel in 1972.It was the first LP released by Zebra. Pinguin's sound is strongly keyboard-dominated (organist Volker Plitz composed all the tracks), but there are enough furious guitar leads to satisfy the psych-lover. The music is basically pretty far from typical German kraut-rock, instead it reminds of more "international-sounding" German bands like Frumpy, Subject Esq. and maybe even Faithful Breath. Vocals are pretty strong and though I've been told by my German friend. Mellow lyrical organ-driven parts alternate with heavy guitar outbursts and beautiful flute passages. "Der Blaue Wind" is a pleasant melodic ballad, while "Die Angst" is filled with irresistible rocking energy. Overall, this is a wonderful LP with all the right moves. Line-up / Musicians Klaus Gebauer/vocals Markus Schaub/guitar,percussion,vocals Joe Voggenthaler/guitar,percussion Tom Wohlert/bass,bongo K.D Blahak/drums Volker Plitz/organ,percussion Elmar Kast/saxophone,flute,percussion Discography(Album) Der Grosse Rote Vogel 1972
1.Der grosse rote Vogel 2.Die Angst 3.Der Frosch in der Kehle 4.Der blaue Wind 5.Die Nachtmusik 6.Der Traum
Antonio Sangiuliano, a composer from Tuscany, released his only album in 1978 on RCA. Take off is a mainly instrumental album where Sangiuliano plays every kind of keyboards, being only helped by drums (Derek Wilson and Enzo Restuccia) and a soprano singer (Elisabetta Delicato) in some short parts. The atmospheres remind of some Tangerine Dream's works and the album is rather unusual for the Italian progressive style. First side is taken by the 16 minutes long Time control, while the second side only has two tracks. The album was produced by Adriano Monteduro, who had released his first solo album with Reale Accademia di Musica.Sangiuliano also recorded a second album, Out of breath, but this was never released at the time in Italy and its rights were sold to a japanese record company. Line-up / Musicians Antonio Sangiuliano/keyboards Elisabetta Delicato/voice Derek Wilson/drums,timpani Enzo Restuccia/drums Discography(Album) Take Off 1978
Formed as soon as 68 under the name psychotic reaction, this band evolved in two different era, the group changed their name to Missus Beastly (from the Negro doll Mistress Beastly) but was among the first of the jazz-rock progressive group in Germany, but folded after just one album recorded (soon bootlegged with a totally different artwork) in early 70 with a nascent groundbreaking jazz-rock. It must be said that the happy-go-lucky feeling of that era had the group evolve from the standard prog quartet to a sextet and even a septet within months, obviously not too worried about financial matters, which soon brought the band to the end. The group even managed to have their names stolen from them and an usurping group managed to release a few albums under this name. Nothing was then heard from the original group until the mid-70's, when some ex-members united with former Missing Link keyboardist Miekausch went on to reform the group, although sonically if still jazz-rock, they were nothing like their previous incarnation, being much with the times and sensibly more fusion-esque. The group went on to record three albums with countless line-up changes, but never managed to reach the end of the decade. Missus Beastly's legacy is a bunch of jazz-rock albums that will make Germany one of the prime producer of this type of music, ranging from Kraan, Thirsty Moon, Passport, Release Music Orchestra, Out Of Focus, Missing Link, Embryo and Brainstorm. Line-up / Musicians Norbert Dömling/bass,guitar Friedeman Josch/flute,sax Jürgen Benz/sax,flute Lutz Oldemeier/drums Dieter Miekautsch/keyboards Discography(Album) Missus Beastly 1974
Another group from Genova, this young three-piece was one of the Italian bands with the strongest classical influences. They were formed in 1971 by guitarist Dellacasa, that had collaborated with I GIGANTI in their « Terra In Bocca », with the drummer Vitanza only 16 year old! A keyboards trio in the same style as ELP or Le ORME in Italy, their first album was « Passio secundum Mattheum », with Bach-inspired music and lyrics on the Gospel. This Genova based band's debut album's magnetism lies primarily in its concept which, as the title suggests, is pertaining to Christ's dramatic last days but only according to a singular source ' the gospel of Saint Matthew, often referred to as the Passions. The beauty behind this concept is that it tells a story in a simple yet heart rending manner, without it being homiletic. Musically speaking the record explores symphonic dimensions reached not only by ELP, but also by Genesis in tracks like Ultima Cena (the intriguing supper coincidence) or Getzemani which oozes an abundance of influences in terms of keys treatment not only from the above mentioned giants, but also from Deep Purple, Yes and even Eloy for that twist of spaceyness. The jazz influence is another chief constituent of the whole, although at first they may seem slightly disconnected from the main theme. Present in both parts of I Testimoni (the witnesses) via piano and drums, it raises a fairly compelling question regarding its presence: why are there emotionless straight-forward jazz sections in a crucial moment of the plot, where the false witnesses accuse Jesus of having declared that he would destroy the temple and then rebuild it in three days? The answer is that the senselessness of the jazz bits overlaps the duplicate attitude of nonchalance and lack of emotion emitted by the witnesses. As seen above, the soundscape manages to intertwine effortlessly with the visual thread, emerging into a burst of sentiments. Thus the emotions grow more and more till they reach an overwhelming apex: from the uplifting choir on Introduzione and the rather mellow acoustic guitar and harpsichord driven Il Giorno Degli Azzimi accompanied by the elegant narration of the Passover preparations, to the dynamic operatic choir from The Trial; from the witnesses false statements rendered in a counter-tenor vox, in a very similar vein to some of Annas' bits from Jesus Christ Superstar to the yet again mellow and sweet but at the same time excruciating Il Pianto which displays an absolutely beautiful blend of keys, acoustic guitar and flute; from the surprising Giuda where harsh guitars and drums alternate with a jazz section denoting insolence to Il Calvario featuring dramatic operatic choir, morbid church organ keys, and drums reminiscent of ancient ships where they would set the rowing rhythm of the slaves; all this only to paint one of history's most tragic paintings. But because the Providence had other plans, the end fulminates in a reiterated theme of the heavenly choir present at the very beginning of the record accompanied by the now regulars ' guitar, piano and drums. Line-up / Musicians Marcello Giancarlo Dellacasa/guitar,violin,bass,vocals Oliviero Lacagnina/piano,organ,Moog, strings,vocals Alfio Vitanza/drums,bongas,flute,vocals Discography(Album) Passio Secundum Mattheum 1972
1.Introduzione 2.Il Giornio Degli Azzimi 3.Ultima Cena 4.Getzemani 5.Il Processo 6.I Testimoni I 7.I Testimoni II 8.Il Pianto 9.Giuda 10.Il Re Dei Giudei 11.Il Calvario 12.Il Dono Della Vita 13.Mese Di Maggio
Slogans is an Italian progressive rock who release only one album in 1983 named Photosynthesis, and re released on CD by already by famous label Mellow records in 1993 with 5 pieces as bonus (but on the CD is not specified that they are bonuses)recorded live in studio, one track from that bunch Fotosintesi were not on original issue. So what we have here, the album released in a period when prog music was deeply in the shadow of other musical styles such as heavy metal or hard rock, Slogans manage to come with a good album yet very thin and pale in comparison with other releases from that period. Influenced by bands from Italian school like Locanda Delle fate or PFM with romantic arrangements that reminds at some point of German band Rousseau. A swell on most energetic moments like opening track La Festa Del Tiranno, the best piece from here, they have the sound of Genesis - Trick of the tail era. The album has some instrumental pieces , who seems to me the best moments of the album, Bianca gives to the album a romantic feel. Line-up / Musicians Roberto Gamo/vocals,guitar Ivano Tolio/piano,synthesizer,vocals Palmiro Gnoato/bass Marco Carlesso/drums Silvia Bizzotto/vocals Michele Bianchin/synthesizer Discography(Album) Photosynthesis 1983
1.La Festa Del Tiranno 2.With The Sun We Hide 3.Bianca 4.Old Family 5.Aspetto Il Giorno 6.Corri Nel Vento 7.Fastum 8.Smiling Sun 9.Con La Tua Musica 10.L'Altra Faccia 11.La Festa Del Tiranno(Live) 12.Fastum(Live) 13.Fotosintesi(Live) 14.L'Altra Faccia(Live) 15.Old Family(Live)
