SULLE CORDE DI ARIES

For a thid solo album Battiato introduced a wider and significant line-up.Among his usual collaborators drummer Gianfranco D'Adda and guitarist Gianni Mocchetti we can find Analogy's female frontman Jutta Nienhaus, saxophonist Daniele Cavallanti from the Experimental/Folk act Aktuala and several less known musicians like Gianni Bedori on tenor sax, Jane Robertson on cello and Gaetano Galli on oboe.Entitled ''Sulle corde di Aries'', the album was released in 1973 on Pino Massara's Bla Bla label.

This was another step towards experimental music forms blended with Prpg tastes by Battiato, where the music is heavily driven by his atonal synthesizer exercises.The long ''Sequenze e frequenze'' is almost entirely built around his analog synths and obcure electronic loops with a few high-tone vocals and sax lines in its first part, somewhere between Avant-Prog and Folk, while after the middle it's all about Electronic/Avant-Garde music with hypnotic, repetitive and spacey keyboards, supported by somekind of sampled vibraphones.The first and last track of the opening side will be followed by ''Aries'' on the flipside of the LP, a Psych/Space Rock piece with discreet, crying guitars, haunting male chants and Bedori's excellent, blasting sax work towards the end.''Aria di rivoluzione'' is propably the closest cut to Italian Prog, featuring Nienhaus'es German narration among Battiato's Italian vocals in a very lyrical enviroment, supported by percussions, clarinet and another couple of minutes with nice Jazz/Folk sax lines.''Da oriente ad Occidente'' has a very nostalgic atmosphere with great Italian vocals and a very folky atmosphere, based on Galli's oboe and the acoustic changes between Batiatto's calimba and Mochetti's mandolin with some dark, improvised atmospheres during the closing minutes.

The later albums of Battiato shifted towards even more experimental and minimalistic music forms depending on the releasing period, mostly grounded in Avant-Garde, Modern Classical, New Wave and Electronic fields, thus being of marginal rock interest.Still he is fairly considered among the greatest contemporary Italian composers with a huge discography of diverse musical background.

''Sulle corde di Aries'' is definitely a monumental album of Experimental Rock and a daring listening for all fans, who consider themselves as progressive listeners.Eeerie, mysterious progressive music with folky ovetones and lovely vocal work.Recommended.

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