AMORE ONIRICO

`Amore Onirico' is a spur of the moment stop-gap release from modern Italian progressive music icon Fabio Zuffanti, not only a musician with involvements in several bands such as Finisterre, La Maschera di Cera, Höstsonaten, La Curva di Lesmo and Christadoro, but who has also served as a mentor of sorts to all kinds of younger bands like Oxhuitza, Unreal City and Il Paradiso Degli Orchi amongst many others. This twenty-odd minute EP comes across as a spontaneous and frequently improvised collection of short and unpolished fragments of song ideas, jumping through a selection of twisted and lively experimental pop/rock and sparse ballads with stream-of-consciousness rambling lyrics and plaintive vocals. All of the pieces are mostly stripped back to light combinations of guitar, voice and/or piano, more or less resembling demos or one-take performances.

Although this is probably the closest Fabio has come to a canzone d'autore (singer/songwriter) album, it's hardly the man merely singing away backed by his acoustic guitar - opener `Canzone per Avere Paura' is swamped in grungy feedback, `Fuori dal Locale' and `Io Non So Cosa Fai's strident guitar strums and sprightly direction changes feel like they could have come from a recent Steven Wilson solo disc or one of his cover singles, and `Il Bollettino Dei Morti' has melting spacey moments that bristle with a hint of danger. The spectral `Il mio Gatto ' Un Cane' is a fragile highlight, `La Risposta' is wistful and delicate, `Stavo Male?' another stark ballad with stronger rises and `Tua Madre Ti Ha Preso' holds pristine piano and a final showcase for Fabio's raspy voice.

`Amore Onirico' is hardly essential, but it does provide a fascinating look at one of the multiple hats that Mr Zuffanti likes to wear as an artist, and is another reminder that each new collaboration and project he gets behind will be completely unpredictable and entirely different to the last. Be aware that it's as far from `prog' as possible, and it will be much more appealing to those who speak and understand Italian, but if you're curious, you might want to snap up one of the limited edition cassette copies - only 100 copies, so hurry up!

Three stars.