COLLAGE

Collage is Italian Symphonic prog rock band Le Orme´s second album. I enjoyed their debut album partially but I wasn´t too impressed. It´s a pleasant album but not very challenging. Things have changed since the very sixties dominated debut album and Le Orme has definitely stepped into the seventies.

The music is very influenced by Emerson Lake & Palmer with lots of classical keyboard runs but Le Orme has not entirely left the soft sixties rock behind. Le Orme consist of three musicians and like Emerson Lake & Palmer drums, bass, keyboards and singing is what we´re treated to here on Collage. It´s very beautiful at times and sometimes like with ELP I´m not too impressed, but generally the songs are good. The Italian vocals will probably scare some away, but the vocals are exactly what makes this album distinct and original IMO.

The musicians play very well and keyboardist Toni Pagliuca needs to be mentioned for his skillful playing.

The sound quality is clean and nice. It´s a very good production from an early seventies band.

Collage is a 3 star album in my book. It´s a bit too influenced by ELP, but with the Italian vocals Le Orme is an original band after all. Collage is a good album but this is not my favorite symphonic prog rock style. I´m not a very big fan of ELP and as a consequence of that Le Orme is not my favorite band either. At least that is true on Collage. I might get hooked later.