SIEGFRIED, IL DRAGO E ALTRE STORIE

With its mellotron washes and frequent acoustic guitar backing, ERRATA CORRIGE's sole 1970s album evokes the classic by CELESTE, but it has a harder edge at times, and also lacks the simple melodic warmth, opting for a more subtle, jazz tinged feel, abetted by swirling flutes and well-placed piano work. Hence comparisons to PFM and other Italian giants are not out of place.

While the album only has one official "suite", even "Siegfried (Leggenda)" moves through a number of short seemingly disjointed phases. I find that these detract somewhat from the experience, resulting in a pleasant but only mildly satisfying album. "Siegfried (Mito)" and the bonus cut "Saturday Il Cavaliere" stand alone better as complete songs, as the variations are more in service of an overarching theme. The latter is actually sung in English and sports a more developed melody not without similarities to a mellow JETHRO TULL. The second bonus is a live version of the same song, of shockingly poor production quality, which is refreshingly spacey on first listen but best skipped afterwards.

With a mildly recommended debut album lacking in true highlights but brimming with potential, Errata Corrige is a group that wasn't given enough time to really make mistakes let alone correct them.