L'ISOLA DI NIENTE

The 1960s was an amazing era where the worlds of rock, jazz and classical music started to fuse and in the process began siphoning up every other musical style around the world to craft some of the most experimental music of all time. This creative explosion culminated in the early 1970s with progressive rock bands taking all these possibilities to their extremities with some of the most talented and creative bands crafting some of the most demanding listening experiences by 1973 and 1974. The Italian rock scene may have gotten off to a slow start but quickly made up for lost time with top dog bands like PREMIATA FORNERIA MARCONIA proving to be not only the most versatile but the most creative and technically gifted while continuing to evolve at breakneck speed as the prog arms race reached staggering new levels of complexity by 1974.

After delivering its two immediately enduring masterpieces of Italian symphonic prog with the double dose of "Storia Di Un Minuto" and "Per Un Amico" in 1972, the band found international fame and followed with an English version language of some of its music in the form of "Photos Of Ghosts" in 1973. By 1974 PFM was an international sensation representing its homeland as one of the most innovative and productive nations in the world of excellent prog although most bands would not be heard due to most artists' insistence of using the Italian language. PFM continued to release Italian language albums but by 1974 was wise enough to release two versions of its album L'ISOLA DI NIENTE (The Island of Nothing) with an international edition title "The World Became The World" resulting from the very same sessions. Wisely eschewing mere translations of the album's track titles and lyrics, the band employed lyricist Peter Sinfield of King Crimson to construct more realistic English versions which resulted in one of the tracks "Is My Face On Straight" finding its way onto its Italian album version.

A much harder nut to crack than its previous romantically infused and classically inspired symphonic prog, L'ISOLA DI NIENTE ramped up the complexities and influences substantially with a greater emphasis on more avant-prog angular outbursts as well as infusing the world of jazz into its crafty melodic recipe of Italian prog. While the band retained its trademark characteristics of yore, the album expanded the scope of PFM's limitations on its first phase and crafted a series of five distinct tracks that run the gamut of powerful classical choral sections, heavy charged rock and symphonic prog to full-on jazz fusion and funk attacks. Much of the reason for this more eclectic approach resulted from replacing bassist Girgio Piazza with Jan Patrick Djivas who played bass on Area's debut classic "Arbeit Macht Frei." His musical diversity gave the PFM team a much more expansive experimental approach which the band boldly followed along as the prog complexity ratchet was turned ever higher as each year passed.

The title track opens with a sonorous choral performance that makes you wonder exactly what you accidentally put on before the track erupts into a series of jangled guitar riffing sessions that feature a rather subdued vocal style for PFM standards. After over two minutes of what seems like a church service, the band breaks into a heavier rock riffing with bantering bass heft and then a series of time signature-rich guitar antics. The track sets the tone of the album's gist of rotating musical motifs that include the band's usual sensual vocal-led symphonic prog as well as moments of pastoral arpeggiated guitar with full symphonic backing. The track continues through a melodic labyrinth of variations with the return of the jangly guitar rock as well as a second choral interpolation. The track ends with a dreamy outro with melodic space guitar licks offering a taste of Pink Floydian space rock.

"Is My Face On Straight," the first English language track to appear on the usual Italian-only home release is identical to what would appear on the international counterpart "The World Became The World" with the same mix of various motifs that recur with varying instrumental timbres, tempos and dynamics. Staring as a dreamy romantic symphonic prog number that evokes a sense of familiarity, the track suddenly shifts into a jazz-funk number with a feisty energetic flute performance however as the lyrics start a beefy bass groove ups the rock heft and organ prowess into some sort of bridge that takes ushers into high speed guitar licks and eventually morphs into the same motif that began the album after a series of heavy time signature-rich prog workouts. The track ends with a sense of whimsy as the English lyrics narrate a goofier than usual mood setting more reminiscent of England's Canterbury Scene of Frank Zappa.

Side Two begins with "La Luna Nuova" which features a dominant folk dance groove that finds an endless series of virtuosic variations riffing off. The track undergoes a series of groove changes, time signature workouts, key shifts and bouts of chaotic complexity before finding resolution as the opening melodic dance groove which is interpreted throughout its run. The penultimate "Dolcissima Maria" offers a respite from the crazy complexity the album engages in up to this point and offers a light-hearted ballad of sort with a steady melodic flow with few surprises and the most like the romantic symphonic prog that was predictable and less starting on the band's debut. The album closes with the all-instrumental "Via Lumiere" which turns up the prog spigot even further with heavier infusions of jazz and avant-prog bombast and provides an exhausting yet satisfying rotisserie of hi-brow prog workouts for the serious musicians out there. The album mercifully ends though in a repetitive closing sequence that offers a nice soothing recurring melody that pacifies the listener's shattered nerves after such daring and enthusiastic performances that L'ISOLA DI NIENTE unleashes in full fury.

Of the first three albums of PFM, this is the one that takes the longest to warm up to as its simply so convoluted and chock filled with musical ideas that it's impossible to digest it in its entirety without repeated exposures. While melodic in nature, the motifs are steeped with twists and turns and complexities that throw you off but after you have time to digest it all and let it all sink in to that deeper level, the majesty of the album is revealed and then it's utterly addictive as it's an album that you literally want to return to again and again. By far the creative peak of PFM as the band would slowly descend off its high and mighty throne as one of the top dog's of early 70s prog with ever increasing watered down versions of itself. In fact L'ISOLA DI NIENTE offers one of the highlight achievements of the entire world of prog with an insane fusion of rock, jazz, classical and folk music all under one roof with an incessant rotisserie of pacifying melodic hooks punctuated by an uproar of brutal prog complexity. This one has become quite a favorite over time but it certainly took many years for it to percolate to the top ranks of my favorites list.