UNIVERSI PARALLELI

I first heard ARTI E MESTIERI's debut "Tilt" back in 2009 and was promptly blown away. I had never heard a drummer who was so over the top as Furio Chirico. Well, these days Marco Minnemann is that drummer who doesn't know when to let up, and he has nothing on Furio. "Tilt" is a five star masterpiece that combines RPI and Jazz/Fusion perfectly. Their second album is incredible as well, just a notch down. I sort of lost track of this band after that, although they kept fairly active into the eighties before going dormant until the 2000's when we got some new music and some live events.

"Universi Paralleli" might be their final release considering this was released over 40 years after "Tilt". The guys are getting up there in age. Mind you only three original members are on this latest, plus some young guys. One of the original guys is sax player Arturo Vitale but he just plays on one track as a guest. The other two mainstays are of course our drummer Furio, plus multi-instrumentalist Gigi Venegoni who also mastered and mixed this album. It sounds amazing. Mel Collins of KING CRIMSON fame adds sax on two tracks as a guest. We get vocals in Italian on four tracks and they are okay. I can take or leave them but lean towards the latter.

So counting the vocalist we have a seven piece band here. This album comes across as a violin led, RPI/ Jazz Fusion affair. The violin dominates as much as Furio dominated on "Tilt". The symphonic output is high on this record. So yes a different flavour than what we heard from that debut from some 40 years earlier, big surprise. I don't love this album but for sure this is a four star recording. The musicianship is worth the price of admission. Check out that eleventh track where we get a 2 1/2 minute drum solo. Nice. And thanks Furio.