CELESTE [AKA: PRINCIPE DI UN GIORNO]

A delicate and prettified pastoral prog album, recorded in 1974 but delayed for two years until it crept out on the Grog label. In principle, delaying the release wasn't necessarily a terrible idea - the Italian market had been so flooded with similar material from 1972 to 1974 that giving it a bit of time to clear wasn't a completely wrong-headed move, but fashions had moved on by the time it was released and so until the reunion albums in the early 1990s Celeste were doomed to be yet another RPI one-album wonder. Here, the album is elevated above the typical Trespass-era Genesis-worshipping fare by the strong musicianship; Mariano Schiavolini's acoustic guitar is a particular highlight, and few prog fans can resist an album incorporating not one but two skilled Mellotron players.