MAPPAMONDO

After the 76' debut Errata Corrige's line-up took a shake with Cremona and Giovine leaving the band, replaced by Arti & Mestieri's Arturo Vitale on sax, Paolo Franchini on bass and Esagono's Giorgio Diaferia on drums.However their sound would take a downfall compared to their progressive roots, ending up being far too commercial.A compilation of tracks recorded in 1977 by this second line-up along with the very first compositions of the group were offered in 1992 by Mellow Records.

The five opening compositions belong to the early tapes recorded by Errata Corrige prior to their debut album.These are soft, elaborated and highly melodic Symphonic Rock compositions with little space for vocals and plenty of instrumental themes, though the constant use of synths sounds a bit annoying at moments.The long opening piece ''The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner'' is actually great with some full-blown guitar melodies blended with careful keyboard work and sensitive Italian vocals.The rest of these pieces are even softer and completely instrumental with constant use of piano and synthesizers, less dominant guitar parts and even some pre-New Age themes with an almost Electronic taste.Decent music that lacks energy, but what really impresses the listener is that this sound would perfectly fit in an 80's/90's album than a mid-70's one.

The rest of the album belongs to cuts recorded by the second Errata Corrige line-up and has nothing to do with the aforementioned sound.These four pieces show strong Jazz, Funk and Melodic Pop influences with strong use of Vitale's saxes, plenty of warm Italian vocals with great vocal arrangements at times and heavy presence of brass sections, like being recorded by a totally different group.Pretty enjoyable stuff for what it is, but far from trully interesting.

Errata Corrige disbanded in late-70's and the only member strongly linked with Italian Prog after their demise was multi-instrumentalist Marco Cimino, who played with Arti & Mestieri, Esagono and Venegoni & Co. among others, while he was also a founding member of the Jazz-related label Mu.

This second Errata Corrige offering by Mellow Records shows the group's limits regarding the style, delivering pieces from dreamy Symphonic Rock to fairly commercial Melodic Jazz/Pop.All are pretty cool, but far from special.Still this documentary release has good moments to offer as a whole.Recommended.