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A journey through the Italianprog scene |
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andrea 
Prog Reviewer 
Joined: May 20 2005 Location: Italy Status: Offline Points: 2064 |
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 Posted: June 24 2010 at 08:14 |
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ANOTHER COME-BACK!
ALPHATAURUS have recently announced their come-back!
More info:
By the way, if you don’t know who Alphataurus are... Well, Alphataurus were one of the many Italian “one shot bands” of the early seventies. The line up featured Michele Bavaro (vocals), Pietro Pellegrini (keyboards), Guido Wasserman (guitar), Alfonso Oliva (bass) and Giorgio Santandrea (drums). They released only one eponymous album in 1973 for Magma Records, an independent label founded by New Trolls member Vittorio De Scalzi and by his brother Aldo (founder of Picchio dal Pozzo). In 1973 this work went almost completely unnoticed and Alphataurus disbanded after a while during the sessions of a second album that was released, incomplete, only in 1993 by Mellow Records as “Dietro l’urgano”. Nonetheless this eponymous excellent debut work became later a “cult album” among Italianprog fans... It was remastered and re-released by Btf in 1995 and it should be considered a must-have in every Italian prog collection, especially in the papersleeve package...
The art cover is wonderful and perfectly depicts the content of the album. It’s a painting by Adriano Marangoni spread on a three fold jacket featuring white doves with an olive branch in the beak dropping bombs on a dreamy landscape... “You’re going towards the void without a goal by now / Don’t be afraid, come back among us / You have experienced everything, a whole life / In a phoney light you used to build up your reality... It was a pride sin / Remember you’re a man / You can still live on...”. On the long and complex opener “Peccato d’orgoglio” (Pride sin) the mood hangs between dream and nightmare, in the lyrics you can perceive the fear of the nuclear war and the hope for a better world, while the music swings from soft acoustic passages to hard rock, from beautiful harmony vocals to instrumental “electric tarantella” passages that every now and again remind of PFM’s “E’ festa / Celebration”.
“La mente vola” (Mind flies) is another long and complex track that begins with an hypnotic marching beat leading to a sudden wake up featuring dramatic vocals and “moog waves”... “Suddenly you see the sun / You breath the air, you pick up a flower / You don’t know anymore / What you were yesterday... Now you know / What’s the wish to prey / Now you know / What’s the strength to hope...
The last track “Ombra muta” (Silent shadow) is another great one, before the dream comes to an end there’s still time for almost ten music full of beautiful music featuring shifting tempos and inspired vocals... “Then suddenly I woke up / With your voice hanging in my mind / I’m just at one step between the shore and the sea / Looking at the way to start again”...
Edited by andrea - December 27 2010 at 16:34 |
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AtomicCrimsonRush
Special Collaborator 
Honorary Collaborator Joined: July 02 2008 Location: Australia Status: Offline Points: 14258 |
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Posted: June 26 2010 at 09:47 |
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Wow, theres some heavy dutry RPI out there I had never heard of. i cant believe theres so much RPI on the youtube - its incredible. I hope that people begin to appreciate it and appreciate how much work it is to do these blogs. It is a mammoth task and takes hours of work. Great blog. One of the best here and inspired me to do my own blogs too.
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andrea
Prog Reviewer
Joined: May 20 2005 Location: Italy Status: Offline Points: 2064 |
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Posted: July 04 2010 at 09:39 |
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^^^ Thanks for the kind words and... Back to music!
PROG FOLK FROM PIEMONTE AND VAL D’AOSTA
ABNOBA are a prog folk band based in Biella featuring musicians coming from different cities of Piamonte and Val d’Aosta like Paolo Dall’Ara (MySpace) and Vincent Boniface (MySpace). They blend Italian folklore with jazz and other ethnic influences and have released two albums so far...
More info:
Official Website: http://www.abnoba.it/ MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/vaifacileSome members of Abnoba are also involved in another, more folk oriented, project called STYGIENS...
More info:
From Aosta come also a “combat folk” band called that could be of some interest for prog lovers called IUBAL KOLLETTIVO MUSICALE...
More info:
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rdtprog
Special Collaborator
Heavy, RPI, Symph, JR/F Canterbury Teams Joined: April 04 2009 Location: Mtl, QC Status: Offline Points: 5284 |
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Posted: July 04 2010 at 10:32 |
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If you want a see two hours of a day with Arti-Mestieri live in streaming tonight and if you can find the link with all this italian language!
 http://www.euphone.it/webradio.php Good luck! |
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Music is the refuge of souls ulcerated by happiness.
Emile M. Cioran |
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andrea
Prog Reviewer
Joined: May 20 2005 Location: Italy Status: Offline Points: 2064 |
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Posted: July 05 2010 at 13:53 |
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LINGALAD’S NEW ALBUM
LINGALAD are a prog folk band from Bergamo. They have just rleased a new album, La locanda del vento for the independent label Lizard Records. On the video below you can listen to a preview of the album...
Here you can find some old videos...
More info about the band:
Official website: http://www.lingalad.it/
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/lingalad
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andrea
Prog Reviewer
Joined: May 20 2005 Location: Italy Status: Offline Points: 2064 |
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Posted: July 06 2010 at 12:22 |
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PINK CLOUDS AND REVELATIONS...
SEVENTH WILL are a young prog band from Rome that have just released a debut album...
 More info:
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andrea
Prog Reviewer
Joined: May 20 2005 Location: Italy Status: Offline Points: 2064 |
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Posted: July 07 2010 at 16:30 |
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PROG ELEPHANTS...
TURBO ELEPHANT PROJECT, a prog project from Rome...
More info:
ELLEPHANT, a psychedelic prog band from Bologna...
More info:
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andrea
Prog Reviewer
Joined: May 20 2005 Location: Italy Status: Offline Points: 2064 |
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Posted: July 09 2010 at 13:38 |
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JAZZ & CLASSICAL...
REMO ANZOVINO is an artist from Pordenone that blends jazz and calssical music.
His last album, Igloo, features as a guest star PFM’s drummer Franz Di Cioccio...
More info:
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andrea
Prog Reviewer
Joined: May 20 2005 Location: Italy Status: Offline Points: 2064 |
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Posted: July 11 2010 at 05:32 |
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MEDITERRANEAN FOLK...
Three bands from three different Italian regions revisiting traditional folklore and that could be of some interest for Itaianprog lovers... Listening to the samples on Myspace you’ll discover the musicality of three different Italian dialects and three different kinds of Mediterranean folk...
CALICANTO, from Padova
More info:
SANCTO IANNE, from Benevento
More info:
TABERNA MYLAENSIS, from Milazzo
More info:
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andrea
Prog Reviewer
Joined: May 20 2005 Location: Italy Status: Offline Points: 2064 |
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Posted: July 14 2010 at 12:18 |
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TWO NEW RELEASES... IN FREE LEGAL DOWNLOAD!
ALMA SIDERIS is the solo project of Gustavo Pasini (composer and drummer involved also in bands like NOTABENE, CORTE AULICA and LITHOS – see first post on this blog). Alma Sideris’ brand new album “Castelli in aria” features the collaboration of some members of Notabene and of other guest musicians. It can be legally downloaded clicking HERE
SINTESI are a band from Settimo Torinese, near Torino. They started to play together back in the seventies as a “cover band”, then they begun to compose original stuff but never had a great success outside their local area... They have just released a new album, “Terre di confine” that can be legally downloaded for free clicking HERE
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andrea
Prog Reviewer
Joined: May 20 2005 Location: Italy Status: Offline Points: 2064 |
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Posted: July 15 2010 at 14:32 |
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FOLK JAZZ FROM PIEMONTE
FALAFEL PROJECT come from Cuneo and try to blend traditional sounds and jazz in an original and personal way. The line up features Silvio Orlandi (vocals, ghironda, hurdy gurdy), Vincenzo Corino (piano, keyboards), Elisa Aragno (vocals, flute, acoustic guitar), Ferruccio Battaglino (bass) and Manolo Carrone (drums). Sometimes Silvio Orlando and Elisa Aragno play also as a duo...
More info:
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andrea
Prog Reviewer
Joined: May 20 2005 Location: Italy Status: Offline Points: 2064 |
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Posted: July 16 2010 at 13:01 |
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NEWS FROM THE GREY LAGOON
GREY LAGOON are a prog band from Rome (see post #2 on this blog). Their influences range from Canterbury to psychedelia and space rock. In 2006 they released their first self produced work, Syncretic...
At the moment they’re working on a new album dedicated to the memory of Hugh Hopper, “Valentine Days”, scheduled for October 2010 and featuring collaborations with Daevid Allen and Niels Van Hoorn.
A “pre-sale” offer is available... If you are interested, click HERE
More info about the band:
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AtomicCrimsonRush
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator Joined: July 02 2008 Location: Australia Status: Offline Points: 14258 |
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Posted: July 17 2010 at 08:52 |
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Fine prog here - keep it coming
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Finnforest
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Honorary Collaborator Joined: February 03 2007 Location: The Heartland Status: Offline Points: 16913 |
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Posted: July 18 2010 at 09:02 |
Indeed! Andrea's work on modern Italian prog is invaluable.  |
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andrea
Prog Reviewer
Joined: May 20 2005 Location: Italy Status: Offline Points: 2064 |
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Posted: July 19 2010 at 06:38 |
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MORE PROG FROM VENETO...
LE MASCHERE DI CLARA, interesting new experimental project from Verona...
 Info and samples:
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andrea
Prog Reviewer
Joined: May 20 2005 Location: Italy Status: Offline Points: 2064 |
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Posted: July 21 2010 at 13:36 |
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LOCANDA DELLE FATE REUNION
The quality of these videos is horrible, I know, but they’re the proof that Locanda delle Fate are still alive...
They will take part to progvention 2010, more info:
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andrea
Prog Reviewer
Joined: May 20 2005 Location: Italy Status: Offline Points: 2064 |
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Posted: July 22 2010 at 02:36 |
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LE ORME ARE NOT DEAD...
After the departure of Aldo Tagliapietra, drummer Michi Dei Rossi and keyboardist Michele Bon have kept the band alive with the help of other talented musicians... In these videos recently shot at one of their concerts, on 10th July 2010, you can listen to them. On vocals there’s Metamorfosi’s singer Jimmy Spitaleri who alternates with new bass player and singer Fabio Trentini. Former member Tolo Marton appears here as a guest musician on guitar...
Well, the quality of the videos is very far from perfect but at least they can give an idea of what’s going on...
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andrea
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Joined: May 20 2005 Location: Italy Status: Offline Points: 2064 |
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Posted: July 22 2010 at 04:56 |
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The article (first two posts of this blog) is full of hyperlinks that are part of it. All you have to do is click on the links to have pictures, samples, information about bands and Italian cities etc. Since the text is too "heavy" I can not update the article, so have a look at all the pages for more bands, info, videos, pictures etc...
Thanks
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andrea
Prog Reviewer
Joined: May 20 2005 Location: Italy Status: Offline Points: 2064 |
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Posted: July 28 2010 at 11:21 |
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IANVA
Ianva were formed in 2003 on the initiative of vocalist Mercy (former member of bands like Il Segno del Comando, Malombra and Helden Rune) and guitarist Argento (see first post in this thread). They gathered around them musicians coming out from different experiences (from classical to prog) and started to work on a concept album telling a story settled in 1920 in Fiume, when to city was occupied by rebellious troops lead by poet and adventurer Gabriele d'Annunzio.
The excellent debut album “Disobbedisco!” was released in 2006, followed in 2007 by an EP, “Occidente”, containing a very personal version of The Strawbs’ “The Battle”, here settled during World War I and featuring brand new Italian lyrics.
After some line up changes, in 2009 was released by the independent label Antica Fonografia Il Levriero “Italia: Ultimo Atto”, another excellent concept album where the band revisit some dark and controversial episodes of recent Italian history. On this second full length work the line up features Mercy (vocals), Stefania T. D’Alterio (vocals), Fabio Gremo (nylon string guitar, backing vocals), Fabio Carfanga (acoustic and electric guitar, backing vocals), Francesco La Rosa (drums, percussion), Giuseppe Spanò (piano, backing vocals), Azoth (bass), Roby Nappo Calcagno (trumpet and Davide La Rosa (bandoneon, percussion, backing vocals). The overall sound is enriched by many guest musicians like, among others, former member Argento (backing vocals on “Bora”) and Elisa Montaldo, keyboardist of a very interesting emerging band called Il Tempio Delle Clessidre (Indian harmonium, calliope and mellotron). Musical influences range from prog to neo-folk, from Jacques Brel and Fabrizio De André to Ennio Morricone and Armando Trovajoli... Anyway it would be unfair considering this album only from a musical point of view. Ianva’s music is always tightly linked to lyrics and it’s conceived just as a way to underline what the band try to express all along this complex album, providing colours and evoking emotions.
The opener “Prologo” (Prologue) features an evocative piano pattern and recitative vocals that sound like a gloomy prophecy... “The future is impending and apocalyptic, children are torn away from the resemblance with their fathers and thrown towards a future that, although keeping the troubles and the miseries of the present, will be different because of something immense and dark...”. The words have been taken from the “Lutheran Letters” by Pier Paolo Pasolini (Italian poet, film director and committed intellectual linked to the left wing movements) and represent a warning about the dangers of the degeneration of the ancestral values. A question rises, what could happen as a consequence of the loss of “the honesty of the fathers and of the mothers” in the name of a “democratic anxiety” emphatically displayed? Next track “Dov’eri tu quel giorno” (Where were you on that day?) is more elaborated featuring dark choirs, strings and duelling trumpet and trombone... It’s a bitter criticism against the people who, after September 8th 1943, when the Italian army melted (well, about this subject I suggest to watch a beautiful film by Luigi Comencini, starring Alberto Sordi, “Tutti a casa - Everybody Go Home” - YouTube), hurried up to help the allies jumping on the bandwagon with the winners forgetting what they were doing until the day before... Where were they on the day when Mussolini asked from his balcony in Piazza Venezia (YouTube) “Do you want bread or guns”? They were singing in the choir and now... “On a new score / You move your mouth / One cycle is over / It’ time for the next...”.
“Galleria delle Grazie” is about the bombardment on Genoa in Autumn 1942, a time when Italy was an “importer of Democracy”. In a air-raid shelter hundreds of women and children were killed. The track opens with the sound of an old love song coming out from a cracking record, then sounds of hooters and aircrafts dropping bombs... The atmosphere is dark and dramatic. Lyrics contain a strong criticism against the Italian partisans who let the lights on to make easier the destructive task of the allies and against the style of the “liberators” as well... “What style those liberators! / A rich people’s style, what kind of great gentlemen! / To hit half a barrack they smooth out six city districts...”. But a boy survives and emerges from the ruins with rebellious eyes...
“Negli occhi di un ribelle” (In the eyes of a rebel) opens with a marching beat and dreamy strings... “In the eyes of a rebel there are not only flames / That are lighted by rage, between indignation and condemn / There are fast passages of smiling ghosts as well / Like sunrays piercing through the clouds... In every civil war / Ideologies clash and come out that special breed of dreamers, romantics and fools / Fated to the grave or to the prison...”.
The short symphonic “La stagione di Caino” (The season of Cain) is about the civil war between partisans and Fascists, Italians against Italians protagonists of a bloody vendetta. I suggest to watch a film by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, “La notte di San Lorenzo” (The Night Of The Shooting Stars - YouTube), to get the right mood for this track... All in all it’s conceived as film score!
“Luisa Ferida” is about an actress, Luisa Ferida, a star during the years of the Fascism, condemned to death by the CLN (The National Liberation Committee) although she was innocent and pregnant because she was reputed as a symbol of Fascism. Her last hours are described as through the lens of some cameras shooting a last film. But in the end here the cameras are nothing but the guns of the firing squad. “New score: an infamous role... No need for the truth... She is Luisa, Luisa Ferida... Look at her one more time when she’s alive / You are the cameraman who is going to frame her / It’s your turn... Read the charges / That’s your film!”. The theatrical vocals by Stefania T: D’Alterio here are absolutely great.
“Bora” is a gloomy ballad evoking a ghastly dance. Bora is the name of a strong wind that blows from North East upon Trieste and Istria... “I can hear the echoes of a celebration / They’re carried by the wind / In a while they will be here / They’re dancing the Kolo / No style nor decency but a great vitality / Doctrine supports hatred / They think that the right way to begin / Is erasing the tracks that history left on this land...”. In 1945 the Yugoslavian communist army lead by Tito occupied Trieste and Istria beginning an ideological and ethnical clearance... Recently the three presidents of Italia, Slovenia and Croatia attended a “reconciliation concert” in Trieste, featuring choir and orchestra composed by musicians coming from the three countries directed by Maestro Riccardo Muti, but for many people it’s still hard to deal with this subject.
“In compagnia dei lupi” (In wolves’ company) features another great theatrical performance by Stefania T. D’Alterio who this time plays the role of a maid in the service of influent and rich people. In 1952 during a party in a villa near Rome an “escort-girl” died because of an overdose of cocaine. Many politicians and influential people of the new Italian Republic took part to the party. The corpse was taken away and abandoned on the near shore, later the scandal was in some way smothered. The maid had to help to hide what happened... She wonders how long it will take to get rid of such a political class and for seeing them hanging on a rope, twenty years of Fascism in comparison will seem just a few months... “While we were coming back I was wondering / I’m in the wolves’ company...”. This track was inspired by a famous Italian scandal, the “Montesi Affair”.
“Cemento armato” (Reinforced concrete) deals with the period of the years of lead. It’s a very original and interesting track, no lyrics but slogans of opposed extremists mixed to police hooters and noises evoking the riots of the seventies set mood and... rhythm!
During the seventies in Italy terrorism stormed. Among the terrorists of the left wing and of right wing there were many girls. “Pasionaria” is a melancholic ballad dedicated to one of them. The music reminds of Fabrizio De André and of “Spaghetti Western” scores. A feeling of deep disdain towards the people that used to ride the rage of extremism the seventies and now pontificate shines through. “Remembering you makes me blood again...”.
“Piazza dei Cinquecento” is another dark track. It’s an elegy inspired by the murder of Pier Paolo Pasolini. It begins with a delicate acoustic guitar part, then strings come in while the soaring vocals of Stefania D’Alterio depict a rainy Italian Sunday in November... Well, it is strange such a kind of tribute to an intellectual of the left wing, even if atypical, coming from a band with a very different political point of view.
The introspective “L’estate dei silenzi” (The summer of the silences) is settled during the summer of 1980, the summer of the bomb attack in Bologna Railway Station (The Bologna bombing) and of the mysterious “accident” of an aircraft in the sky of Ustica... It describes the feelings of the protagonist when he received the news during his summer holiday on a beach in Tuscany.
The last track is the long and martial title track “Italia: Ultimo Atto” (Italy: Last Act), a venomous invective against the “normalization” of the eighties and nineties. The degradation of the values of Italian society is depicted as stronger than ever... “Void / You can’t stop to fall / Every time there is a lesser evil / That you have to swallow / Until the next one / The will be even worse...”. It’s normal then invoke a change and try to wake the sleeping consciences pushing them to reflect on the roots of the present... A great finale for a very bold album!
Last but not least, a word about the beautiful art work and packaging, featuring a 28 pages booklet full of pictures and containing commentaries to the lyrics. It’s an essential complement to the concept, almost a guide through some painful vortexes of the Italian collective memory...
More info about the band:
Official Website: http://www.illevriero.it/ianva/index-e.asp
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/ianva
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Finnforest
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator Joined: February 03 2007 Location: The Heartland Status: Offline Points: 16913 |
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Posted: July 28 2010 at 11:40 |
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Great profile Andrea.....you know I LOVE Ianva! |
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AtomicCrimsonRush wrote: