The Italian Prog Appreciation den

I guess my puter was glitched, I see i now.

I keep forgetting that this is the Italian Prog Appreciation Thread and not solely meant for RPI...

First take some top notch Italian prog musicians.
Then take soundtracks of some scary Italian TV-plays of the seventies, composed by masters of its genre like Simonetti, Ortolani or Pisano.
And then force those musicians to play cover versions of those tracks, in the same vein Morte Macabre did many years ago.
Force them to use only original instruments as mellotron, minimoog, hammond, theremin, fender rhodes.
Does this sound intriguing enough for you?
Then let's name those musicians: Agostino Macor,Fabio Zuffanti, Mau Di Tollo, Alessandro Corvaglia, Andrea Monetti.
Does this sound like all members of Maschera di Cera put together?
It could be, but for this project they are not.
They call themselves Ombra della Sera.


Edited by infandous - March 26 2012 at 19:01

infandous wrote: Well, I scanned and searched but didn't find this:  L'Ombra Della Sera Info is on http://www.zuffantiprojects.com/ and it's streaming on progstreaming.com at the moment. Supposedly has all members of La Maschera di Cera.  Not bad, if not exactly prog as we know it...

seventhsojourn wrote: infandous wrote: Well, I scanned and searched but didn't find this:  L'Ombra Della Sera Info is on http://www.zuffantiprojects.com/ and it's streaming on progstreaming.com at the moment. Supposedly has all members of La Maschera di Cera.  Not bad, if not exactly prog as we know it...   Cheers, Mike!  The band is currently under evaluation by the RPI Team.

Ah, good to know.  I'm enjoying it.

Opus Avantra - Gluttony (live in Tokyo) 12 april 2008. Music to eat ...

 And it is cool to see Pierrot Lunaire too.

More awesome reviewing from one of our finest.....


Benediktus Und Vobis Quoque, Catafalcus Est Tu
Catafalchi Del Cyber Neo-Prog

Review by seventhsojourn
Special Collaborator RPI Team

Critical disagreements about which subgenre would be most suited to them meant that Catafalchi Del Cyber (CDC) took their sweet time arriving at ProgArchives; it was a bit like waiting for Godot. CDC, a triumvirate that is in fact a quartet, are natives of the Italian region of Mantua and in fact the RPI team had first dibs on them. But they are a distinctly non- Italian band that seemed to have been kicked into the long grass and forgotten about for the best part of last year until the Neo Team rescued them. Unfortunately, having been removed from public sight for so long their debut album failed to make an impact on the 2011 top albums list.

CDC don't exactly pay homage to the rich musical heritage of their homeland although they do create a unique modern sound that's dominated by the typical Italian spirit of eclecticism. Sources close to the group have described them as anti-prog and they take the Dada movement as their model but their album is no musical representation of abstract art. Although a certain incongruity is the band's main dynamic force there is a surprising conformity to their music; while it's neither chaotic nor formless the band manage to create the illusion of spontaneous self-expression through the judicious use of cut and paste. CDC are arguably more Cafe Crimson than the Cabaret Voltaire. Among the unlikely musical combinations and whorish eclecticism of CDC the Mellotron is the one ever- present. This talismanic instrument quickly, and with no little gusto, emerges as the album's master mage, as on the opening track 'E Adesso Facciamo I Soldi' where it swaggers clumsily with the emancipated discipline of a bovine male lumbering through a crockery store.

CDC, these alumni of the absurd, also acknowledge their Catholic heritage (although musically CDC are catholic with a small 'c') and they have an interest in World War II. Whether they see mystic monks or self-harming sociopaths, the album artwork - Padre Pio holding a ghetto-blaster aloft in his stigmata palms while towering over the scene of a military parade - perhaps points to the band's intention to undermine the foundations of political, social and spiritual slavery. German flags and abstracts of Romish clergy in grotesque parrot-billed masks reinforce the cardboard cutout absurdity of the unreconstructed morons of a fascist regime. The Marinettian flourishes are also evident within the music and 'Benediktus' could be symbolic of the fall of fascism and the end of Papal Rome. It starts off with a sound sample possibly taken from a religious rally and develops into a strange two-part space canticle. The overall effect is like a demoniacal bossa nova of hysterical howls with the Weird Sisters' feline familiars fighting like cat and dog.

The synthesizer effect on 'Dark Deglutation' sounds like a supernatural cocktail of thick curling incense and squirting gyzym, then the Mellotron opens up like the relaxed knees of a pro who's fallen off the reform wagon. For a band that nurses a Dada ambition this track would seem to be propelled by the same impulse of Duchampian heads giving head that are found inside the album's gatefold. The emotional disturbance of this track is contrasted by the beautiful and calm 'Ocean' where a womb of warm wet circles gradually ripple and swell until - boom! - the guitar roars high above the Mellotron deep water like the girdler of Earth emerging from a drug-induced slumber. Worthy of mention is that CDC have gone to the trouble of enlisting help with translations and pronunciation for the English-language vocals; while the lyrics display none of the band's anarchic humour the titles reveal their predilection for neologisms and secret codes.

Whether Catafalchi Del Cyber are anti-prog, Neo-prog, Neo-Dada, or just plain and simply barking, their debut album is what the kestrel-drinking, devil-dug owning bampots in my neck of the woods call a 24-carat belter. The album breathes new life into progressive rock and despite the Dada pretensions it's not an album for culture-vultures. I'm eagerly anticipating the follow-up but because of the drummer's reported juridical difficulties the release of the band's second album will be delayed. CDC waited a while to be added to the database but the shoe is ironically on the other foot now as it's the fans who will have to be patient.

4.5 stars really.

Edited by Finnforest - March 30 2012 at 13:20

^^ As always, a great review Chris! 

Edited by Nightfly - March 30 2012 at 13:38

From Andrea, a Minstrel double-shot. 

Faust
Minstrel Rock Progressivo Italiano

Review by andrea
Prog Reviewer

Minstrel began life in Bergamo in 1991 playing covers of bands such as Iron Maiden, Dream Theater, Whitesnake, Queensryche, Savatage and Helloween to name but a few. As years passed by the band added many other influences and musical colours to their musical palette. In 1997 they released a first, still immature, demo tape, "New Life", featuring their own early original compositions. After some line up changes and many troubles, in 2000 Minstrel released their real debut album, "Faust", a rock opera inspired by the work of the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. On this album the line up features Mauro Ghilardini (piano, keyboards), Michele Savoldelli (guitars), Gianpaolo Pasini (drums), Marco Fiorina (bass) plus the guest Giuseppe Peracchi (clarinet). Five singers share the vocal parts interpreting the different characters of the opera: Mario Bertasa (narrator), Mauro Ghilardini (Faust), Davide Ferrari (Mefistofele), Giorgio Sala (Pater Ecstaticus) and Silvia Semperboni (Margherita). On account of the low budget the album was recorded in less than a week, probably not enough for such an ambitious project. Nonetheless, thanks to the great musicianship of all the people involved in the recording sessions, the result is excellent.

Minstrel's "Faust" is an opera in two acts that opens with "Preludio ? Una foresta, una storia" (Prelude ? A forest, a story), a short spoken track where a narrator introduces the story... "I was born among spires of high gliding cathedrals...". The mysterious narrator, dressed as a medieval bard, invites you to listen to his words experiencing the emotions that only the old art of storytelling can give. That said, he bows and leaves on the first chords of the opera...

"Bellatrix" (Act I - Scene I) starts calmly, with a delicate acoustic guitar arpeggio. The curtain slowly opens revealing Faust kneeling, turned towards a star called Bellatrix, in the constellation Orion. The operatic voice of Mauro Ghilardini soars towards the star drawing a beautiful, melodic lay prayer to the light of knowledge... "You still shine / Where the grey sky embraces my pain / You still shine / Dry the cry with your tepid warmth...". Then the heartfelt notes of an evocative electric guitar solo lead to the next scene...

On "Mefistofele" (Act I - Scene II) twelve bell strokes bring Faust back to reality. He stands up and decides to walk looking for his castle, a Kafkaesque metaphor for Knowledge. As he walks his fears dance around him until he's tired and stops... "No friendly hand could trace the never-ending way for us, mortal wanderers dispersed on the sea / There's no wind to push me away / Now I sit down depressed and I slowly close my eyes...". An electric guitar solo leads to the meeting between Faust and the evil character of Mephistopheles who is biding his time nearby. An intense, theatrical operatic duet follows. Mephistopheles leads Faust on the way to the castle while demons and witches slowly appear around them "Let us open the confused dance / With the bitter smell of an ancient time... Pape satan, pape satan aleppe...".

On the next scene Faust approaches the castle. "Il castello" (The Castle - Act I - Scene III) begins with a frenzied rhythm and you can imagine Faust running towards the castle. Then the rhythm calms down... "Cold is the evening / That dark cloud is now gone / Sounds of stones and thorns make endlessly dream / Beyond the wind...". Faust has to face his doubts and his fears. He decides to interrogate what's left of his soul and his fears reply while an electric guitar solo leads the dance of anguish. Bellatrix still shines in the sky and lightens the way giving Faust new energies, pushing him beyond the wind, over the fears, closer and closer to the castle.

"Faust" (Act II ? Scene I) is a long, complex track featuring sudden changes in rhythm and atmosphere. Faust is inside the castle and begins to sing ecstatically in German some verses by Goethe... "Waldung, sie schw**kt heran...". Well, the same verses inspired also, among others, Gustav Mahler for the second part of his Symphony n. 8 and Robert Schumann. Anyway here the result is quite different and the fight between good and evil is expressed with all the energy of a rock band and a strong theatrical emphasis in the vocal parts. Mephistopheles claims Faust's soul but Faust repents and is helped by the character of Pater Ecstaticus and by an army of angels. The battle between angels and demons rages on and in the end the angels prevail, helped by the Virgin Mary, Mater Gloriosa. The piece ends with Faust singing in English some verses taken from the Sonnet n. 39 by William Shakespeare... "Oh how thy worth with manners may I sing / When thou art all the better part of me? / What can mine own praise to mine own self bring and what is 't but mine own when I praise thee? / Even for this, let us divided live / And our dead love lose name of single one / That by this separation I may give / That due to thee which thou deservest alone...".

The next track, "La neve" (Act II ? Scene II), opens with a short electric guitar solo à la Santana, then from an acoustic guitar pattern the voice of Faust delicately soars. The battle is over and Faust goes out from the castle. Now he is surrounded by the snow that here is a metaphor for the troubles of life. Faust is full of regrets and misses an old love... "If I saw her open in flowers / Perhaps I'd flee from my agonies / I'm searching for the dawn...". The character of Pater Ecstaticus appears again to comfort him and a vocal duet follows drawing a melancholic atmosphere. Pater Ecstaticus is moved and he melts in the air. After a while he comes back with Faust's sweetheart, Margherita, then he quits leaving the two lovers alone. A romantic duet between Faust and Margherita follows and the stars of life shine again for them... "You shine on me, since I was a child we whispered in the evening... I live in you... Yes, you live in me... Life starts now... It still shines...".

"Finale (Ogni viaggio) (Finale - Each travel) concludes the opera. The narrator comes back on stage to tell us that every story is like a journey, with its taverns, tears and mists hanging on a pond... And a delicate music that accompanies us and solitary shines in our night. Now we are ready to begin now a new journey...

Edited by Finnforest - April 01 2012 at 09:00