TELAIO MAGNETICO

While the "enjoyment factor" plays the biggest part in my rating of an album there are many Avant albums that I own that I have given 4 stars to that I really have had difficulty with, yet I can't deny being so impressed with the compositions they came up with. "Live '75" is a great example of this. Under Electronics here and most sites but under Avant in my house. This is electronic sounding for sure but man you'd be hard pressed to find a more "out there" album and it's live! Led by Italy's leading Avant composer Franco Battiato he picked five other like minded performers and took the show on the road in the south of Italy for a couple of months then they were gone, just like that. Of the six we get two singers male and female who are very adventerous and really use wordless melodies for the most part. A ton of echo in this vocals at times to the point it's scary, like in a psychedelic nightmare.

These are dense and abstract soundscapes where vocals often lead the way with Battiato on electronics, a former I GIGANTI member on farfisa organ, an AKTUALA musician on vibes, percussion, cymbals and tablas, an unknown on oboe and soprano sax and the two singers who often steal the show. A supergroup for sure.

It's hard for me a non-musician to fathom what went into these live shows. As I said before I'm just blown away at the compositions even though they are so difficult to digest. I kept thinking there's probably one poor soul who took LSD having no clue what he was about to experience. This is dark and frightening at times while at others it feels like they are just trying to get on my nerves with the soprano sax and oboe blasting away in the dense music with electronics and farfisa adding layers. Just a crazy sounding album and I believe quite unique.

Again I keep going back to what it must have been like to have been their in person. I can't imagine though I've tried. This wasn't released until 20 years after it was recorded. 42 minutes of music divided into five sections. Kind of samey in that it's pretty much adventerous soundscape music with a similar vibe on each part. An awesome example of those insane vocals is the latter part of "Part II", I mean just bonkers. What I love about music like this is that each listen is a new discovery. So much going on within each track and it is the ultimate headphone album. We do get some crowd noise but almost always in the form of applause to end some of these sections. Other than the guy on cid screaming as he runs out of the back of the building.

This might be worthy of being in my top Avant albums list. The more I listen the more I'm thinking so. Again just shaking my head as I listen right now to this powerful recording.

Musical pesto

Occupying one of the more original spaces within the prog electronic sphere, Telaio Magnetico give to you an abstract, intangible and wonderfully esoterically charged album. This live document plays with atmospheres like you'd imagine the old Olympian gods did with humans - mixing them up in all kinds of events, troubles and emotionally engaging meetings, where sounds and images coalesce in a way that clearly surpass even the most brilliant and devious of creators - as well as their initial sparks of inspiration.

Telaio Magnetico are what some around here would call a super-group. An all-star Italian cast featuring Franco Battiato's musical cornucopia and Juri Camisasca's haunting vocals - a duo that saw eye to eye back in the day, but also managed to challenge each other sonically without ever compromising any natural traits of their personas. Then we've got the mad genius of Albergo Intergalattico Spaziale's Giacomo "Mino" Di Martino joining in on a fabulously eerie Farfisa organ: He is one powerful force to be reckoned with, and on here he simply spirals out of proportion together with Battiato's creepy and caterpillar-like organs and synthesizers - amounting to a stagnant floating musical universe that occasionally reminds me of thick porridge running upwards. Also from AIS - vocalist Terra di Benedetto sprinkles throughout this record an uncanny feminine scat singing that sounds unlike anything I've come across neither before or since. Finishing the band off - adding the effervescent ornamentations and the rambling rhythmic underlinings - are Roberto Mazza on oboe and sax soprano as well as Lino "Capra" Vaccina on vibraphone, tabla, gong and cymbals. Capra would go on to produce the somewhat cult album Antico Adagio, but first and foremost is he famous for his participation in the futuristic folk act Aktuala, that previously to this outing widened the scope of endemic Italian music with a big bang and then some. The heritage, so to speak, that Capra brings with him into this esoteric live experiment is quite wonderful, and if you are sitting out there with a big hard on for anything marked Aktuala, then you will probably swallow up this recording like a glass of hot remoulade. He is truly a magician with robust and earthy musical means. Roberto Mazza on the other hand is like a sea of tranquillity, acting like a counterpoint to the convoluted nature of the other guys involved. He adds lightness and swift docile touches to an already heavy labyrinthian sonorous delusion. The menacing and woeful character of the man's reeds are a thing of beauty, but even more so do they compliment the ascending feel of the Farfisa organ - sounding like a pair of star crossed lovers holding hands whilst setting the controls for the heart of the sun.

The one single thing speaking against Telaio Magnetico is the relatively poor sound quality. The concert has its rough edges and judging by today's standards, there is certainly a lot that could have been remedied. I myself actually like it this way, and if I'm completely honest - I have always been under the impression, that the noises and screeches were half the music anyways - and nowhere on this album do these pitfalls of 1970s rural recording technique strike me as being deafening or drowning out any specifics of the music. No, it rather adds to the proceedings a natural feel that otherwise would have been completely lost within the surreal ambiances of the band.

If I were to guess, I'd say that this venture is damn near all improvised. Sure, the peeps here who had played together previously to this concert, like Battiato and Camisasca , obviously had some loose bearings on each other, but ultimately this live event is a thing of complete and utter waving around the dark with but a few nautical miles of space between the light sources. It's challenging, snuffling, untethered, hypnotising, strangely absorbing in nature and slowly oozing - climbing upwards like the most death defying musical pesto you'll ever come across.

At last... This is one of the most strange albums albums that I own not because is weird or extremely technical. I think is strange because the music sounds totally out of the time when the album were released. With a haunting work on synths and constant dark athmospheres the album passes through your ears as a quiet and peacefull travel.

Sometimes the songs reminds me a soft version of Nekropolis/Frohmader early works. Anyway, it's a great example of the mid 70's experimental works and a nice piece to listen alone and dark at home. Special mention to the vocals on Part 2... really weird...

PS: I have a CD with a totally different cover not so beautiful as the cover posted here...

Really adventurous and eclectic synth compositions. Franco Battiato and team explore evocative dreamscapes, mixing avant garde / classical music to progressive rock. The result is constantly beautiful and haunting. "Live '75" brings together linear synths, "exotic" folk textures, percussions and acoustic instruments. The tracks are spacious & epic, delivering lot of eccentricities, notably in the vocals..."Part 2" is among my favourites and provides an epic spaciousness, gorgeously "acid" with dissonant melodies, "stoned" female vocals and hyper complex assemblages of noises and ambiences. An environemental, Schizoid, dynamic, percussive musical journey based on exciting ambient pieces. This album can ravish fans of the most uncompromised production of 70's Italian progressive rock. Not to all ears.