PAZZO FANFANO DI MUSICA

Pazzo Fanfano di Musica is a very strange and unique record. It was made 1989 and sounds like NOTHING in the eighties. This extraordinary music would perhaps show up 1973 but 1989? Yes, this music was made 1989. In England? Italy? No totally wrong but in Japan, a prog land totally new for me. Even if there's similarities with many 70s groups I think it's totally different. I'll explain later. The cover shows a band playing with their traditional classic intruments in a castle like environment. I don't think the album had been released on vinyl, the Japanese where early with CD.

Many artist participates here: Takashi Aramaki on guitar, Katsuhiko Hayashi on organ, mellotron and clavicemballo, Takashi Kawaguchi on violin, Kazuhiro Miyatake on flute, Motoi Sakuraba on piano, Nobuyuki Sakurai on drums, Kyoko Sugimoto on piano and clavicemballo, Tadashi Sugimoto on bass, cello and contrabass, Megumi Tokuhisa on vocals and Tomoki Ueno on organ and mellotron. What they does it quite unique. I think Pazzo Fanfano di Musica is the opposite of Genesis which was a rock band taking inspiration from classical music. PFDM was a classical ensemble which took inspiration from rock music. This music is very classical(perhaps too much for somebody) and more than others the band is perfeclty defined symphonic.

The most classical parts are often my favourite such as "Sospiri del fiori" with wonderful playing on guitar and flute and the end is the best. "Agilmente" is pure barock music and "Fragoroso" is a rock piece, whirling and rocking, still in a classical landscape. Perfect collaboration between bass and piano. The last and longest track is also lovely, especially the second half where the rock really takes place. That track in classical music with mellotron and it also contains song.

Almost as good was "Fiori per Algernon", a symphonic masterwork where everything but the vocals are perfect. "La dolce follia" has angry guitar and an organ sounding like the good French band Ange and it contains beautiful flute. I would call it experimental barock. I also love "Onde" which is a long pure classical track. No track is bad, the lowest rating for one song is 8/10.

You shouldn't try this record if you don't like classical music and I think they could have rocked a little more. My only real problem is the vocals but they are so little frequent so I don't mind it. My fairest rating would have been 4,5 stars, but I don't doubt giving it five when I consider how odd this record is. I am happy I could find it on Youtube. Listen you too, it's far too unknown right now.