EL TOR

After "Landscape of Life" the memorable italian prog band Osanna disbanded. Many opinionists tell there were then discording musical ideas between Elio D'Anna and Lino Vairetti (excellent vocalist) based, probably (that's one of the peculiarities of the italian progressive rock movement) on different political faiths.

So they turned to an ending point. D'Anna formed the unlucky band Uno and flew to London to record the eponimous debut. Vairetti, on the other hand, formed Città Frontale (or re-formed...Città Frontale was a band active before Osanna and in the line up was also a certain Gianni Leone, founder of Il Balletto di Bronzo).

The band offer a peculiar mix between gentle folk and pastoral tunes within some jazzy incursions and melodic vocals winking at the left wing tradition. Near to the previous Osanna's record.

The result is still convincing, but, as for Uno only album, simpler and with a more commercial approach, showing a clear tendency to come closer more mainstream musical areas. Fortunately, the wise interplay between flutes, particularly strong saxes ( tenor, soprano and contralto) and keyboards (moog, organ mellotron, fender piano and harpsichord) seem to assure the right of being called a good prog album. Other interesting peculiarity are the folksy and pastoral sparse touches as in the opener "Alba di una Città". To be honest, the opener is not so representative of the whole record, being the only one completely performed as an acoustic gentle ballad.

Try this one if you like Osanna! But don't expect to listen to some complicated stuff...