GAROFANO ROSSO

I am not usually found of sountracks (even being Floyd ones). So, to listen to "Banco" and not hearing the great Francesco on the vocals is a bit a weird experience for me.

Some jazzy songs like the opening number "Zobeida" (weak), a melting pot one "Funerale" mixing jazz & classical stuff with some prog and spacey elements. It combines too many sources to be coherent even if the second part is rather successful.

Like some other soundtracks, it might be better when you actually see the movie (but I can't say if it applies here). Next song is purely experimental and poor ("10 Giugno 1924").

Medieval mood for the short "Quasi Saltarello". We are definitely in weak territories with this album so far but we'll finally get a pleasant track "Esterno Notte". Sweet intro and beautiful acoustic guitar. This is the first symphonic song so far. The piano work is also very nice. Not great but when you compare it to the other tracks it is much better.

The title track is also a correct number, a bit difficult to start but after two minutes the rhythm catches up and keyboards lift off to generate a good song at last. Nothing fundamental, still. "Suggestioni" is also one of the few good songs but again what is lacking is a bit more enthusiasm, passion. The fact is that the absence of Giacomo's great vocals are a great loss. And the music proposed on this album is little inspired. From time to time a nice part during a song like here but this is a bit short to make a good album.

"Passeggiata In Bicicletta..." is on the jazzy side as well for half of it. Gets beter and almost Crimsonesque for the finale. Half a good song...The pastoral and beautiful "Siracusa..." is finally a great "Banco" song. At least till we come to a grotesque, baroque secong part. Why couldn' t they write a full good song ??? Well, it is actually the case for the closing number. "Banco" as it ought to be : symphonic, very much in the ELP style; But very short song, unfortunately.

This release is not very interesting. This is a poor experimentation and IMO is a complete waste of time. Very little to remember here; maybe some good, but halves songs whcih doesn't leave much of a great experience if you sum them up. Between one and stars, really. Let's upgrade this to two stars.