GIALLO ! (ONE SUITE FOR THE MURDERER)

This was another interesting release by Colossus and Musea, the socalled Finnish-French Connection. It's entitled Giallo! and based upon the famous movie Deep Red (1975) by Dario Argento. This CD contains five compositions by Italians artists/bands: the short intro and outro are performed by Alfio Costa on keyboards, he also joined the first epic composition from the musial project Dark Session, the other two epics (all more than 20 minutes) are played by the known formation Leviathan, and Floating State.

1. Alfio Costa - Frammento Rosso (Intro) (0.58) : The CD begins with a warm Grand piano sound, then pleasantly blended with the Minimoog synthesizer. A kind of musical warm bath of 60 seconds, very pleasant.

2. Dark Session - Visions of Helga (26.11) : The musical project Dark Session is an offshoot of the ELP-inspired band Tilion and features multi-instrumentalist Flavio Costa who has invited guest musicians Alfio Costa (vintage keyboards) and Hamadi Trabels ('dark speaking voices'). The name of the band points at the often dark atmospheres with a remarkable frequent use of the unsurpassed Mellotron from the very first moment: a majestic violin-section sound, followed by flute-Mellotron and blended with the distinctive harpsichord sound and sensitive electric guitar runs in a spacey, a bit ominous climate. Then Dark Session creates a great tension between the mellow parts (with soaring and melancholical Mellotron, fragile guitar and twanging acoustic guitar) and the more powerful and bombastic interludes (with propulsive guitar riffs, howling and fiery guitar, a powerful and dynamic rhythm-section and fiery wah-wah guitar), often King Crimson's dark and violent album Red comes to my mind but with the fat sound of the Minimoog flights! Dark Session their music also reminds me of Japanese King Crimson- clone Bi Kyo Ran because of the biting Fripperian guitar sound and the powerful rhythm-section. Anyway, despite these obvious references, I was carried away to Progheaven during this Mellotron drenched composition!

3. Leviathan - Vecchi Giochi (21.03 - four parts) : Nowadays Leviathan is a trio that has invited a male and female singer on this song. Again we can enjoy 24-carat symphonic rock and vintage keyboards like the Minimoog, Hammond and Mellotron. It starts with beautiful Grand piano, classical orchestrations and inspired Italian vocals, the the music alternates between dreamy, compelling, mid-tempo rhythms and bombastic featuring sparkling piano and fluent Hammond runs. Due to the heavy Moog Taurus bass pedal sound and the Hackett-like guitar, Leviathan evokes Wind & Wuthering-era Genesis, what a wonderful music! The final part is great delivering a slow rhythm with bass pedals, synthesizer flights and choir-Mellotron, topped with passionate Italian vocals, goose bumps!

4. Floating State - Suite Dall'inconscia dell'Assassino (25.06) : Without any doubt this six-piece formation makes the most adventurous and varied progrock on Giallo!, less traditional and more experimental with avant-garde and jazz elements. The basic in this composition is a swinging rhythm with a lush instrumentation (from classical guitar, flute and saxophones to vibraphone, a wide range of vintage keyboards and even the distinctive Theremin) and lots of intersting changing climates, at some moments pretty experimental like a part with Hammond and piano. The interplay is strong and I was pleased with parts featuring choir-Mellotron, vibraphone and warm vocals.

5. Alfio Costa - Mirrors (outro) (1.34) : The final track begins with ominous sounding Grand piano, then gradually turns into dreamy, simply wonderful!