SECRET PASSAGE

This Italian band is rooted in 1987, soon they took part in several shows, festivals and competitions in cities like Sienna, Rome and Milan. In 1992 Cage got a contract from the label Toast in Torino and in the same year they released the single View. A year later Cage released their first album entitled The Feebleminded Man. In 1994 Cage appeared on the Italian TV with a video clip but later that year several members decided to work on their own musical ideas. However, in 2000 they joined again and devoted themselves to a new project, to be heard on the demo that Cage recorded in March 2001. Cage appeared on the satellite channel Rock TV and in 2003 the band recorded the CD entitled 87-94. It contains 6 very melodic, pleasant and alternating songs (recorded between 1987 and 1994) with a lot of tension between between the mellow parts with Grand piano and the more fiery and bombastic parts with harder-edged guitarwork. This is tastefully layered with duo-keyboard play (organ, piano, Mellotron, synthesizers). Since that promising album we had to wait 5 years until Musea released this second CD entitled Secret Passage.

On Secret Passage the six-piece band Cage features dual-keyboardplay and a guest-musician on flute in one track. Three songs are recorded in 2007, four in 2008 and one is a live track 'some years ago, somewhere' ... as the bands writes in the booklet.

I am impressed by the variety in the 8 compositions, the skills of the musicians and the awesome interplay (The Scream as the best example). In comparison with their previous effort entitled 87/94, Cage delivers a more jazzrock-oriented sound like :

Movements : delicate fretless bass work.

Bitter Honey : flashy synthesizer solo and harder-edged guitar solo.

Marta : subtle volume pedal guitar, sparkling piano and a strong build-up with exciting interplay between guitar and organ.

Time To Go Back Home : great dynamic atmosphere in the end.

M31 : an exciting guitarsolo with strong build-up and omnipresent electric piano work).

Remarkably: the titletrack is a solo piece on classical guitar with hints from Steve Hackett and in The Scream the vocals are mighty close to The Watch's singer Simone Rossetti.

In my opinion Cage has made a captivating blend of Classic Prog and jazzrock, more mature and elaborate thanever before!

My rating: 3,5 star.

As a long time follower and collector of Italian Prog the forthcoming weeks I will take a look on the Italian Prog between 2008 and 2014 (from Filoritmia and Minstrel to Moongarden and VIII Strada, to name a few) and publish my reviews in series of three, from A to Z.