TRA L'ASSURDO E LA RAGIONE

Biglietto Per L'Inferno is a popular and pivotal Italian progrock formation but they only made one eponymous studio- album in 1974. In 1992 an Italian label released the CD Il Tempo Della Semina featuring early material and in 2005 the CD Live In 1974. Like so many other Classic Italian Prog bands (from Banco and PFM to Il Balletto Di Bronzo and Latte E Miele) Biglietto Per L'Inferno returned to the progrock scene in the last two decades, resulting in this CD. It contains renditions of songs from their 70's work. And in 2015 Biglietto Per L'Inferno released a new CD entitled Vivi. Lotta. Pensa (2015), I consider Tra L'Assurdo E La Ragione as a strong bridge to that.

On this album Biglietto Per L'Inferno have chosen to use of wide range of folky instruments. But the band didn't forget her rock roots, pretty frequently the folkysound is blended with rock. Like in the opener Il Tempo Della Semina (featuring a lush instrumentation, from bagpipe and electric guitar to piano and flute) and Il Nevare (beautiful accordeon). And the titletrack (with Nina Hagen-like vocals), both delivering propulsive guitar riffs. In the compelling Una Strana Regina we can enjoy a Floydian guitar solo with howling runs between folk with flute, ciolin and accordion, in the vein of Mike Oldfield. And the short Ansia contains heavy guitar play in a fluent rhythm while Confessione sounds like a mix of folk and rock with raw guitar. This CD concludes in a cheerful, pure folky climate with room for mandolin, accordeon, flute and bagpipe. The strong vocals are in Italian, in my opinion this always adds a special flavour to the music.

My rating: 3,5 star.