PER UN AMICO

This was the first Italian prog cd I bought. More or less all italian albums I have bought kind off grew on me. Some I didnt like at all in the beginning, others I liked it +-, but this one was love at first sight. PFM has the aspects of prog I like more: good guitar and keyboard playing, excellent vocals and beautiful quiet acoustic/piano moments.

Appena Un Poco - This track is excellent. It begans very soft with a very beautiful acoustic guitar and when the flute and clavinet starst to play it has an almost Baroque sound. Then it turns into a very dynamic instrumental passage with some very nice violin. All calms down and the vocals begin. After some minutes, and a very good keyboard playing, begins my favorite part of the whole music. The best folk-ish part I've ever heard. It begins only with the guitars and clavinet only to be soon joined by the flute and the keyboard. The it all calms down again with the same vocal part, the keyboard part repeats and the music ends. 9/10

Generale - Similar to É Festa: allot of mood changes and a very dynamic song. The highlights in this short instrumental are the guitar and the violin the last one giving a country sound to the music at some parts. For me it was the hardest song to get into on this album because I like all the parts of the song but I was rather annoyed when they ended prematurely (and I still am a bit) but ultimately its a very rewarding song. Usually people focus on the hightlights of the albums they review but because were only strong has the weakest link in the chain I also like to talk of the weakest track which on this album is, IMO, this one. When an album has this track as its weakest, that album can only be a masterpiece (unless the album would be 7 Generale's of course). 8/10

Per un Amico - This is my favorite track of the album. It stars beautifuly with the flute and soon start the vocals and the piano and drums. This track stays a little soft for a while but then the vocals end and the instruments go on playing in a crescendo ,where the violin joins in, that leads to and explosion of organ that leads to a a great acoustic-guitar section with some great drummings and then the keyboards join again and there is a great interplaying between the isntruments and the song ends with the vocal phrase played on the organ. 10/10

Il Banchetto - Had this track been shorter and it would have been my favorite. This one has my favorite vocals of the entire album, along with a very cheerfull acoustic guitar. The verse repeats once and then were left alone with the instruments for most of the song. For a while we only hear the acoustic guitar and the synth and I also like this part. Then the music begins getting stronger as more instruments join in, how I really lvoe this synth. But then it stops and the band beggins a more free-form playing which gets a little annoying for me, even when the organ stops and the piano stars playing (its more annoying initialy because I really loved the first part, but I still think most prog fans should like this part). When the piano stops the band plays the initial part again and then we hear the vocals and piano alone and discretly the guitar starts playing again and all the instruments join in again to play a variation of the verse. Even with that free-form playing in the middle of the song its still and excellent one and thus an excellent music. 9/10

Geranio - Very good track. Begins very soft with the acoustic guitar and the vocals and then begins the motiff of the song IMO, and the drums an all the musicians start to play . After a repetition of the motiff begins some sort of waltz with a very nice piano playing and after that enters the violin and the music stops. The vocals start again with the inicial part and then enters the acoustic guitar and the drums. After a crescendo the vocals stop and from now on the synth and drums and some sort of bells play the same part until it begins a diminuendo. Gotta love the mood changes in this music. 9/10

One of the best Italian Prog Cd to start with (being Storia di un Minuto the best IMO)

My rating: 9/10 = 4,5/5 = 4,5 stars rounded up to 5