SPECCHI

The second and final release (an EP this time) from this highy unique Italian avant-folk ensemble turned out to be a slight disappointment to me actually. While their debut was a very beautiful and adventurous effort rooted in Italian folk and classical music this one walks a complete opposite direction, focusing mainly on basic song structures that strongly resembles typical late 70's Italian pop music albeit of a more ethnic nature. Decent material but fairly uninteresting unless you enjoy this kind of music, and why Ensemble Havadià changed so drastically in style is still a mystery to me. The last track however, a 9-minute mini- epic, recalls their debut marvellously and saves this EP from being a stinker.

Otherwise, musicianship is steady and the sound quality is fairly good but as said; this is overall not as interesting as their debut album other than the last track. This EP got re-issued with their debut on CD in 2006. 2.5/5