IL RISVEGLIO DEL PRINCIPE

For whatever reason, Italy has been a country with a great tradition in music. Therefore it's not surprising the immediate success of the prog rock in the 70's. The introduction into the prog of the typical forms of the Italian music style gave to it a special packaging. There are three bands that have always monopolized the Italian prog scene. Le Orme, Premiata Forneria Marconi and Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso enjoyed some success brilliantly practicing a spectrum of prog that was divided between the delicacy of Genesis, the poignant airs of King Crimson and the irreverence of Emerson, Lake & Palmer. To the shoulders of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, all them published English editions of some of their works. But, other bands saw their commercial expectations somewhat restricted. Many had also a high quality, but they never were able or had the opportunity to have the success of those three Italian prog acts. One of those many cases is Celeste.

It was the idyllic coastal setting of Sanremo, with its warm Mediterranean climate, which gave birth to two of the most wonderful Italian progressive rock bands of the early 70's. Of course I'm talking about Celeste and Museo Rosenbach whose music still inspires and encaptivates our longing to recapture that early 70's period. Celeste was founded in 1972 and released their eponymous debut album, "Celeste" aka "Principe Di Un Giorno", in 1976. The music on the album is often described as pastoral prog rock with very mellow compositions and with some medieval and jazzy influences, embellished with a lush instrumentation, acoustic guitars, flute, saxophone, and topped with some wonderful Mellotron layers, like early King Crimson and The Moody Blues. That's a progressive album about beauty and it's always gentle.

More than forty years have passed since the release of "Principe Di Un Giorno" and Celeste got back to the original project in 2016 with a vastly changed line up. Now, we have their new studio album, "Il Risveglio Del Principe". The founding member Ciro Perrino is still on board with his excellent vocal work and the wide array of vintage keyboards.

On "Il Risveglio Del Principe", Celeste has remained true to the spirit and atmospheric feel of the early 70's sound and in particular to their debut. The entire musical score is beautifully constructed with stratum upon stratum of laid-back and gently swaying symphonic music. Many subsequent forays are needed to absorb and fully appreciate the subtle and deft instrumental interplay between all musicians. The collaboration between the various lead instruments and vocal arrangements are fascinating. We are treated to a great array of many different introductory sounds. There's an abundance of drama created within the music, the essence of which is the clever duets of interchanging lead instruments, flute, cello, violin and saxophone over a backdrop of melodic swirling keyboards. The vocals, too varying from fully projected voice and other background fills are beautifully delivered with much warmth and panache in Italian.

"Qual Fior Di Loto" opens with the reciting voice of a child. It includes beautiful acoustic prog with delicate vocals and nice Mellotron, acoustic guitars and flute parts. This is a beautiful and relaxing opening track. On "Bianca Vestale" the Mellotron strings are great, the flute weaving in and out with the violin, at times jazzy, at times folky, but in the end pure grandiose progressive rock as only an Italian band can deliver. "Statue Di Sale" starts with some majestic piano before the Mellotron kicks in, with a little help from violin and flute, making for some tremendous musical ear candy. Add a sax solo and you have one of the albums highlights. "Principessa Oscura" is a nice music piece with great violin and flute melodies, delicate acoustic guitars and nice angelical vocal parts. Again the beautiful flute and Mellotron are presents. On "Fonte Perenne" drums, violin, acoustic guitar and Mellotron offer sumptuous, dramatic and beautiful sounds to add to enchanting vocals. A bit of Mini-Moog also appears along with a sax and a jazzy electric guitar. "Giardini Di Pietra" has a nice opening with gentle Mellotron strings. Great flute melodies and some piano parts are contrasting with the classical atmosphere of the acoustic and Mellotron strings. The sax and flute are featured mightily on "Falsi Piani Lontani". But, we have also some piano Hammond, acoustic guitars, violin and of course, the ever present Mellotron.

Conclusion: "Il Risveglio Del Principe" has beautiful melodies, excellent sound quality, and vocals perfectly matching the music. It's an album for the progressive rock fan looking for easy to listen to music, calm and relaxing. This is an album full of delicate and pastoral prog perfectly in the same vein of of their album of the 70's, "Principe Di Un Giorno". It's full of beautiful melodies and played by a bunch of talented musicians. The album is beautifully recorded and has no weak points. This is one of those albums where the music is just so beautiful that your heart will ache with emotion and delight. Nothing overly complex, loud, fast, or aggressive to be found here, just lush, enchanting music by an Italian prog act that we should all be very happy that they're coming back. This is a consistent album that will be a must for Celeste fans and fans of RPI in general. If you like the the melllow side of progressive rock you will love this album.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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