LA LAMA SOTTILE

ZAAL is the project of Agostino Macor the keyboardist for LA MASCHERA DI CERA, FINISTERE and other bands that his side kick Fabio Zuffanti seems to be involved with. ZAAL is more in the Jazz / Fusion realm of things with lots of violin. PERIGIO did come to mind a couple of times with some of the better music here but this doesn't measure up in my opinion to that band.

"Intro" is a short piece with a light beat and piano. "Zelig" is uptempo with piano and light drums.Violin joins in. A calm a minute in then it slowly picks back up. Another calm 3 1/2 minutes in with piano then it picks up again before 5 1/2 minutes with synths and violin as drums and piano continue. Mellotron before 7 1/2 minutes makes this sound much better. "La Bussola" is a short violin led piece. It's mellow like the "Intro" track. "Il Destino Di Naghia Sofia" is my favourite track. It opens with electric piano (thankyou) then violin and light drums join in. It picks up a little.This is good. Synths before 7 minutes. "La Lama" is a short piano piece.

"Progress" opens with bass and violin.The tempo picks up with violin out front. It settles as contrasts continue throughout. Some refreshing guitar after 3 1/2 minutes but it's too brief. "Naan" opens with piano, drums and sax. This is jazzy. You can hear people talking in the background which is odd. Clapping ends it. "Il Cannocchiale" is a song I like but it seems completely out of place. Atmosphere throughout with female and male spoken words coming and going. "Cinquequarti" has these spoken female words with a jazzy soundscape. Piano and violin lead. "Limbo" features violin and sparse piano. "Sul Mutamento" opens with thunder and rain as piano joins in. It all stops abrubtly then turns jazzy after a minute. Violin leads a minute later but the piano and violin keep trading off. Cool song. The thunder and rain are back after 5 1/2 minutes then the song kicks back in.

If you like lighter Jazz and violin i'm sure you will enjoy this album. It has it's moments but not near enough of them to offer up 4 stars.