FORSE LE LUCCIOLE NON SI AMANO PIÙ

Locanda delle Fate's album is one of the finest symphonic prog works from Italy. I cherish it as a stunning exposure of well crafted melodies, counterpoints, performed with finesse and emotional involvement. The grand piano is the lead instrument, since it handles a starring role in the intro of main melodies and harmonies; once the other musicians join in, the listener is given a delicious feast of stunning interplay between pianos, moog and string fake synths, flute, and even some effective touches on vibes. the solos on guitar, flute and synth are developed to a subtle degree, never to shatter the overall instrumental balance. Nevertheless, unlike many other reviewers, I won't give it a perfect rating, since I perceive a minor flaw in the album as a whole. I feel that there is some slight formulaic tedency in this album's repertoire, which makes it one step shorter of perfection: once you've listened to and enjoyed the first three tracks, you've already got the whole picture. It doesn't mean that tracks 4 and 7 are not splendorous: they are full of clever chord progressions, counterpoints,... but somehow I find that all those tricks have already been used in the previous tracks, and now are becoming a bit (just a little bit) tiring. One exception is the beautiful brief acoustic ballad 'Non Chiudere a Chiave le Stelle', which drifts apart from the symph pompousity in order to convey a more bucolic ambience. I love Leonardo Sasso's vocal range and singing style: Alusa Fallax's singer (also drummer-percussionist) has a similar range, though his style was a bit less romatically driven. All in all, this Locanda delle Fate's album is one awesome item in any prog collection. In a time when Le Orme and PFM were starting to lose their own identity, BMS was increasingly less productive, and most of all other good-to-great Italian bands had simply disappeared after recording one album (or two), Locanda delle Fate managed to do a terrific thing in a genuine symphonic prog vein.