L'APPRENDISTA

After the instrumental very avant-garde parenthesis of "Cliche" the Stormy Six return to the "song" format, but the songs are very different from the political pop-folk of the first albums, maybe also a sign of the times changing.

This album is released during one of the worst periods of the post-war history of Italy, in the years that will bring to the 80s: a dramatic change in every sectors of life and arts, not only in music. It's no longer time for political anthems so even though the lyrics are still strongly politically oriented the songs are now about persons instead of movements. This is exactly the same change that was happening in the actual Italian society.

The music is an unusual mixture of folk elements, mainly acoustic, but retains the experimental elements of the previous instrumental album. The difference with today's Avant bands is that once the structure of the song has been identified, the listener is still able to anticipate what's coming (not always of course), so the result is something very close to the music of bands like Gentle Giant, or a sort of non-jazz Canterbury if this makes any sense.

The good is that even being experimental it's still approachable by everybody and unlike the previous albums the music is so good that can be appreciated even without taking care of the lyrics. Songs like "Il Barbiere" (The Barber) and "Il Labirinto" (The Labyrinth) are highlights but all the songs are excellent, above the average, specially from a musical point of view.

Of course the lyrics, too, have to match the new mood to fit better within the music. The result is technically perfect, and the musicianship of all the bandmates is finally evident. A milestone for this band just one year before the first RIO event.