STRANI COLORI

The new millenium officially found Malibran in a transitional period with Torrisi and Cutuli out of the band.Still they had a contract with Mellow Records and, instead of a regular studio album, the undisputed leader of the group Giuseppe Scaravilli returned with a compilation of tracks, covering the history of Malibran and containing rare live recordings, unreleased material and a few covers.This compilation was released in 2003 under the title ''Strani colori''.

This is a very interesting CD actually with a great photo gallery, covering Malibran's journey through the ages, but also musically the album stands quite strong.Most of the unreleased tracks are either solo performances by Scaravilli or products of the new reduced line-up and range from melancholic Italian Symphonic Rock with smooth guitars, flutes and keyboards to acoustic textures with a folky edge, the quality is very nice and the compositions are really decent, though not the best among Malibran's discography.For those not aware of the sound, imagine HOSTSONATEN and FINISTERRE both on stage.Some of the well-known Malibran's tracks like an instrumental version of ''The wood of tales'' or ''La Stagione Del Re'' along with unknown material have been captured live from early-90's and it is always a good thing to listen to Malibran's delicate and dramatic sound in a live performance, not to say that the compositions are great.The album contains also some cover songs like ''Rhayader'' by Camel, '' Cause We've Ended As Lovers'' by Jeff Beck or even ''Bouree'' by Ian Anderson in an effort by Scaravilli to add a slight Malibran flavor in these without any amazing result, as most of them are kept as they were.

Nevertheless this is an interesting Malibran collection, which contains enough material to make also a dedicated fan of the band purchase it.An album full of Italian romance and tradition and a nice addition for fans of Italian Prog, Symphonic Rock or Folk Rock.