DOPO L'INFINITO

"Dopo L'Infinito" ("After the Infinite") was the 2nd release from Florence's NUOVA ERA who recorded a real stinger here. This classic album contains 2 side long suites offering complex music with dynamic and constantly shifting themes, ideas and time signatures. I would suggest that any lover of 70's Ital-prog would greatly adore this album. IMHO this album holds up very well next to the Italian 70's classics. Both epic tracks are killer with great keyboards, emotional guitar work, and vocals that are excellent. In his book "The Return Of Italian Pop" Paolo Barotto rightfully describes NUOVA ERA as "the best group of the new Italian progressive scene". Imagine the symphonic beauty of IL PAESE DEI BALOCCHI combined with the musical prowess of classic Le ORME and the aggressiveness of Museo Rosenbach's "Zarathustra" and you have NUOVA ERA.

I totally agree with James' review here. This album stunned me with it's wonderful recreation of 70's Italian symponic progressive music.....but in 1989! I was completely unaware that new prog was even being made that year, and was only just starting to discover the greats of prog from Great Britain. Who would have thought that such an authentic 70's prog styled band could exist at that time? But make no mistake, Nueva Era have their own sound and approach, even though they do tend to remind of all the bands James mentions, along with dashes of Banco and PFM (though certainly not as much as the other bands James mentioned above). This was my second Nueva Era album, the first being Io e il Tempo, which is comperable, though I prefer this one. In fact, my only complaint with this band is that each album is extremely similar to the one before (except, perhaps, for the last one...but even that is easily recognizable as the same band, in spite of the lack of guitars). For me this is a good thing, but I wouldn't listen to two of their album back to back as it would be perhaps too much of the same type of thing. Although they have another admirable 70's trait.....they don't attempt to fill 70 minutes of a CD just because they can. Each album is in a comfortable 45 minute range, allowing one to fully enjoy the album without it dragging on too long. Very worthwhile for any fan of classic Italian prog.

****1/2

The 2nd album by this Italian group is regarded their peak moment by many. I really can't agree or disagree because all other three albums by this group are pretty much as good in my opinion. This album is most similar to their 3rd album Io e il Tempo. The concept in these two albums is the same: both include two sidelong tracks. If compared to the debut album L'Ultimo Viaggio I notice some increase in maturity and ambitiousness in the compositions but other than that it is quite similar. There is great keyboard and guitar work throughout the album. The main reason that prevents this to be an essential album is that the music could be a little more varied. This applies to all their albums. However, the musicianship is very good and the vocals are also expressive. At least with this album Nuova Era proved to be a forerunner in the new coming of Italian prog. It is also worth to notice that one of the band members, Ivan Pini, is just a lyricist and the lyrics are supposed to be really good (I do not understand Italian language but that's what I have been told).

The title track is perhaps a little stronger than the other track "Pianeta Trasparente" and could be the group's strongest composition in their career with the track "Domani io Vecchio" from the Io e il Tempo album. This album is not quite essential but excellent in its entirety nonetheless. So, four and a half stars it is.

Conclusion: Excellent!

I still remember vividly that I got this CD as a promo, I immediately loved their warm and melodic music. This album features two long compositions that contain warm and pleasant symphonic rock in the traditional way, loaded with fine play on the guitar and keyboards and strong Italian vocals with a warm, emotional undertone. So nothing wrong with this album only in my opinion there's so much more interesting Italian progrock to explore that deserves at least four stars!

NUOVA ERA's second release isn't quite as good as their debut or their next one "Io e il Tempo" in my opinion, but this is still an excellent album. There seems to be a lot more synths on this one when compared to the debut. And for me that's the negative. If you don't have any of NUOVA ERA's records I strongly recommend you check out any of their albums, as they are all well done. This record consists of two side long suites that are broken down to 8 songs.

The first song "Nel Nulla" is a mellow song that is very CAMEL-like in the sound, with piano and synths leading the way, and it closes out with some nice guitar. The next two songs are instrumentals, starting with "Odissea" that features synth washes and a beautiful sounding melody of guitar, drums and keys. "Tra le Stelle" is a short tune with piano melodies the main focus. "Dentro L'ignoto" is one of my favourites on this record opening with flute and organ. I love the vocals 2 minutes in, and the guitar is great 4 minutes in. The guitar, keyboard interplay is amazing. Organ closes out the song as it blends into the next song "Rassegnazione" and actually dominates this song.

The second side long suite starts off with "Ai Margini dell'olimpo" opening with synths and gentle vocals that get intense, I love his vocals when he gets passionate and aggressive. Actually he is an incredible singer who is great no matter how he decides to sing. "Miraggio Cosmico" is filled with tempo changes, this song is all over the place and is a fantastic. The final song "Scomparendo Nell'addio" opens with a great guitar melody that is quite heavy for 2 minutes, then the soundscape becomes pastoral with gentle vocals. Things get intense again especially the vocals, then soft again as the mood shifts continue. The instrumental of guitar and drums 6 minutes in is stunning.

This is a great record with complex, intricate musicianship bringing to mind CAMEL at times but with excellent Italian vocals. A low 4 stars because of all the synths.

These guys are so creative ! Maybe a little too much. They're all over the place. Don't they ever calm themselves ? I really would've wanted to give the band a good rating but I just can't. I even bought their third album thinking they would've "matured", but no, it's very much the same as their second. Sorry but I'd rate this album two stars and a half. The good thing is that they sing in Italian and haven't given in to commercial objectives.

This sort of albums are exactly conform to my expectations. Symphonic prog at its best!

It is full of pastoral and beautiful passages, very melodic and moving. Vocals are also very sweet (although this work is mostly instrumental) and are fully in-line with the intimate music which is played during the whole of this very good album.

Two long songs, divided into shorter parts are the treat. There are hardly furious moments in here: it is almost all enchantment although some more upbeat music is experienced while the fourth part of the title track is being played. ''Dentro L'Ignoto'' is one of the longest section and shows the dexterity of their guitar player and a more aggressive band as usual. But that's fine, since this epic might have been too uniform otherwise.

The closing part ''Rassegnezione'' is another charming short piece. The only point that is missing in this epic, is probably a higher sense of unity. There are no recurrent theme which could relate the different parts.

This album is strongly dominated by Walter Pini (their mentor really) who is in charge of the keys department. While these are wonderfully combined with the smooth voice from Ivan Pini during ''Ai Margini Dell'Olimpo'' it really provokes a great and emotional feeling. A highlight.

Just like there was a more upbeat part in the first epic, the second one also holds a more bombastic section: ''Miraggio Cosmico'' is a keyboards feast: great synthesizers, some sort of a tribute to Banks and Wakeman. Some ''Watcher'' sounds just before an extremely passionate guitar break (Steve, where are you?). This part of ''Pianeta Transparente'' is the most vibrant one from this whole album.

Needless to say that this work scores pretty high in my ears. This album holds everything a lover of the Italian genre is waiting for. The closing section from the second epic is there to confirm. Four stars.

The second Nuova Era album enjoys better production than the debut but, to my ears at least, seems to possess less interesting songwriting. With two side-long suites forming a narrative concept album about an explorer lost and adrift in deep space, I can't fault them for ambition, but the music seems to have less of the rich blend of influences the preceding album had; here, the Emerson Lake and Palmer influence that crept in here and there on L'Ultimo Viaggio comes to the fore, with long sections of the piece being dominated by Walter Pini's keyboard playing. And as was so often the case with ELP, the end result is technically flashy but not especially aesthetically satisfying. Worth a listen for RPI fans with a taste for ELP and 80s keyboards, but not my personal cup of tea.

A lite-beer Yessy, Camelish, neo-proggy RPI?

Firenze's Nuova Era were one of the bridge era bands connecting the 70s RPI to the modern scene and existed in a difficult time in the late 1980s. Their work has been hailed as being on par with the best of the 70s bands which I think is a bit of a stretch. Only their fourth album really blew me away. I can understand that in the 80s and 90s these early albums may have sounded like a revelation of sorts, but these days bands whose goals either retro or modern have released work that well exceed this. "Dopo L'Infinito" was their 2nd album and has some nice moments but also many problems from my viewpoint. My favorite moments are the spacey textures this album contains, where vocals are held back and you get these atmospheric keys with a Steve Howe inspired, volume-pedal lead guitar over the top. Very beautiful and ethereal. But much of the album seems more fixated on Yes and Camel than on the traditional Italian sound, and this along with the rather cheesy 80s keyboard and guitar sound often gives the album a hard to articulate feel that just doesn't hold up that well. Next problem is the composition, which as many have mentioned, is all over the map. When you pack the goods like a Topographic Oceans, meandering can be fine, but ladies and gents, Dopo is no Topographic. Thus the lack of meat here is a problem when this boat starts to drift on the ocean of prog clichés. The themes are on the upbeat side with a "march-ey" neo-prog feel that should appeal to Script-era Marillion fans as well. Consistency aside, I don't want to be too harsh on this album. There are certainly many good moments in there too, lovely atmospheres, solid vocals, and guitar work that can be pretty tasty. As regards this band, my advice to RPI fans new to Nuova Era would be to start with the 4th album and work backward chronologically. I don't feel this title is all that representative of the best of the RPI movement and that's putting it lightly. About 2 ½ stars. The next album would be an improvement pretty much across the board

Nuova Era was one of the popular bands and among the few ones aswell from late '80s in prog music from Italy who tried and succeded to revive the italian prog style. They releassed 4 albums before disbanded in 1996. The second album from 1989 named Dop L'infinito is one of the better examples of symphonic prog from that period not only from Italy but in general, because most of the well known giants from '70s turned the page and optain for a much more mainstream and accesible prog in that period, but Nueva Era keeping the torch hight in this field. The album contains 2 pieces only, but very long, where each musicians brings best they got. Clearly infulenced by '70s prog music not far from Banco del Mutuo Soccorso fame, the album sounds like was from 1978 not 1989, only the production and overall sound betray the year of release. Anyaway this is a fairly good album who has all the ingredients to be better fiewed in prog circles. Beautiful melodic guitars combined with great keyboards make from this album an enjoyble ride from start to finish. Is a well balanced album with memorable parts, some great instrumental passages here. All in all a good towards great release who needs a far better fie keeping in mind the year of release. 4 stars for sure.

This second generation RPI band takes a step back on their second release. Perhaps conceived as their answer to "Felona and Serona", the LE ORME classic, "Dopo Infinito" is divided into 2 parts: the title suite and "Planeta Transparente", which are both further subdivided.

The first is by far the better, with a well measured blend of romantic vocals, keyboards and guitars, none overstaying their welcome. The opening section "Nella Nulla" is perhaps the high point, beginning with mesmerizing piano that cedes to harpsichord sounding keys before a spacey theme introduces the sung sections. Unfortunately, the second suite sounds as if the band had to return the arsenal of keyboards to the rent-a-center and were overdue. It's all too much and too long, irritatingly extended by the most feeble drawn out codas that would have been regarded as uncouth even in the 1970s.

I have tried listening to "Planeta Transparente" first to see if it's the cumulative effect of 45 minutes of racing to the finish line with too many clothes that ultimately tests one's endurance, and, while there is some truth to this theory, it remains that the quality control deteriorates with each passing minute. Barely 3 stars, and more for the enthusiastic playing than the compositions and arrangements.