MURALES

Work released in 2000 "Murales". An elegant, thrilling sound is alive and well. Richness and brightness increase rather. In short, it is a great masterpiece of progressive rock. It is not nostalgic at all. It is an enhanced fresh sound. Mr. Beppe Crovella is progressive genuine freak. Essential: a masterpiece of progressive music.

Being their first studio album in more than 15 years, we didn't know what to expect when it came out in 2000. This album really impressed me. It doesn't sound like the albums they made in the 70s. The sound is fresh and more modern. In other words, they progressed.

Although they developped a new sound with this album, all the elements that I liked about the band are still there : jazzy harmonies, classical structures and a genuine italian sound. The songs are really emotionnal and not only technically oriented as many fusion bands tend to produce their music. The beautiful Nove Lune Prima brings me to tears.

The musicianship is perfect in this album. All of the band members got their moments to impress us. Some tracks are oriented on a particular instrument (eg ; Ali is bass oriented). It showcases the talent of the musicians which are all great. Furio Chirico plays his drums less powerfully than in some of their earlier releases but it still sounds perfect for the music. The two keyboardists dominates this album and they are great. Their keyboards sound nothing like what we are used to hear in most prog CDs. I don't know how to explain this but this whole album sound different from most prog. It sounds so polished. It doesn't sound raw at all. One of my friends actually thought this was a weak point in the album. I like it. Actually, this album's production need to be mentionned.

One of the few weak points in Murales are the small vocal parts. They are present in only a couple songs and never for a long time but they make the songs sound cheesy and new age in my opinion.

They are a lot of musical styles present in this album. Some are pure jazzy instrumentals while some contain pure rock elements. We even get a slight tropical feel in Sun and a tango with Astortango. This mix of musical elements along with the great musicianship makes this album really worthy. I recommend it to every fusion enthusiast and beautiful instrumentals lover.

Sincerely

-Bern

This album is the work by well-skilled craftmen.

We all fans have waited upon Arti's new album for more 15 years. I've expected the new one would have as aggressive sounds as previous ones, but at the moment of my first listening to it, I was confused at soft and ripe sound. Hum, they got to be older in this fifteen years...

Pleasantly, Furio's percussive sound and skill of drumming is still perfect. In the previous period, his sound is the core of them I consider, so their tradition is now alive. What I was confused at is the atmosphere and atream of the album all around. I'm sure they tried to get a lot of taste all over the world...Tango, Zamba, Bules, of course Jazz and Rock as formally. They might want to impress us that they had tried so hard to form their current style.

If so, I think the last track should NOT be necessary. This track does makes me confused, whether they wanted to make new style or hold on to the old and as-we-say-good period.

My evaluation of their effort let me give the album 2.5 stars, if there's not the last track...

Arti e Mesteri's reunion album finds them taking on a much smoother, cooler, and laid-back approach to jazz fusion. Despite the presence of a few mischevious Zappa-esque flourishes here and there to remind us of the firey and mischief-loving albums of their early career, by and large this album leans much closer to the jazz side of fusion than the rock side - but when it's jazz as beautiful and soothing as this album is at its best, I'm not inclined to complain.

Unlike many other bands, Arti e Mesteri avoid falling into the trap of making a reunion album which tries too hard to sound just like their classic-era material: instead, they've produced a piece which shows they've paid attention to developments in fusion and jazz over the course of their hiatus. The end result is a capable album which sounds like an entirely different band. It's nice, but at points the production style does feel a little cold and hollow and the group don't quite have enough strong material to fill out the running time. Indeed, they resort to rerecording their own Gravitia 9.81 from their debut album to round things off.

On balance, this is no embarrassment, but at the same time it isn't a pillar of the genre in the same way Tilt was.