ANGELO BRANDUARDI

This is the first official album of the interesting italian artist Angelo Branduardi. He had already recorded another one in the previous year but it remained unreleased.

In his career Branduardi never left his peculiar mix of folk, medieval, classical and baroque inspiration. For this reasons he is still very appreciated in the motherland and also well known in foreigner countries as France and Germany where he published different versions of his studio albums (as it happened with his official debut which was released with english lyrics).

The debut was thought as a concept: a man passes through different conditions, from solitude to love for a woman, to his child's birth and, finally, to the mystic contemplation of his descent ("Il Regno Millenario").

Sometimes Branduardi seems to build up his work on a madrigal scheme, as it became clearer in his next production.

The album was produced by Paul Buckmaster who had already worked for David Bowie and Elton John. It's not completely prog - strictu sensu - but it features many interesting things, above all in the second side where music becomes more aggressive with the use of electric guitar and serious drumming. As for example in the long track E Domani Arriverà (11:10). Music is tinged generally by acoustic instruments, flute, contrabass and strings but you will hear also soft keys and electric piano with some gentle reference to jazz-rock than strictly folk. Anyway folk is the main theme here and lovers of the genre could find it a very good addition especially if combined with the most famous albums of the seventies, above all Alla Fiera dell'Est (1976). You have to consider that Branduardi combined his eclectic style using the canzone formula so less proggy prima facie. By the way, it was quite common in Italy in that period when beyond bands were active many solo artists (I recommend also the first record of Riccardo Cocciante titled MU - 1972 - which is still not included in this site).

All in all, this is a quite good debut, especially for the second side of it. An interesting artist to re-discover.

P.S. He collaborated with Banco in their Come in un Ultima Cena 1976 album (he was also the translator for the english version of it) and had Nocenzi as guest in his Alla Fiera dell'Est.

Now,that is a kind of sound that I really love even this album isn't 100% progressive or if you mind 100% rock...This is the first release of Angelo Branduardi, a very popular artist in Italy, and this album's musicianship and vocals are full of emotions,landscapes,fantasy and mixed feelings...Not that much folky but very ethnic influenced for sure with extremely inspired violin,flute and contrabass themes that bring the medditerenean tradition to mind along with and the very nice voice the great acoustic guitar work of Angelo Branduardi...Surprisingly the shorter tracks are the better ones,since in my opinion the 11-minute track ''E domani rivera'' has a jazzy,almost avant-garde feeling,that is a little bit unrelated to the rest of the disc's sound,without being a bad track...Maybe it sounds a little bit strange but I every time I listen to this release I find myself dreaming of endless drives on a bicycle throught the streets of Rome!...I cannot rate this one less than 4 stars due to the amazing emotions that grows in me during the listening even if it isn't an album that defines the italian progressive rock movement although most of its elements are part of Angelo Branduardi's music...Enjoy it as much as I did!...

It was so much time ago that I discovered the first three albums of Branduardi, learning to play each song on classical guitar (where possible for my poor skill), so I'm now often confused about which sings are on which album.

I didn't know anything, actually, of Pentangle and Malicorne, except that many people was saying that Angelo was "copying" them. I don't think that arranging and playing the same traditional British song of another band can be called "copying", specially if the arrangements are different. In addition Angelo didn't make many "covers". At least his musics are mainly original while sometimes the lyrics are translations of poetry like on "Confessioni Di Un Malandrino".

This first album is a bit immature, but in the same time it's very fresh. There were no other artists in Italy playing or creating music of this kind. Angelo has been the very first.

Some of the songs can appear a bit pop.oriented, like the opener "Re Di Speranza" or "Lentamente" or the closer "Il Regno Millenario". In the sense of the artsy pop of that time. There's also an "eclectic" filler like "Eppure Chiedilo Agli Uccelli" that will remain an episode. Angelo won't make anything similar later and effectively this is the only song whose music is not written by him.

For who doesn't know this artist, this is mainly an acoustic artist, skilled in violin and classical guitar and a particular whispered high-pitched voice. He has been defined "a modern minstrel" because his songs are often stories or fairy tales or legends. The music has a medieval flavor also because of the use of medieval instruments like the dulcimer, but his middle age is dreamy and legendary. Be prepared to travel into a magic land of fairies and dreams even if you don't speak Italian.

I was wondering to find Angelo Branduardi here on "Progarchives". In my ears he is rather a "re-constructor" of historical music, sometimes experimenting with sounds of "our time" and taking his branch of classical- and folk-influenced music into pop, but mainly staying true to old values of eclectic singing and song-writing in the footsteps of role-models like Donovan Leitch and Cat Stevens. Adapting traditional melodies from all over the world and the huge usage of historic instruments for arranging them sometimes makes him look like a medieval minstrel who coincidentally is living with us in present time, and "rock-music" is something that doesn't come to mind if ever his name gets dropped !

During his early years he refused being a "poet", even to call himself an "artist", saying he was nothing but a craftsman adapting, developing and arranging melodies. And for sure there's a lot of songs that should not blatantly be credited to him as their "composer" - as they usually are - and would put him into a better light if they had been signed as "trad. arr. by AB" - this would not take away any of the merit that his devoted work and own creativity deserves, as ( imo ) he distinctively manages to make all of those pieces his own, original or not. "Il Ladro" ? Well, if this man is a thief then he is a very clever one and anyone who became his victim can only be proud of what he's done to what was theirs and many can be thankful because Branduardi kept this music of old alive and introduced lots of listeners to it who may never ever have heard it without him.

His first album, though, is an exception ( and perhaps the best explanation I can get for this artist to be found on this site ). It's less medieval and sounds like an excursion of a young man stretching his muscles and allowing the ensemble of musicians to improvise and take his song-ideas elsewhere. I think that this has a lot to do with Paul Buckmaster who finally enabled Branduardi to release an album - and, as the spirit of the moment inspired him, with Branduardi himself trying to achieve something special together rather than expressing his very own personality in music. As strange ( and contrary ) as it appears in the end, this means that here we have Branduardi at his most "original", simply because he didn't supply a pattern on which the musicians had to follow, he didn't play the leading-role, rather watching things develop from his original ideas into what would satisfy the whole team with Paul Buckmaster at the helm, and Paul being the real progressive force here.

Acoustically based and with many ingredients of what was to follow but far more Jazz than on any other, this "beginning" doesn't come across as polished or formulaic as many albums Branduardi was to release during his most successful period, with Buckmaster's arrangements leaving far more space for improvisation. It's like Branduardi was just exploring whatever fields and styles may suit him before defining his very identity as an artist, trusting Buckmaster more than himself. The result is a very pleasant listen with lots of charm, the songs, though, weren't the strongest he had and it was a bit like Branduardi "had to" make this album before he felt confident enough to release his "real" debut with his second one. This may be due to those songs having been turned down by the record companies first, I don't know, but I think that Branduardi saved the best for "La Luna", which is a far more distinctive statement of what he himself as an artist is about and appears to be his strongest collection of songs to this day ( okay, my collection, by now ending with "Domenica e Lunedi", is not complete, but I have heard the whole "Francesco"-thing in concert and, good as it was, it still couldn't match that early masterpiece ).

This exception, though, may delight the prog-lover more than any other because of the rather free-form pace it was given, but I still wouldn't call it essential, not even a really good place to start with if you want to get familiar with the artist. It's rather "the album" to check out still if you don't really like the "classic" Branduardi-stuff and think it's too folky, too kitschy, too poppy or whatever, cause this album is different in spite of all the many things connecting it to the others still. If you don't know Branduardi I'd recommend you to start with "Cercando L'Oro" which is a very typical album and, in spite of its slickness, belongs to his best, if you want to hear the artist at his most beautiful you're best off with intimate recordings such as "Branduardi canta Yeats" and "Gulliver, La Luna e altri disegni" ( the re-vamped 2nd album in its 1980-edition featuring one more song - arranged by Paul Buckmaster ! ).

A solid 3 stars.