FRAMMENTI DI IDEE PERDUTE

'Frammenti di Idee Perdute' is basically the work of Tiziano Rea who composed all the music and performed all the instruments, with help from drummer Andrea Scala on alternate tracks and vocalist Emiliano Germani who wrote the lyrics and sang on 'Storia Vana'. There are several moments of excitement and aggression but overall the album is the musical equivalent of the cover art, being an intimate setting of hazy soundscapes.

The album is mainly instrumental and is rendered in styles that range from symphonic to Kraut, from RPI to electronic. Despite these contrasts, things never come across as a series of musical jumbles because a complex pattern of recurring themes unifies the whole. Ideas are continually shifted and reshaped, although if there is a flaw it is one of repetitiveness. But it's a big *if*.

The keyboards-based opening track is typical of the brief hallucinatory excursions throughout the album and it tingles with dreamlike Kraut-inspired electronics before 'Visioni Trascendentali' bursts into life. The latter track informs the general approach to music-making here; Rea employs a template of favoured techniques that include the busy murmur of synthesizers, androgynous voice samples, muscular drumming and shed- loads of Mellotron. Nice!

It's easy to tell from the title-track that someone with a singular passion for King Crimson produced the album as this track's dark power bristles with the UK giant's influence. 'Frammenti' is bookended by the two-part 'Interludio' and this sequence exemplifies the fluent and fluid nature of the album, with individual tracks being like streams flowing into a great river. These little intrusions give shape to the album and provide contrast to the album's heavyweight tracks.

Mention is made in the booklet of Fabio Zuffanti as artistic supervisor, and in keeping with his mentor's work Tiziano Rea seeks to cross musical boundaries. One of the album's peculiarities is 'Storia Vana' which inhabits the world of traditional RPI. It stands out not only because of the instrumental nature of the remainder of the album, but also for its typical RPI-ness which paradoxically makes it seem both familiar and foreign.

If I may paraphrase my good friend Todd, Giardini D'Autunno is like a more melodic Nodo Gordiano and that's a fairly decent point of reference. 'Frammenti di Idee Perdute' certainly stands alongside the finest works of modern RPI and is highly recommended to fans of the subgenre.

Tiziano Rea is an Italian musician, journalist and concert organizer, involved in several music projects related to Metal and Experimental Music fields since the 90's with his most notable work coming at the end of the decade with the Gothic Rock act River Deep.However Rea was always fascinated by the freedom of Prog Rock music and decided to launch his own project Giardini d'Autunno, the sole work of which was supervised by the mighty Fabio Zuffanti.In the recordings Rea handled the guitars, bass, sound effects along with various modern and vintage keyboard equipments.He was complemented by Andrea Scala on drums and Emiliano Germani on vocals, both members of the Italian Prog Metal group Moonlight Comedy.Titled ''Frammenti di idee perdute'', the album was released in 2003 on Mellow Records.

The background of Rea in both experiemental and more artistic Rock music are evident throughout an album, that flirts with NODO GORDIANO's haunting, dark soundscapes, evolving from a KING CRIMSON-ian guitar dominated Prog Rock to long, atmospheric ambiences with a relaxed mood.Comparisons with KING CRIMSON do not stop here.The weird FRIPP-ian guitar workouts with the psychedelic overtones are often supported bya fair dose of orchestral Mellotrons, string textures and smooth organ soundscapes.The tracks contain often bizarre effects akin to FRANCO BATTIATO's experimental offerings and natural sounds, which serve as an intro or outro to pure, progressive instrumentals with complex guitar moves, dark-flavored Mellotron and some mellow passages with a light symphonic mood.The combination of calm and powerful parts works fine for the majority of the album, which often sounds as a tribute to KING CRIMSON repertoire over the span of three decades.

Rea's Giardini d'Autunno appeared also the following year on King Crimson's tribute album ''The letters: an unconventional Italian guide to King Crimson'', covering ''Formentara Lady''.Rea would later form the live project Elektromantik with Maurizio Di Tollo, Cristiano Roversi and Alessandro Bruno, leader of Roma Guitar Ensemble.

Dedicated to all die-hard fans of KING CRIMSON's sinister soundscapes.From guitar complexity to Mellotron showering to slightly orchestral soundscapes.Recommended.

Giardini d'Autunno (the name means Autumn Gardens) is mainly the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Tiziano Rea, from Sora, a town in the province of Frosinone. In 2002 an album entitled "Frammenti di idee perdute" was released under this brand on the independent Mellow Records label with a line up featuring along with Tiziano Rea (guitar, bass, Mellotron M400, Hammond B3, synthesizer) also Andrea Scala (drums) and Emiliano Germani (vocals). The art cover, taken from a tableau by Antonio Notari named "Paesaggio marino" (Marine landscape), in some way depicts the musical content and its rarefied, dreamy atmospheres...

The opener 'Preludio: il principio di non contraddizione' (Prelude: the principle of non-contradiction) sets the atmosphere with its hypnotic ticking on the wings of time and leads to the long, complex 'Visioni trascendentali' (Transcendental visions), that every now and again could recall King Crimson and is divided into three parts, 'Il sogno' (The dream), 'La caduta' (The fall) and the mystic organ finale 'L'ascesa' (The rise).

The evocative 'Interludio - Parte Prima' leads to the disquieting, exotic realms conjured up by 'Frammenti (di idee perdute)' (Fragments - of lost ideas) for an oneiric journey on camel back through the cinematic lands of Goblin. Then, 'Interludio - Parte Seconda' drives you back to safer territories.

The nervous 'Radius' might be a very good score for a thriller film full of darkness and mystery while the following 'Sulla linea del cielo' (On the skyline) is ethereal and dreamy and in my opinion could fit better a story filled with sensuality and romance...

The beautiful epic 'Storia vana' (Vain story) is the only sung track of the album. The visionary lyrics evoke distant horizons and a man running against the wind, trying to overcome the ancient challenges of humankind. While pointless games deceive his ever hanging dream, he looks for a clue, for someone who can show him where the strength of live goes. Strange images and drops of madness, legendary distances, useless miracles and uncertain fates, a stream of ideas and blurred memories flows through perilous waterfalls. You can see a confused crowd lost in the mist, look for easy money and listen to significant words. Then the music and lyrics evoke the image of a wise man painting an unpredictable future, but beyond the myth there's a current of air that keeps on pushing you up and up... Eventually the melancholic instrumental 'Coda: visioni ascendentali' (Coda: ascendental visions) ends the album.

On the whole, an interesting work that needs more than a spin to be completely appreciated.