QUINTA DIMENSIONE

One of the lesser known formations to come from Italy is Persimfans, a group formed in 1978 by a group of Italian music students. Sadly having my interest piqued, Quinta Dimensione turns out to be the only album to have been released by them. The original album featured spoken word vocals by wizard Tony Binarelli; however my review is based on the Cd reissue which was minus the vocals.

The line-up of keyboards, guitar, bass, drums and vibes looks nothing out of the ordinary but this music never takes the form of a rock band being more dominated by the keyboards and delicate guitar work and drums rarely make an appearance. The musicians more often than not opt for a low key and atmospheric approach creating musical soundscapes and mood pieces blending electronic, avant-garde and classical touches with some symphonic arrangements making an effective use of vibes and chimes on occasion. To my ears the mellower pieces work to better effect than the occasional moment of bombast (relatively speaking) such as Heat, preferring the atmospheric and melancholic feel created, Space being a case in point with some exquisite mellotron.

Persimfans are certainly not your typical RPI band (if such a thing exists) and those approaching them as such are likely to be disappointed. Nevertheless for the more adventurous, who enjoy the sort of qualities outlined above, you might just be onto a winner here. 3 ½ stars.

A late and unusual delicacy for those who like it weird

Persimfans is a very strange late entry of the classic RPI era, the album being released in 1978 when RPI was in decline. This one bucked the trend however and is not only very good but still highly imaginative and with an experimental edge. The band was a bunch of music students from Genova who named their group after a "conductorless" Russian orchestra of the 1920s, the Pervyi Simfonicheskii Ansambl. Persimfans takes that independent and unorthodox approach to music and delivers a most intriguing album that should thrill fans of Franco Battiato's 70s work and perhaps Opus Avantra. Augusto Croce writes that Persimfans "mixed together classical and avantgarde music with electronic and traditional instruments."

While I don't usually steal my own evaluation comments for my review, in this case I'm going to share them as I think my enthusiasm for the album comes through, and that's what I'd like to convey. With just minor edits these are the notes I blathered at my RPI teammates: "It's a gorgeous piece of work with all kinds of luscious atmospheres, sometimes like Goblin as Todd suggested with some Classical and avant garde components. Great keys, haunting female vocals here and there, with an emphasis on piano, mellotron, and acoustic guitars. While not like the big Italian groups it has serious RPI mood and feels very influenced by Battiato to me. It's an album that screams to be in my RPI collection personally while obviously not being textbook stuff. Check out those choirs coming in and out during "Space!" The guitars in "Grand Nero" and "Heat" have an ominous quality also typical of the darker RPI groups. For a bunch of students I can't believe the quality I'm hearing, the discipline, and the maturity. This album blows my mind." Those notes were from my initial impression and have not changed.

The pieces move along like a soundtrack almost, with one idea leading to the next mostly unrelated musical impression. The only common denominator is a mysterious, somewhat melancholic aura of great beauty that comes from the melodies. Sometimes I feel like I've heard these passages in another life or something. Spacious yet unsettling, you never know what is going to creep up on your next. Those alluring siren vocals? Some odd percussion stuff? A brief bit of fusion? Or one of the many strange acoustic guitar melodies countered with piano or electronics. Like the best RPI there is an element of danger, mischief, and not much convention. For what was likely a low budget one-shot group with no commercial potential, the recording and sound quality are really quite good. While I won't call this essential, in my estimation this recording is nearly a must for serious RPI fans and avant-garde music fans. Hunt it down, you won't regret it. The original LP had spoken word vocals over the music while the CD reissues drops them. I've only heard the latter, and even without those vocals is it great. The original LP would be interesting but also much more difficult to find.

I don't say this often, but this is one album I wish was twice as long. While admittedly not an album "for any prog collection" I still need to go four stars here because I loved it and I think it is excellent.

An obscure group from Genoa, formed by students in 1978 and led by keyboardist Marco Grasso, who was taught music at the Nicolò Paganini Conservatory.The other members were keyboardist Mirko Sannazzaro, drummer/percussionist Alessandro Castaldi, guitarist Roberto Gasparini and Marco Cipollina, who played both bass and guitar.They were named after an odd conductor-less orchestra found in Russia in early-1920's by Lev Tseitlin.The band released one album, ''Quinta dimensione'', and a single for the Eleven label the same year.

A trully bizzare effort of Avant Garde weirdness, Classical education, acoustic mysticism and deep experimentation, which breaks any narrow barriers and present a group of young guys ready to conquer the world with an undefined, cosmic sound, swirling around both grandiose orchestrations and very mellow textures.In that sense the name of Persimfans had much to do with the band, they really sounded like a totally free group of musicians, wanting to explore the possibilities in both synthesis and experimentation, as a result their only work lacks any sense of coherence, proper structure and melody, as they have chosen to compose short tracks with influences from Electronic and Classical Music, FRANCO BATTIATO's deep love for Avant-Garde Music and Minimalism and any other free form of music.They had an impressive armour of instruments, the notes display some 20 instruments, but their sound worked for the other side, they prefered to play slow-motion material with light symphonic and jazzy vibes, interrupted by occasional Mellotron majesty, Film-Score aesthetics and academic performances headed for teachers and not for the masses.The result was totally incosistent, often flirting with a mix between Experimental Rock and Library Music, propelled by a mood for haunting, cinematic atmospheres, but not having the appropriate experience to come up with something trully groundbreaking.

Original album is extremely rare and thus pretty expensive.Giallo Records reissued it in 1999 in CD with the pair of tracks from their only single of the band and other unreleased recordings.Weird listening experience, containing every possible music path with the only common link being the dark sound, definitely a work of an acquired taste, but you've got to have some love for mystical, experimental listenings to appreciate this.