CRIES AND WHISPERS

Finally Napoli's Prog Folk guitar virtuoso and master composer, Riccardo Prencipe is committing to "the dark side," that is, music with a fully-electrified sound palette. The good news is that it works! Riccardo masterfully blends his classical folk foundations with the newer metallic rock palettes with perfection and power (and, as usual, pristine sound engineering).

Retaining his favored Rita Saviano behind the vocal microphone, we also have the participation of several of Riccardo's long-time collaborators, most notably, violinist Edo Notarloberti, Umberto Lepore on basses, Alessio Sica on drums, Luigi Rubino on keyboards, and Michele Maione on percussion. The big difference here on Sussumi e Grica (Cries and Whispers - which is totally inspired by Ingmar Bergman's film of the same name) is that Riccardo has endorsed the use of electrified rock instruments which gives his music a heavier, often darker, even at-times metal sound. Don't get me wrong, the music is still founded in Riccardo's pristine and celestial folk weaves, it's just embellished and fortified with the sound palette of the original Post Metal experimentalists like maudlin of the Well, Agalloch, Opeth, and Pain of Salvation. Whereas on previous albums Riccardo had often turned to British Post-Metal rockers Anathema for inspiration--and songs to cover--here his borrowing comes from French Black Metal band Alcest's 2007 debut album as well as fellow guitar virtuoso and Catalonian legend, Francisco Tarrega (who died in 1909). The album is being released as a double disc album with Volume 1 being called the "Post Metal / Folkgaze" album and Volume 2 the "Dark / Ethnofolk" album with an official release date for the full album being February 14, 2025.

Ever looking to the past while helping to shape the future, RICCARDO PRENCIPE and his methodically curated guests have here bifurcated a project into a post metal ("Cries") and an ethofolk section ("Whispers"). To employ the dialect us fans have followed since 2007, the first part has more of an edge than we are used to, with post rock tectonics throughout, while the second is like the old CORDE OBLIQUE we nostalgize.

On "The Moon is a Dry Bone", the schism often fractured individual tracks, sometime to their benefit, but here, while a certain moodiness warms us up, particularly on "The NIghtingale and the Rose" and "A Step to Lose the Balance", we get to revel more in the presentations that can be and often are unpredictable in new and exhilarating ways, as in "Leaver", "John Ruskin", "Bruegel's Dance", "Souvenirs d'un autre Monde", and the shatteringly ethereal "Selfish Giant". Much thanks as always to Rita Saviano who carries the vocal duties, thought at the expense of my continued lament that male voice is only permitted to be little spoon during harmony vocals.

While not every incursion here meets with ultimate success, it's rarely for want of effort and inspiration, thanks in part to the classic 1972 Ingmar Bergman film of the same name, and lurches its themes forward to the present day and beyond in a modulated voice.