THE MISSING FIREFLIES...

Return from summer evenings past...

While LDF are widely hailed as one of the great Italian prog bands that is by no means a unanimous opinion. Many Italian prog fans who prefer the grittier side of the scene scoff at the prestige afforded Locanda, Maxophone, or Corte dei Miracoli. Locanda's late 1970s debut makes many personal favorite lists, an incredibly rich and luxurious symphonic prog treat. While many RPI bands are tagged with the Genesis-influenced label it really wasn't as prevalent as it was made to seem: my own experience after hundreds of albums is that Van Der Graff and Deep Purple styled hard rock were just as important if not more so. But Locanda were one band who surely appreciated Genesis and Yes, along with stalwarts of the Italian scene like PFM and Orme. Many people mention Banco as well but LDF were no where near as adventurous as the Darwin legends. They were a band about beauty and melody and for those who wanted an impeccably produced mix of symphonic and pastoral, their debut is pretty much essential. My own opinion was that the album was lovely but hardly what I reach for when I want core-RPI. I never found them all that representative of the scene.

So here we are decades later and the fireflies have returned for a summer evening just off the woodlands. The moon is large and spirits high, a warm fragrant breeze from the south. LDF is again a working band and participating in festival performances in and out of Italy. This album is a concoction of new recordings and old live performances designed to put them in the prog public eye. For that purpose it is a very successful return indeed. However, if the band truly desires a legacy with the RPI bands they are often compared to, they will need a new collection of originals more convincing than their last comeback attempt in the 90s, which was not well received by prog fans. Listening to this album I believe they have the potential to pull it off.

The first four tracks are recent recordings of material written years ago. To their credit, not only is the material good but they managed to produce it in a fashion complimentary to the songs and the period. It has that warm and mellow vibe, even during the punchier sections, which could fool one into thinking these were outtakes from the Forse sessions. It sounds clear and vibrant but not overly loud and sterile like many of today's albums. (Keith Richards recently lamented how he wishes he could rescue today's music from the supposed benefit of modern production, I hear him loud and clear.) The songs are upbeat and melodic as you'd expect from LDF, with those juicy guitar leads that scream cross between Howe and Hackett to the point of being comical at times. 'Crescendo' is this gorgeous and jubilant classic that sounds like a cross between Hackett-era Genesis and Basso's 'Voci.' Fantastic marriage of keyboard and guitar melody, with Sasso's smooth, reassuring vocal. It percolates with energy, detailed drumming, and warring factions of guitar and bold piano runs. 'Sequenza Circolare' is a most appreciated (by me) classical piano solo which should again thrill fans of Luciano Basso. 'La Giostra' is next, another stellar long track in similar territory as 'Crescendo' and sadly the last new firefly we meet in this outing, as the fourth 'new' song is a re-record of a 'Forse' track.

The rest of the album consists of three live songs recorded in 1977 during their 'Forse' days. It's always a gift for RPI fans to get a chance to hear quality live recordings from the 1970s, as they tend to be rare and sometimes of very spotty sound quality. While these three songs are obviously far from today's standards of live recording quality, they are certainly adequate for this listener to enjoy. They are sadly brief, in fact two are just excerpts, but the glory comes through in a live cut of 'Vendesi saggezza' from the 'Forse' album. While it will be hard for some to accept the sound quality, if one sets aside our learned prejudice for 'perfect' sound, we can clearly hear the power of LDF as a live act at the time. These guys were firing on all cylinders and their hybrid of romantic symphonic is indeed fitting with their representative lovely cover art. They made a big mistake by cutting off these three tracks however, they are almost more like teasers. Clocking in at just 36 minutes there was plenty of room for more songs and complete versions of songs.

While I enjoyed this very much and was tempted to give it four stars, three is probably most appropriate. It contains two essential new LDF cuts (Crescendo and Giostra) along with a bunch of other good stuff that suffers a bit from the convoluted, cut and paste feel of the album. I'll say it again guys....get in the studio and make a true prog-rock epic follow-up to Forse. Your fans are there, and it sounds like the band is still in top form despite the years.

'The Missing Fireflies...' - Locanda Delle Fate (6/10)

Like many other bands within the golden Italian prog rock scene, LOCANDA DELLE FATE were one of those who got lost in the annals of obscurity, to all but those invested in the scene. With that in mind, the two albums they did release garnered some very noble acclaim, with some reviews I read claiming them to be on part with some of the style's very best. Perhaps in some hope to shine a light on their work once more, LOCANDA DELLE FATE have risen from the dead to give listeners a short dose of their music. Sadly, 'The Missing Fireflies...' comes across as a muffled compilation, always hinting at the band's quality, but never demonstrating it. Especially for those who may have been excited to hear that the band was coming out with something new after so many years, this collection of songs does not warrant the wait.

This is not to say that 'The Missing Fireflies...' is a bad collection of songs, however. LOCANDA DELLE FATE make music on the melodic side of Italian prog rock, and comparisons to BANCO DEL MUTUO SOCCORSO are not unwarranted. To admit, I always preferred the more adventurous theatrical RPI bands to their GENESIS-like counterparts, but there is no qualm with the music here, which is rather consistently mellow and tasteful. The compilation is split between a handful of freshly recorded songs, and live tracks from the band's heyday. The recorded material is the more notable of the two here, although the live recording is surprisingly crisp. LOCANDA DELLE FATE's music is fuelled largely by gorgeous synths and the RPI-canon vocals of Leonardo Sasso, who does well to bolster the BANCO comparisons this band has received.

Perhaps it's simply the lack of dramatic tension in the music, but 'The Missing Fireflies...' washes over me pleasantly, but fails to capture my spirit. The lackluster flow of the compilation also does not help matters. While I was unaware of the band's music before hearing this collection, it is clear to me that a full-length from these guys would have been much preferable, as their penchant for melodies would have been much better showcased in the context of the epic longform that they once prospered in. 'The Missing Fireflies...' is enjoyable, but I imagine longtime fans of LOCANDA DELLE FATE will find themselves disappointed.

This is a compilation album of both studio and live tracks. The live music is from 1977 and the studio tracks are either seventies songs that weren't completed back then and finished here (tracks 1 & 2) or different versions of those 1977 songs (tracks 3 & 4). The biggest compliment I can give this band is that the new music they have recorded here (tracks 1-4) is amazing. These guys sound as good if not better than they did with their 1977 classic. Unfortunately the power and beauty of the first four songs disappears with those final three live tracks. The sound quality isn't nearly as good on those live ones sadly. I have to mention the cover art as well which rivals the famous one from their 1977 debut. Beautiful stuff.

"Crescendo" opens with pulsating organ that builds as drums, synths then guitar join in. Vocals before 2 minutes. Piano and drums lead 4 minutes in then the vocals return 5 1/2 minutes in as it settles. It kicks back in a minute later. "Sequenza Circolare" is a short intro for the next track and it consists of piano melodies then bang ! It kicks in at the start of "La Giostra". Amazing sound ! Vocals follow. This is simply gorgeous. It's so uplifting after 4 minutes. By the way this track was featured on their 1977 live album but not on the studio album back then. "Non Chiudere A Chiave Le Stelle" is from that 1977 studio album. It's mellow to start with mellotron. And yes it's real mellotron, in fact an M400. Vocals a minute in.

As I mentioned the live tracks just don't sound nearly as good although I kind of got used to the sound by the closing 8 minute song.

I will be keeping this in my rotation simply to listen to those 4 amazing opening songs. These guys still have it ! A low 4 stars.

Ten years after the ephemeral reunion of the late nineties Locanda delle Fate came back with a renewed line-up. This time the reunion was mainly focused on the live activity and the band rearranged the old repertoire with a vintage taste for some live performances with excellent results and in 2010 they played their first concerts since the late seventies. The current line up features the veterans Leonardo Sasso (vocals), Luciano Boero (bass), Giorgio Gardino (drums) and Oscar Mazzoglio (Hammond, keyboards, minimoog) plus two new members: Maurizio Muha (piano, Moog, Mellotron) and Massimo Brignolo. In 2012 they released a new album on the independent label Altrock, "The Missing Fireflies", featuring some new studio versions of old pieces and some live tracks taken from a 1977 concert.

The studio version of "Crescendo" (Growing up) is amazing and the vintage sounds take you back in time... "How much of life is wasted by waiting for tomorrow / The petals of a Time without seasons fall down / Some leaves are dancing like butterflies for us all around / I try to catch them by it's time to growing up now...". This song was composed back in the seventies but it was never recorded in studio before and the new version respects the way it was conceived.

"Sequenza circolare" (Loop) is a fine, short instrumental composed by the newcomer Maurizio Muha and is a perfect introduction for another piece composed in the seventies and here recorded in studio for the first time, "La giostra" (The carousel). It's a beautiful, timeless track about the magic power of dreams... "She is clinging to my nerves that are taking off in orbit above me / I have no fear but standing here I can already see some mirages...".

The last studio track is a new version of "Non chiudere a chiave le stelle" (Don't lock the stars), a piece about a beautiful girl who wastes her time closed in her room, lost in her dreams. The original version was released in the 1977 album "Forse le lucciole non si amano più" but this version is good as well.

The live tracks are taken from a concert in Asti, at the Alfieri Theatre, on November 21, 1977. The sound quality is not bad but part of the original tapes are lost and what's left are just the final part of "Non chiudere a chiave le stelle", "Crescendo" and "Vendesi saggezza". It's an interesting document of the live performances of the old line up, nothing more. Well, all in all I think that this is just a new starting point for the band and I'm looking forward to a new album with new original stuff!

In my opinion, Le Lucciole Non Si Amano Piu was one of the best produced 70's prog albums. How did it manage to sound so spectacular compared to other recordings of the time? When it comes to The Missing Fireflies, essentially leftovers of the earlier album, it is likewise produced to a very satisfactory level. The overall sound, from the keys to drums is crisp, punchy, and full. The performances are inspired, especially Luciano's beautiful singing. There's really nothing to complain about here. The Missing Fireflies basically sounds exactly like it should've been on the original album, and it would have been, had their not been technical limitations on the album production. If one was to complain about something, it might be that they were hoping for something that sounded like a different album, but they didn't get it. Well, that wasn't really the purpose here, now was it. You get loads of keyboards and pianos dueling off in magical Italian fashion, gorgeous vocals, perhaps some of the best in Italian 70's, in my humble opinion, and compositions which show great use of transitions and moods while maintaining a magical romantic sort of atmosphere, all the while never being afraid to get 'proggy.'

My only beef with this release is the poor sound quality of the live tracks. Unfortunately, they sound like they were recorded on a microphone in the back of the concert hall and were never mixed. It's pretty bad, I'm not kidding. Nothing we can do about it. In the end, however, I wasn't hoping for a Locanda live album. I just wanted the extra studio tracks, which they delivered splendidly. A real treat for fans of the band and those in the mood for a bit of Italian 70's nostalgia.