CREATURE OF THE NIGHT

I've had the luck of being in contact with talented Roman composer Massimo Pieretti, whose music arrived to my ears last year. Now in the second half of this 2024 he is giving us a brief encounter with his second full-lenght album, which will be released in a few months, however, with "Creature of the Night" we are given a proof of his world of dreams.

PIeretti has made a great work not only by composing excellent music under a fantastic concept, but also by joining a line-up of amazing guest musicians who collaborate in this record (or in this case, this EP), most of them fellow Italian colleagues like Claudio Milano, but also there is a quite interesting bunch of non-Italian artists such as Mattias Olsson, John Hackett or Rob Townsend, to name a few.

So for this 4-track EP hi gives us 15 minutes of symphonic-pastoral-dreamy music which kicks-off with "Come Heavy Sleep", a brief introduction to this world of dreams and fantasy which might actually be a reflection or our reality. Female opera-like vocals appear here with a gentle musical background which has mandolin and orchestral strings included, there is also a nice electric guitar sound; I think this could sound like a passage of a Mike Oldfield's epic. In the last seconds Pieretti's spoken word appear in order to open the gates to the next track, or to the other world.

His voice speaks "welcome to the world of dreams, where we spend so much time along with other beings. Who are they? Here they are!", and then we are listening to "Creatures of the Night, Pt. 1" which has an amazing guitar solo by Simone Cozzetto, who in a few seconds creates a Floydian atmosphere but at the same time takes us fast metal- like nuances; then Germana Noage starts singing and telling us what the story is about. The music is quite interesting and emotional, blending prog rock with symphonic metal, some folk and even opera.

"Creatures of the Night Pt. 2" comes next, a song that by the way was released as the first single of this album. It sounds like a play, the concept and performance have a theatrical essence, even like a novel. Musically the Floyd resemblances appear again with the guitar sound, and I like that Pieretti has chosen a different singer for each track, adding colorful palettes (greatly complemented by strings, percussion and of course, keyboards).

The last advancement of his upcoming album is entitled "I Dreamed of Flying", a song with an emotional essence, where hopes, dreams and a brighter future float. The music is soft, full of beauty and tenderness in one hand, but with nostalgy, uncertainty and sadness in the other hand, The music wonderfully flows, one can even close the eyes and feel enchanted by its sounds, it is an open invitation to dream, or to explore more about the meaning of our own dreams. Delicate acoustic guitar notes, emotional male and female vocals, and great keyboard work, mellotron and a moog solo included.

Well, those 15 minutes went flying as well, so I am looking forward to hear the whole album, which I am sure will deliver the same quality as these four examples.

Enjoy it!