UNA RIFLESSIONE

Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth, Cristiano Roversi of Moongarden, Enrico Gabrielli of Calibro 35, Diego Petrini of Il Bacio della Medusa, Marco Croci of Maxophone/Jumbo, and, of course, Aronne Cereda of Dalton.

How often does one get to hear a heavy-hitter, Prog All-Star line-up like this assemble to record some vintage-era RPI? In one of the more unusual recent celebratory collaborations of classic work, Dalton original member Aronne Cereda is joined by some musical heavyweights to re-record two classic Dalton tracks in the studio. Apparently, Mikael Akerfeldt is a huge RPI fan (how cool is that?), and the other guys come from their own successful projects in the RPI realm. While only two songs were recorded here, ("Una Riflessione" and "Idea d'infinito" from 1973), each were offered with two versions, one with vocals and one instrumental. Both songs are cool and compare well to the originals. Any artistic review isn't the point here. This is about having fun.

These guys are all outstanding players, and the biggest difference is just the sound, the feel. The originals have that pleasing slightly hazy '70s vibe about them, while these new versions burst through with full modern production values. Possibly you could say they are slightly more muscular or aggressive than the originals. The highlight for me was the fantastic wordless female and choir vocals that they judiciously added atop the instrumental version of "Idea d'infinito," which really took a great song to an even better place. As cool as this EP is, this project is for fans of Dalton, fans of the guest artists, and RPI fans with deep collections. Definitely not essential for those just trying to assemble a modest collection of great titles. For those who are excited about it, they released a special orange vinyl to commemorate this recording. That would be a truly memorable birthday gift to drop on one of your vinyl-enthusiast RPI friends!