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LUPERCALIA

Prog Folk • Italy


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Lupercalia biography
Formed in Naples, Italy 1999
Terminated 2005 with the beginnings of follow on project CORDE OBLIQUE

Riccardo Prencipe's LUPERCALIA, named after a pastoral and debauchery-filled festival in ancient Rome, was a necessary step in his evolution towards the well known ethereal folk cum shoegaze project CORDE OBLIQUE, which has now become more of a band with invited guests. The style is more medieval and Gothic with lots of soprano vocals and nods to DEAD CAN DANCE, LOREENA MCKENNITT, DUNWICH, FAUN and a few neo folk groups of their day, significant as they were initially signed to World Serpent for their first proper release "Soehriminir".

It is time for LUPERCALIA (not to be confused with several other artists of the same name) to join progarchives and complete the history of Riccardo's prog folk contributions.

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LUPERCALIA Videos (YouTube and more)


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LUPERCALIA discography


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LUPERCALIA top albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

3.90 | 2 ratings
Soehrimnir
2000
3.00 | 1 ratings
Florilegium
2004

LUPERCALIA Live Albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

LUPERCALIA Videos (DVD, Blu-ray, VHS etc)

LUPERCALIA Boxset & Compilations (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

LUPERCALIA Official Singles, EPs, Fan Club & Promo (CD, EP/LP, MC, Digital Media Download)

0.00 | 0 ratings
Les Nuits de Samain
1999
0.00 | 0 ratings
Mediestetica
2000

LUPERCALIA Reviews


Showing last 10 reviews only
 Florilegium by LUPERCALIA album cover Studio Album, 2004
3.00 | 1 ratings

BUY
Florilegium
Lupercalia Prog Folk

Review by kenethlevine
Special Collaborator Prog-Folk Team

— First review of this album —
3 stars One of my favorite tracks by RICCARDO PRENCIPE's next project CORDE OBLIQUE is on their second album "Volonte D'Arte". It's called "Cuma", a dramatic over the top operatic piece (even as these things go) sung by soprano Claudia Florio, who graces almost every track on this, the second and final album by LUPERCALIA, a mere 3 years before. It boosted my ego to know that I could enjoy this type of music to such a degree, and even more when fellow folkie-sans-proggy friends broke it to me that they were, to put it kindly, lukewarm towards it. Nowhere did I state that I wanted an album of Cumas though, and while that isn't quite what we have on "Florilegium", it's more than I ever asked for.

Claudia sings like an angel with some combination of TB and an undiagnosed psychosis, and enough of Prencipe's other wonderful predilections surface here. These include powerful multifaceted pieces like "Tribe", "Sub Specie Aeternitatis", and the Celtic rouser "Pilgrim's Chant", and since I've been advised by an associate of superior eclectic taste that the reworkings of the "Mediestetica" demos, wisely disseminated here, are far better than the originals, I have no trouble scattering 3 stars of flower petals on this posthumous review.

 Soehrimnir by LUPERCALIA album cover Studio Album, 2000
3.90 | 2 ratings

BUY
Soehrimnir
Lupercalia Prog Folk

Review by kenethlevine
Special Collaborator Prog-Folk Team

4 stars LUPERCALIA, the fascinating prequel to the more commercially successful Italian project CORDE OBLIQUE, formed in 1999 and released 2 full length albums performed by the all wise all knowing RICCARDO PRENCIPE on classical guitar and synths and Pierangelo Fevola on limited strings. This is the debut from 2000, to which bonus tracks from a prior demo were later added, featuring soprano Claudia Florio, but my review is based on the original release. Florio would later return full time on the second album, "Florilegium". The title refers to a boar in Norse mythology that is cooked up nightly in Valhalla but reappears whole and presumably alive in the morning. Now that seems to solve at least a few present day problems!

First of all, a couple of surprises. No other vocals are present here. It often sounds like a choir is amping the drama but that is apparently synths, which are the other surprise. As CORDE OBLIQUE developed, electronics became more common, but certainly not in the phases that followed on from LUPERCALIA. Sometimes an artist needs to start fresh. The synths also simulate woodwinds, percussion and the myriad medieval instruments that might have been used on these ancient sounding tunes, only one of which, the brief "De todo mal" is actually traditional. Riccardo's guitar plays a much more limited role here but still gets plenty of use; it's the simulation of the sacred and secular sounds that dominates, with the blending of real strings helping to hold the ensemble upright.

This doesn't sound like a promising prospect but the result is more authentic in feel than one could have imagined, as well as lively, crisply played folk with symphonic enveloping on the wonderful numbers "Stil Composito" and "La Malinconia Di Schalken", that elevate the bombast almost to the level of say, IL CASTELLO DI ATLANTE. Other picks include the opulent opener "Il Coilchico Alfranto", which has an overture-ish feel, and the vivacious "Il Pianto Di Giuletto". More pastoral but still dynamic is the evocative "Notturno da Barca". "Normandia" even conjures the Andes to me, which doesn't make sense but I'm just going with it.

This is on the level of CORDE OBLIQUE's early work but more distinct than I expected, such is the breadth of prog folk. Still, I recommend it mostly for folkies who enjoy mellow but unboaring folk or world music acts.

Thanks to kenethlevine for the artist addition.

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