INDACO

The musical content is superb, good selection of the catalogue of this supergroup. Rodolfo Maltese (R.I.P.) is a gentleman and apart from a good performer, not only on guitars but also on horn, he tells us the origin and trivia about several of the tracks. Several guests present good contributions to some tracks. Glad to see the contribution of Di Giacomo (R.I.P.), with some funny conversation, but sad at the same time because his tragic death 4 years ago. My main complaint is for the filming crew: 80% of the time they focus on the wrong musician; for example we have a guitar solo and the camera is focused on the percussionist doing virtually nothing! The most overlooked guy by the cameraman is bagpipe and flute player. I confess this was a frustrating experience. Perhaps because this BTF is offering this DVD for a truly cheap price at the moment! Anyway I do recommend this historic document. In general ****1/2 stars because the filming, a ****1/2 to ***** stars for performance.

I owe the discovery of 'Terra Maris' to the list of unreviewed albums in the ProgArchives forum. It's the fourth studio album by Indaco, a band that has received only scant attention on the site despite its line-up including Banco cohorts Rodolfo Maltese and Pierluigi Calderoni. 'Terra Maris' is also fortified by guest appearances from the likes of PFM's Mauro Pagani and vocalist Andrea Parodi of Tazenda.

Although Indaco's music is grounded in Italian folk the band isn't restricted by the native Italian sound; their music has a truly cosmopolitan spirit and is presented in the wider context of World Music. What we have therefore is a fruitful collection of ethno-prog that blends Mediterranean, Celtic and Eastern influences. The generally laid back, airy feeling on the album is arrived at through its stylistic variations. Some tracks follow different forking paths into jazz, folk or rock, but as often as not these influences all branch into one another.

There's a strong North African or Andalusian influence on the early part of the album that contrasts sharply with the rather interesting cover of 'Norwegian Wood', which is pretty much unrecognisable until the final few bars. 'Aran' is one of the main highlights and features a beautiful interaction between classical guitar and trumpet, the latter courtesy of Paulo Fresu.

The album is enriched with ethnic instruments although the two-part 'Terza Qualita', which comes complete with Irish bouzouki and fiddle, verges on what is disparagingly referred to by some people in my neck of the woods as 'diddly-dee' music. As a song it's actually fine, it just seems a bit out of place here. That minor aberration aside the album successfully manages to express the mood of the Mediterranean.

The band members employ a tight, economical style and turn mostly to short track lengths. The obvious exception is the 8-minute 'Puja', a mellow workout for upright bass, violin, horn and piano. This is lovely stuff, like walking along the beach in the still of a moonless night. Fans of the more folk-oriented RPI should definitely check out this album.

Hahaha, I'm very happy to listen to the INDACO's great work. And I'm knocked out by its Oriental flavour...Ouch.

Beg your pardon I've not heard another INDACO's album and can't evaluate them well, but I suggest Amorgos is absolutely their essence. Is this suggestion correct? The work's strong impression can let me say this comment.

First listen to the first track Amorgos. I wonder how you can feel. Forgive me tellin' my impression but I felt the sound of this song can hear like Kitaro or Sohjiro, Japanese New Age musicians with synth and wind instruments. Many formations and mixtures are in this album. Oriental percussive sound, solemn synth, African beat, waving and fuzzy voice, hot mandolin play...things like that. All of them should construct sounds with their identity and character. Because of their particularly particular sounds (!), on Nel Tempo Francesco Di Giacomo took lead vocal but INDACO's sounds can let his great vocal be slightly dim. What happened! :-)

At last, FWIW I've said Italian rock have some Oriental flavour, and INDACO is, I consider, the typical band with Oriental and exotic style. Folks from Orient! Let's listen!

P.S. This band was recommended as an Oriental-flavoured band by NotAProghead. Thanks NAP!

This live album has a strong and spicy Mediterranean flavour. Indaco is a side-project of BMS' guitarist Rodolfo Maltese and features also former BMS' drummer Pierluigi Calderoni, but their music is very different from BMS'. Indaco perform a kind of lush ethno-prog music, taking you in a musical journey all around the Mediterranean Sea, from Naples to Andalusia, from Sardinia to Arab countries... Violin and ethnical instruments like bouzouki, tammorra or zampogna a "paro" are blended with more recent "jazzy" sounds. The pieces are ethereal and diluted giving ample room to showcase the virtuosity of the musicians. Every now and again the music reminds me of some works of Al Di Meola, though here the guitar is not the "main attraction" and you can enjoy a great interaction between all the instruments. In my opinion particularly good are "Su Nuraghe" and "To The Light House". Although I don't think that this is an essential album in a prog collection, it's worth listen to...

This is a captivating musical project from Italy, rooted in 1991. The musical brainchild is Banco member Rodolfo Maltese (guitars and horn). Indaco have made 6 studio albums, one live album and just released this live DVD (recorded early 2006 in Rome, Italy). As the title suggests, it's an encounter of ethnic music from countries around the Mediteranean See: we can enjoy the Greek bouzouki, the Spanish flamenco, assorted Arabian percussion and instruments like the flute, bagpipe, violin, clarinet, horn (by Rodolfo Maltese!) and acoustic guitar. Along these folky elements, the music also contains prog elements by playing on drums, electric bass, keyboards and electric guitar and - sitar. All in all a colourful blend of instruments that sounds captivating, especially in compositions like Andalusiana (a bit sultry climate and an exciting mix of bagpipe, bouzouki, flute and percussion along fluent work on piano and flamenco guitar), Ascea (bagpipe, bouzouki and Minimoog-like flights), Teatro Do Mar (compelling with bluesy vocals, tango-like accordeon and again delicate flamenco guitar play), Mediterraneo (swinging rhythm with folky guitar and the sound of a sitar) and Norwegian Wood (expressive female voice and Morish undertones). In the song Waiting For Kundalini I notice a 'hidden tribute' to Heart Of The Sun by Pink Floyd. Then the legendary Banco singer Francesco Di Giacomo (recently voted as the best singer in a Prog Archives poll) joins Indaco for 3 songs on stage. He immediately succeeds to evoke nostalgic feelings with his great, very distinctive voice with echoes from the Seventies Banco. To me this sounds as a very interesting DVD but you have to be up to a folky sound!

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Good collection with two new songs that could be an excellent way to explore the music of this interesting band born from the meeting, in may 1994, of Rodolfo Maltese (guitarist of BMS) with Mario Pio Mancini, Arnaldo Vacca, Pierluigi Calderoni (former drummer of BMS), Luca Barberini and Carlo Mezzanotte, musicians "bound together by the same desire to break down the musical fences" as they wrote in the booklet. There are many guests here that contribute to make interesting this album, like, among others, Andrea Parodi (from the Sardinian band Tazenda), Mauro Pagani (PFM) and Francesco Di Giacomo (BMS). The music is a kind of "ethno prog" that reminds of bands like Radiodervish and some works of Franco Battiato and Mauro Pagani.

In the whole, this album is a kind of musical journey where you can find many geographical influences: from Argentina ("Il volo del gabbiano" reminds of Astor Piazzolla) to Scotland ("Father P." with the Celtic harp and the voice of Fiona Davidson), from the Mediterranean Sea (the lyrics of "Salentu", that means "Salt and wind" and "Soneanima" that means "Sound of Soul" are in Sardinian dialect with the vocals of Andrea Parodi, while "Teatro do mar" is in the dialect of Naples) to the "Doors of the East" ("Waiting for kundalini and "Mantra"). The prog roots are stronger in the instrumentals "Su nuraghe" (that seem to come out from some PFM album), "Andalusiana" (with violin and flute by Mauro Pagani) and "To the lighthouse"... Anyway, my favourite track here is "Tharros", song very close to BMS' amazing style where Francesco Di Giacomo sings "Questa mia isola non troverete mai / Potenti uomini senza dubbi ormai" = "Powerful men without doubts / You'll never find this isle of mine".

Although perhaps not essential in a "prog collection", in my opinion this is an album that is worth listen to.

This is third album by Italian supergroup gathering (former) members of Banco and PFM as well as trumpet player Lester Bowie. The musical style reveals more a kind of ethnic world fusion combining mostly folk-ish influences with some elements of jazz every now and then. Rocking moments actually can hardly be found on here but they managed quite nicely to merge all these traditional and ethnic influences with modern ones.

Instrumental piece and opener Morgos has a rather captivating atmosphere especially due to Lester Bowie's trumpet and changes to a more celtic sound in its second half. During the following tracks arabic tunes are alternating with indian ones or both are combined together with electric guitar as in Sahasrara in the Sky. Most of them are kept all instrumental apart of Nel Tempo with Francesco di Giacomo and Soneanima, a very melancholic one sung in Sardic dialect as I read somewhere. All songs are very nice and it's not a bad album I'd say. On the other hand probably as well not that interesting for a Progfan.

Very good album in ethnic fusion and recommended for fans of this style but in general not an essential one in Prog!