RICCARDO ZAPPA

Zappa celebrated the release of ''Trasparenze'' with a short tour along with Gino Paoli’s supporting group.He continued his solo performances in theaters and social clubs, before moving on to his third album ''Haermea'' in 1982, his second on the DDD label, a collaboration that would last for over 15 years.Here Zappa is only supported by Pietro Pellegrini on keyboards and drummer Walter Calloni.The album carried the subtitle ''La camera incantata'', refering to Zappa's own recording studio.

The journey of Zappa into Acoustic Prog with lots of Ethnic touches continues with this work, which is a good example that a mainly acoustic album can be much desirable among listeners of more electric textures.The soundscapes come as a combination of Zappa's technical performances on classical guitar and the creation of atmospheric images with the support of keyboards, more or less close to the likes of MIKE OLDFIELD or ANTHONY PHILLIPS.Additionally ''Hermaea'' contains a lot of interesting melodious themes with sensitive guitar playing and Pellegrini's background keyboard orchestrations.The composer often flirts with some sort of Ethnic Fusion, developing from melancholic acoustic instrumentals into richer and more virtuosic ideas with accurate guitar playing and more passionate performances by drums and keyboards.Even so, the focus in this album is again on Zappa's academic playing, a really great lesson for all lovers of classical guitar and future creators of atmospheric instrumental themes in the vein of MIKE OLDFIELD.

Reputedly Zappa's later albums were deeped into more experimental and New Age stylings, always focusing on the inner power of acoustic music.The man had a long collaboration with famous Italian singer Eros Ramazzotti and even composed music for films as well as reworked some Classical compositions.

Laid-back, atmospheric, Ethnic-styled instrumental music, highlighted by Zappa's diverse executions on guitars.Recommended to all fans of deep soundscapes and dreamy explorations.

Define the Italian Mike Oldfield Riccardo Zappa is correct. But you can not see how "Celestion" is a really nice and relaxed album. The songwriting is not marked on the power, but more than anything else on the listening pleasure. Extensive use of acoustic guitar, so, in a calm and careful music. not too electronic keyboards and lots of baroque melody. But not pompous. Also the production is light and relaxed. What else to add? this album is hard to think of the Italian Progressive economy. Rather I consider "Celestion" a great album of Folk Prog. Certainly if you love acoustic guitar "Celestion" is another album for your collection.

After the rather dissapointing ''Chatka'',Italian guitar virtuoso Ricardo Zappa enters the Stone Castle studios in Carimate two years later in order to record his third personal album.And with a 12-string guitar on the cover you know exactly what to expect.From this point Zappa begins a short collaboration with ex-Alphataurus keyboardist Pietro Pellegrini.

From the dramatic vocals of Antonello Venditti and the first sounds from Zappa's guitar,everything showcases a return to the quality and energy on Zappa's debut.Delicate, smooth but often virtuosic and highly technical playing with evident OLDFIELD-ian hints and influences from Classical,Blues and Meditterenean Music,''Trasparenze'' becomes a beautiful journey in world music with every listening.Pellegrini's Korg synthesizer offers some spacey soundscapes in the background and a steady rhythm section adds some dynamics from time to time.Give an extra point to the long title track,which an amazing OLDFIELD-ian mix of ethnic and symphonic musicianship of the highest calibre.

It is a fact that Zappa delivers with every release a more personal sound of playing and with ''Trasparenze'' I think he got to his highest inspiration,focusing on his 12-string guitar.This album is not for everybody,but if you like trippy and intelligent music with different influences,this album is a great stop.Strongly recommended,3.5 stars.

For my first exposure to RICCARDO ZAPPA I chose to indulge in his first solo recording, often considered his best. Indeed, "Celestion" is a landmark album in its use of acoustic guitar as a lead foil for modern classical music. What strikes me most is how much the guitar is played in a style usually more reserved for keyboards, casting a wide swath in the manner of the organs and synthesizers of the time, but at other times I they approach something akin to flamenco. The downside is that few of the compositions are particularly well developed or out of the ordinary.

When Zappa opts to play as he can in a more rooted manner, particularly in the first half of "Tre e Quattro Quarti", the results are inspiring in a medieval festival kind of way, but the second half illustrates one problem with the disk, which occurs when he goes rock, because his melodies generally don't match his technique. Luckily the end redeems the track. The title cut is the most substantial, and reveals that Zappa is more accomplished on the fusion end the spectrum. Comparisons can be drawn to one of Britain's unsung guitar heroes,PAUL BRETT, circa his 1978 tour de force "Interlife", in his manner of developing a piece slowly and methodically, with the help of Vince Tempera on synths, and cutting loose at the right moments. At these times Julius Farmer's bass carries the day along with Tempera.

Sadly, the rest of the disk is less impressive, and even the opener is not nearly as significant as its duration might suggest, and would have been best condensed to its few splendid passages. "Sonata Mediterranea" sounds like a sleepy outtake from side 2 of "Tubular Bells", which was already sleepy and extraneous enough! Riccardo comes off a few emoticons short of memorable, but perhaps such is the nature of a good deal of the classical music that forms his inspiration.

I would recommend this to guitar players with an acoustic and symphonic bent, new age fans, and other curious bystanders, perhaps the sort of people who don't mind staring at the celestial sphere for hours in the hope of finding a shooting star, but are just as happy if they don't see one.

A very succesful guitarist from Forli,Emilia-Romagna,RICCARDO ZAPPA was born in 1951 and his first touch with professional music was as a composer for the album ''Le ciliegie'' of Fiorella Mannoia back in 1969.His first album was a collaboration with Klaus Aulehla on ''Aulehla & Zappa'' in 1974,featuring acoustic ballads.In 1977 Zappa begins his personal journey in music with Celstion,released on Divergo.The album succeeded a double re-issue both on Mellow Records and BTF and is really easy to find nowadays.

STYLE: The Italian MIKE OLDFIELD?Propably yes,at least for this release.''Celestion'' is dominated by the magical acoustic chords of Zappa over a slight new-age atmosphere, created by the background atmospheric keys of Vince Tempera (ex-Il Volo).Lots of classical leanings,nice use of mandolin,but a pretty low mix for the rhythm section.Often the album is characterized by a melow meditterenean feeling in its smoother moments,offering dreamy soundscapes for the listener.A good amount of waving electronics makes the listening even more atmospheric.

INFLUENCES/SOUNDS LIKE: MIKE OLDFIELD all the way.

PLUS: Awesome performance by Zappa on acoustic chords,a real seminar for fans of classic/acoustic guitar.Dreamy and ethereal soundscapes,which make the listener travel in another world.Classical and mediterrenean influences blend in a nice way.

MINUS: Not that personal sounding,MIKE OLDFIELD made this introduction to art rock five years back.The mass of acoustic guitars and resemblance of the tracks aren't among the album's high points.

WILL APPEAL TO:...Fans of MIKE OLDFIELD,new-agey art rock and students of guitars.

CONCLUSION/RATING: Despite the straight musicianship and the lack of diversity, ''Celestion'' can be a pure magic if listened under the appropriate circumstances....a nice view,some great wine and a relaxed mood.A nice purchase for fans of acoustic prog....3.5 stars.

The Italian Oldfield?

It sounds astonishingly like the case at times. Listening to Celestion sounds like some lost '70s Oldfield album with waves of cascading acoustic guitar in these tight, repetitive structures built around quickly picked notes that change and move with subtlety as the track unwinds. Riccardo Zappa is a hugely acclaimed Italian instrumentalist who has released many albums over the years, the earlier ones in a progressive vein while later ones (which I have not heard) apparently moving more towards a new age musical style. Labels passed on the Milan based Zappa at the time of this first album and it was eventually picked up by a small label called Divergo who were very well rewarded for their gamble over time. Celestion turned out to be quite a hit for a time when music was turning more mainsteam. This album boasts a very unique sound which is the result of Zappa's use of an amplified Ovation guitar subject to all manner of electronic manipulations. The sounds that Zappa obtained with his unconventional approaches are easily obtained today with the use of recording software but in 1977 all of this was very hard work in the studio. The album moves from more fully realized pieces like "Frammenti" at ten minutes long, with drums and interesting arrangements, to the more solo guitar pieces like "Tre e Quattro Quarti" which has a "horse in hilly countryside" outdoor feel to it, like Oldfield's "On Horseback." The title track bursts into some funky light-fusion rhythms and is the other standout track here after "Frammenti." The finale "Mirage" layers different acoustics over hand percussions before bringing in bass and full kit in the second half. While I must admit this is a "good" album at the least it fails to stoke much enthusiasm for me. Zappa is very talented and I find this album interesting but not satisfying in the way that "Ommadawn" or "Incantations" are. Oldfield seems to have a more expansive overall vision to his sound whereas "Celestion" seems to be somewhat less exciting to my prog ear. An album for acoustic guitar lovers to be sure and likely a pleaser for Oldfield fans as well, but I don't know how important it is for the wider audience of progressive rock fans. The BTF/VM reissue is a gatefold mini-lp sleeve with brief Bio and not much else, so the Mellow issue would be fine here if you wanted to save a few bucks. 3 stars, barely.

I was happy to have in my hands the latest studio album by Riccardo Zappa. I thought it would have been very interesting, due to the big prog revival in Italy of the recent years. Unfortunately I don't think "Ali e Radici" is part of his best work, even if there are many good examples of his skills and capabilities on acoustic guitar (just listen or watch to the video track of "Scioglidita").

The main problem, I think, is that Riccardo has refused the collaboration of other musicians reducing the role of other instruments at the minimum (drums, bass and keyboards). The final result is that all these excellent performances on guitar seem to look, a little bit, just some guitar's exercises. That's the weak point.

If you think this is not a problem, then you will like very much this item.

2,5

Once more a brilliant record!

And so it is, Riccardo Zappa that great and well recognized acoustic guitarist from Italy, continued a very delightful career with the release of his 4th effort, after that masterpiece called "Celestion" in 1977, the beautiful "Chatka" in 1978 and the no less good "Trasparenze" in 1980, "Haermea (La Camara Incantata)" was released in 1982 in the beginning of the 80s, time that is mostly known for its punk, glam, disco and pop movement in general, and time that prog had its re-birht with the Neo scene, Riccardo Zappa didn`t change his style nor changed the sound and musical orientation.

If you are not familiar with his music, then i assure you are missing something amazing, he is really a monster of acoustic guitar, his superb playing and arrangements are beautiful and everyone could be aware of that by listening to any of his songs. In this album you will find 8 songs and a lenght of 40 minutes when besides Riccardo, we will note the work of Pietro Pellegrini who was member of Alphataurus, on keyboards and Walter Calloni on drums.

The first song is entitled "440 Hertz" and it is a very promising opener song, a bit "strong" to be a Zappa song, i mean the playing is faster and with a happiest mood. "La Camera Incantata" is the second song of the album and one of the longest songs, with excellent arrangements making an extraorninary composition when we can appreciate the super work of Riccardo on guitars, there are some moments that i imagine him playing his guitar with a deep knowledge of it, i mean, he knows every single detail of his guitar and that makes his playing better, this song is magnific with some mood changes which seem to be progressive, at the middle of the song the drums enter again with a very nice playing going together with guitars.

"4311 B" is a shorter song but no less good, it has a more delicated sound and mood, sometimes being a bit jazzy with a very soft bass playing which was also played by Riccardo, it is a very nice moment, so enjoyable. "Serenata in Do Maggiore" reminds me at first bit to those Rick Wakeman`s new age moments, but then it returns to the soft Zappa`s style, this is one of my less favorite songs here, but it is also good, that is why i love his albums.

"Haermea" is another very relaxing song at first and actually a bit boring, but suddenly it changes to a fast tempo song with excellent atmospheres, and then it becomes even faster with a stronger feeling, nice song. "Torniamo a Salonicco" continues with the soft and calm mood but this time with an excellent percussion work which makes the song very tasty and enjoyable as well, not his best of course.

"Serenata in Mi Maggiore" is another highlight of this album which shows again his superb guitar playing very well accompanied with the atmospheres created by keyboards, it has some effects trhough the song, something different of what he has shown in his previous works. "Ursa Major" is the last song of this great album and reminds me to some moments of Celestion, this track is in my opinion a great last song for a great album, the mood is happier again with guitar-drums-keys excellent played.

This album has been the less easy to review for me, my love for his 3 previous efforts grew up immediatelly, this time i had to listen to Haermea at least 10 times to even feel the need of reviewing it and of course giving support to this extraordinary musician, i dont really know what happened to me, i might have found it less interesting or pretty similar to the other ones, i dont really know, but luckily i found the way to love it as well.

My eternal thanks to Andrea Cortese for the introduction of this virtuoso, and for you people, please listen to his music, his early albums might shock you! Again, 4 stars for this!

What a good surprise listening to this album! I didn't think I could like an instrumental album for mainly acoustic guitars so much, but the tunes here are so beautiful, sunny and intense that you could almost sing them. Riccardo Zappa gives birth to a timeless work, where he can display all his skills and fantasy, but in doing so he never tries to sound flamboyant, never exaggerates, making his music sound even simple and straight. "Frammenti" is a masterstroke: classical inspired arpeggios and folk tunes chase each other, ending up in a phased guitar heaven which never fails to leave me breathless. "Tre o Quattro Quarti" always reminds me of Angelo Branduardi, maybe for its particular hue lost somewhere between Reinassance and celtic folk (with a beautiful binaural echo... I don't know if Riccardo Zappa also produced this album. In this case he would be one of the finest Italian producers).The title track begins with atmospherical passages, with interesting sound effects, then evolves as a "poppy" piece, with synths reminding me of Le Orme. Maybe this was supposed to be the core of the album, and it's a good track indeed, but I feel it as the weakest one in the bunch. When you get to "Sonata Mediterranea" you really get somewhere else, a dreamy and fascinating waltz with a wonderful melancholic main melody; guitars are also used to mock mandolins, and the whole effect is the same as a quiet evening on the Mediterranean Sea, just after sunset... "Mirage" is the natural consequence to this piece, a lengthy track reminding "Tubular Bells" in its piling up tunes all deriving from the main arpeggio, the perfect way to close an excellent album. Now, I'm looking at my acoustic guitar and dreaming of playing such heavenly stuff...

This album blends Riccardo Zappa's love for Bach and for his 12 strings guitar, a Martin J 1240. This time on the album cover the guitar "protagonist" of the album is portrayed into a church, giving the idea of the quiet and almost transcendental atmosphere that you can find in this work.

Riccardo Zappa interprets here eleven pieces of Johann Sebastian Bach transcribed for guitar by classical musicians like his teacher, Miguel Abloniz. The interpretation is very personal and different from other albums of classical guitarists like, for instance Sharon Isbin. The main difference is the guitar, of course, not a classical one but a 12 strings acoustic, but it's remarkable also the touch of Riccardo Zappa that perfectly exploits the timbre of his instrument giving new colours and shades to the immortal notes of Bach.

All the tracks are quite famous like the opener "Air - from suite n. 3 in D major", that inspired Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade Of Pale" or "Bourrée - from the first suite for lute in E major" that inspired Jethro Tull's "Bourréè". In the "Prelude from the first suite for violoncello" you'll probably find some resemblances with Steve Hackett's "Horizons"... So, although this is essentially just an album of guitar solos, I think that it could be of some interest for every "prog lover"... Then, if you are a guitarist and you use to play a 12 strings acoustic guitar... Well, this is definitely a "must-have"!