FILARMONICA MUNICIPALE LACRISI

Filarmonica Municipale LaCrisi biography
FILARMONICA MUNICIPALE LACRISI (FMLC) was formed in Pisa in 2005 by five young musicians driven by a common passion for the music of the sixties and seventies. The band is one of several offshoots of an actual municipal orchestra that began life in 1848. This year coincided with the start of the abortive First Italian War of Independence (1848-49) and as a consequence the municipal band became a means for nationalists to express their desire for freedom and independence. Their mid-19th Century cultural roots are therefore important to the three members of FMLC who played with the main orchestra but who have now decided that their joint musical future belongs elsewhere.

FMLC's values are certainly consonant with RPI, finding expression in typical Italian spontaneity and liberation, and their 2012 debut album ''Ad Altra Terra, In Alto Mare'' is by and large a distinctive and highly theatrical mix of folk, psych, indie and progressive music. In parallel with the usual electric instruments there are wind ensembles of sax, clarinet and brass, while the roguish vocals are wedded to quirky and compact, though no less challenging, compositions. FMLC seem to have a connection to fellow Pisan band IL MANISCALCO MALDESTRO but they sound more like a modern OFFICINA MECCANICA courtesy of the prominent brass. Other frames of reference would be BAROQUE and ALLEGRI LEPROTTI.

Despite their old provincial origins FMLC are visually modern and decadent thanks to a flamboyant combination of ghoulish make-up and top hats and tailcoats, and this image seems somehow to encompass their ambitions for their album to be: ''A disc that contains the loves, fears and frustrations of a generation.'' The album is currently available to stream via Soundcloud but it is unclear how to obtain a CD version and information is not forthcoming from the band at present. Nonetheless, FMLC are one of the most interesting Italian bands to have emerged in recent times even if they do seem to be as much out of the perpendicular as the famous slanted tower of their home province.

- seventhsojourn