Conqueror - 74 Giorni

erik neuteboom
(erik neuteboom)
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Symphonic Prog Expert

FIRST REVIEW OF THIS ALBUM!!

After their debut CD Istinto (2003) and the successor Storie Fuori Dal Tempo (2005), the Italian five piece band Conqueror has released its third studio album entitled 74 Giorni in 2007. Again the band has made notable progress, I am even impressed by the ten melodic, tasteful and varied compositions (some instrumental) delivering a wide range of instruments: a wonderful blend of soaring keyboards, powerful bass runs, a tight drum beat and sensitive electric guitar in Il Viaggio, lots of shifting moods with pleasant work on guitar and flute in Orca, a Sixties-like organ sound (The Animals/The Doors), wah-wah guitar, a flute solo and fluent synthesizer flights in teh alternating Non Maturi per l'Adilà, romantic piano play in the short Cormonrani, tasteful keyboards and varied guitar work (from heavy riffs to use of the tremolo arm) in L'ora del Parlare, Fender Rhodes piano and jazzy guitar in the short Miraggi and sensational Minimoog-like runs and a compelling part with raw guitar and soaring flute in the captivating Nebbia ad Occhi Chiusi. So lots of variety and soli on different instruments (from guitar and flute to saxophone and organ), this album grows every listening session and I am sure it will carry you away to Progheaven!

Posted Tuesday, July 03, 2007 | Review Permalink

Andrea Cortese
(Andrea Cortese)
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Italian Prog Specialist

This is the third album for this contemporary italian band from Sicily. I haven't listened to their previous releases so I cannot offer you a deep analisys or a specific comparison.

Conqueror's new project is very interesting being a complete and mature concept work dedicated to the lucky/unlucky adventure of journalist, TV conductor and famous italian adventurer Ambrogio Fogar and his fellow journalist Mauro Mancini who tried, in 1978, to circumnavigate the Antartic lands with a ship named “Surprise”.

Unfortunately an orca (a killer whale) caused a shipwreck when they were near the Falkland islands. The two friends went adrift on a small raft for 74 long days. Finally, a boat was sailing around there and rescued them. Unluckily, Mauro Mancini died only two days after for a polmonar didease.

This is the fascinating and sad concept upon which all the themes are based. Musically the album appears to be very inspired but its true prog nature is revealed only from the fifth song on, after a long introduction (interesting by the way) made of mainstream melodic pop-prog. Their battle horses are the nice alternating between saxophone and Tullesque flute, the fiery electric guitar' solos as in “L'Ora del Parlare” (5,49 mns), the sparse touches of sixties-like-keyboards as in “Non Maturi per l'Aldilà” (5,46 mns), the exciting changing moods in the elegant melodic structure, the strong interplay between bass, drums and mini-moog as in the beautiful “Nebbia ad Occhi Chiusi” (9,34 mns) or “Cambio di Rotta” (5,11 mns, excellent also for sax).

Above all, wonderful female vocals by Simona Rigano. Someone would compare them to the italian seventies band Apoteosi. I disagree, they're less PFM inspired. A vague comparison could be found in other fellow contemporary italian band Aries but not completely being their sound a little bit more varied than that Zuffanti's project. Very good the piano parts and interludes especially when blended with flute and fast drumming as in “Eleutherios” (6,33 mns) or “Master Stefanos” (5,57 mns). I'm not sure but sometimes I've heard some light and mellow mediterranean flavour.

I wasn't sure about the final evaluation of this album due to its first part which doesn't describe very well what's going on later. Nothwithstanding this is an album that needs more spins to be completely appreciated. Now I know that many progheads will be pleased!

Posted Tuesday, July 24, 2007 | Review Permalink

Mandrakeroot
(Andrea Salvador)
COLLABORATOR
Italian Prog Specialist

My review is produced using this release: Ma.Ra.Cash Records MRC-013

Rating: 9/10

Oh my god. From the 5th song this is a really masterpiece. But the firsts 4 songs... Well this is the third album by Conqueror and the sole in my possess. But I think that the concept is really good for a Prog masterpiece. Andrea Cortese has wrote its review basing itself on the concept, Erik on the music... I on the emotions. Well... The emotions are good. Yes, the story materializes before our eyes. And the voice of Simona Rigano is perfect to tell the story. Certainly the delicate music is in anthitesis to the dramatically story. But this fact improve the feeling with the story. Because it is true... To times it is better to remember with a prayer (and here there it is they are 13 preyers) an extraordinary man like Ambrogio Fogar And his adventures well-known all over the world.

Quite made Conqueror. Another masterpiece from Italy in this 2007!!!

Posted Friday, July 27, 2007 | Review Permalink

Dirk
(Dirk de Beer)

This is a great album. The first thing you'll probably notice listening to it are the natural pleasant female vocals. We start out with 3 mostly vocal oriented tracks and one short nice instrumental. From these the first is best i feel. Thereafter the album really takes off and becomes more varied with excellent vocal parts alternating terrific instrumental interplay.Highlights for me are the 5th, 7th and especially the 10th track (great interplay between flute and guitar),i couldn't find any weak tracks on this record.

Since female singers tend to give music a specific style and the album is italian it might seem logical to compare it with Aries from 2005. And indeed there are some similarities.Apart from the female vocals both albums have a modern somewhat spacy guitar/synth based sound in common, we're definitely not on 70's italian hammond organ ground here.

There are also a number of differences though.Simona Angelieoni really defines Aries's sound with her haunted somewhat sad voice while the music generally just backs up her singing often concluding with excellent but relatively straight forward melancholic choir synth or howling guitar accompanied by organ.

Simona Rigano's vocals are obviously very important for Conqueror too but she isn't as dominant as the other Simona is on the Aries piece leaving more room for instrumental improvisation. And it shows.

There's more variation in the instrumental sections here, Conqueror generally being more subtle often gradually building up the tension using mostly flute,string synth,electic piano, moog and guitar. These sections sometimes have a purely symphonic but also sometimes a slightly jazzy/spacy quality.

Actually I'd sooner compare the instrumental playing here with Finisterre's Storybook and In Limine. Conqueror has a somewhat warmer sound than Finisterre though and the band is never as jazzy or experimental as Finisterre can be especially on In Limine.

Concluding the comparision, i prefer the impressive vocals on Aries to the more light hearted vocals (despite the sad story) on 74 Giorni. Actually despite the vocal sections being very good i find they resemble each other a bit at times. This might be the only small minus i can find with this album. On the other hand i find the instrumental playing on this piece to be more varied and interesting. As you can see Simona Rigano has a big part here too, being the keyboard player of the band.

Conqueror hasn't invented totally new music but they've picked up ideas from various genres and blended them in a very nice and accessible way.Together with Notabene's Sei lacrime d'ambra this is my favorite Italian album from 2007 sofar. 4.25 stars, highly recommended.

Dirk

Posted Sunday, August 05, 2007 | Review Permalink

Tarcisio Moura
(Tarcísio B. Moura)
PROG REVIEWER

After hearing the (excellent) second album by italian prog group Conquerer, Storie Fuori Dal Tempo, I was curious enough to buy their third, 74 Giorni, without knowing what was cominhg. Well, all I can say is that it surpassed my expectations. Beautiful melodies, great musicanship, no fillers nor weak parts anywhere. The song selection is varied and eclectic, but it keeps you listening to it iuntil the very end. This is the kind of CD that gives the impression of being very short: so nice you think the time has passed too fast. So I end up finding myself listening to it over and over.

Although accessible, the music is very progressive with no concessions. As most good italians bands do, their musicanship seems so natural that different tracks and shifting rhythm and moods blend together to make one great tapestry of sounds. With no ego trips and working as a tigh unit, Conqueror shows that prog music can be melodic and easy to listen, yet it is no pop or simplistic. The musicians are skillfull and the arrangements indeed complex sometimes. Yet the resulting music is very captivating and will please anyone with some sensibility. And, to top it all, Simona Rigano�s voice is simply gorgeous!

Rating: 4,5 stars. If you like itailian prog music this is a must have. Highly recommended.



Posted Tuesday, September 11, 2007 | Review Permalink

andrea
(andrea parentin)
PROG REVIEWER

Conqueror with their third album seem to have attained a full maturity... “74 giorni” is a concept album that was inspired by Ambrogio Fogar’s book “La zattera” and describes a journey that turned bad... Ambrogio Fogar was a sailor, rally driver and all- round adventurer. In 1978, when he was sailing from Mar del Plata to Cape Horn along with his friend Mauro Mancini, his ship “Surprise” was wrecked because of a killer whale attack. Ambrogio Fogar and Mauro Mancini survived for seventy-four days in a life raft in the South Atlantic until they were rescued by a Greek cargo ship. Journalist Mauro Mancini died of pneumonia two days after the rescue....

The sources of Conqueror’s “musical inspiration“ range from PFM to Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, from Pink Floyd to Alan Parsons Project, from Italian melodies to classical music... Nevertheless it would be extremely unfair to define them as a clone of any other band, since their song-writing is personal and they prove to be able to find an original way to express themselves... “74 giorni” is conceived as a musical and poetical journey, as the description of a quest for self-knowledge where you need to fight against adversity and never give up to reach your goals, to follow your ideals...

“Masks of men / Portrayed into catalogues / Conditioned by the symptoms of regularity...”. The lyrics of the opener “Maschere di uomini” (Masks of men) suggest that you can choose a model which is worth following, you can set off and look for something else, far from hypocrisy and from the models of life that the media tries to impose, even if your choice could lead to a dangerous journey... All you have to do is make up your mind and the journey can quietly begin... The mood of this track is dreamy and the voice of Simona Rigano soars light and melodic upon a piano arpeggio...

The instrumental “Il viaggio” (The journey) features a good guitar solo and leads to “Orca”, where the band try to describe the effect of the killer whale attack against the “hunters of emotions”... “Looking at the time passing by / Hidden by the night / Forgetting just for a while / To be men on such an unknown world / Sons of a noble Earth without mercy...”: the need for knowledge and insight is “captured” by a whimsical destiny... On this track the melodic side of Conqueror still prevails but the sweet dream is going to turn sour...

The wreckage can be also seen as a metaphor of every misfortune in everyday life. On “Limbo” the soaring voice of Simona Rigano is ethereal, as if suspended in a dream that is becoming a nightmare and asking for help...

The impending tragedy is suggested by the change of mood and atmosphere on “Non maturi per l’aldilà” (Not ready to die)... From this track on the music becomes quirky, with shifting rhythms suggesting the struggling for life in the middle of an Ocean of solitude and fear... “Non maturi per l’aldilà” along with the short instrumental “Cormorani”, “L’ora del parlare”, “Preghiera” and “Miraggi” form a kind of long and beautiful suite... “Nebbia ad occhi chiusi” is outstanding, one of the best moments of an excellent work!

The name of the sailor who first helped Ambrogio Fogar and his friend was Eleutherios and the name of the Greek cargo ship that rescued them was Master Stefanos... “Northern winds... Blow softly, talk with my words! / Keep on dancing on the icy mantle of the desert!”... "Eleutherios" and the instrumental "Master Stefanos" are both tracks thick with emotion, full of hope...

The final “Cambio di rotta” is a kind of requiem for a lost friend... “We sail on the sea pushed by the wish for knowledge, by the need of an unconditioned freedom... We sail on the sea because we have to and many times the sea wants to keep his sons it...”

On stage the band introduce the songs reading some passages of book that inspired the concept and it’s a pity that you can’t find them in the booklet... Anyway, the overall impression about this album is extremely good... In my opinion “74 giorni” is one of the best “prog” releases of 2007 so far...



Posted Tuesday, October 30, 2007 | Review Permalink

tszirmay
(Thomas Szirmay)
PROG REVIEWER

Finally. I was starting to seriously wonder why there has been such silence from the once glorious hotbed of Prog, Italy. They are a strange breed, timing and rigor not necessarily their strongest national traits, somehow always coming through in the crunch when least expected (just check out their ultra-dramatic national soccer team!). I have heard that 2008 will yield some delicious progfood, new albums by Minstrel, Hostsonaten & Moongarden. In the meantime, as antipasto, we get this new recording from Conqueror, based on some positive reviews on our favorite site, to keep our prog hunger temporarily in check. As so often the case with Italo- Prog, the first audition was a mixed affair, trying to find the usual reference points with great difficulty, demanding way more attention from the casual listener. (I buy most of my stuff from a store, so the car CD player gets the first kick at the can, and with all the silly distractions like choking traffic, insane drivers, suicidal pedestrians, hidden police cars, potholes, traveling garbage cans, young boys with blinders chasing ball in the street…it’s kind of hard to focus on the Rickenbacker, if you seen what I mean…). Fine, I will be a good little Soprano and I will listen more respectfully from now on, I promise. (Conqueror are from Sicily, enough said). Dressed all in black, cell phone shut, ex-wife busy, kids in school, the Campari bottle seducing the orange juice, I swab my ears and dive into this “ a Spicey Meataball”, a musical voyage in 13 episodes that recounts the tragic story of 2 Italian ocean adventurers , marooned for 74 days after being “torpedoed “ by a killer whale. Conqueror is led by keyboardist Simona Rigano, who not only has a superb voice but she can really caress those ivories! She deserves the same applause as other lady keyboard prog divas (such as Quaterna Requiem’s Elisa Wiermann or Ars Nova’s Keiko Kumagai) by displaying exquisite piano expressions, swirling Brian Augerish organ runs and sensual synth washes. Her sister Sabrina Rigano provides numerous flute colorations as well as some sunny sax blowouts. Tino Nastasi strums a crafty guitar as well as wielding a mean Rickenbacker bass, thus amplifying drummer Natale Russo’s articulate percussives. The CD starts off with some light vocal fare, folkish Italian style, preparing the voyage (“Il Viaggio”), the attack of the killer whale (“Orca”), the eerie silence of fear (“Limbo”), the only help are the birds (“Cormorani”). As we delve deeper into the despair, the musical tone becomes more urgent, finally culminating in the sweeping 9.5 minute epic “Nebbia ad Occhi Chiusi”, a prog masterstroke delivering an articulate groovy riff with bass, drums and synths interweaving majestically. As previously noted by another reviewer, the final 3 tracks form a rather expressive suite of unchained emotion fueled by unexpected rescue, more brilliant corkscrew guitar leads, exultingly pleading vocals and an exhaustive lament at the sheer horror of the two adventurers’ plight. The story ends on a narrated epilogue like a well-turned book. I was very impressed by the quality of this splendid effort. Our three Italians PA reviewers (all named Andrea, amazing!) are correctly effusive in their praise and there musical tastes are worthy of the finest Barolos. Now, I am pronto for the main entrees. Salute!

Posted Wednesday, November 21, 2007 | Review Permalink

Finnforest
(James)
PROG REVIEWER

74 Days

Lost at sea. A long time to be adrift. This collection of songs from Italy’s Conqueror is a very accessible piece of music. Almost impossible not to like. I actually gave this one as a gift recently to a friend who is definitely NOT a prog fan, but more of a pop music fan. This is the kind of album that can appeal to anyone. The songs are generally a light rock music played with impeccable skill. Every track is full of melody and beauty and there are ever present tasteful rhythm sections, acoustic guitar, flute, piano, and some decent electric lead work. The female vocals are in Italian and are of average quality. She sings with character but has a somewhat limited range. I don’t mean that as an insult, I think she does a nice job anyway. The arrangements are very good, each song moves along well with multiple sections of interest within. The downside of the album is that while each track has pretty moments, there is a certain politeness to this material that makes it just a little too easy going for me at times. I would recommend the title to anyone looking for mellow and melodic modern rock with talented instrumentalists. It is undeniably good, but for me it is something I confess I will play very little because it just doesn’t grab me emotionally like I need music too. 74 Giorni is perfect music for a vacation when you’re sitting on a balcony somewhere staring at the see and enjoying a drink with your SO. But as a demanding prog listener who craves a certain high from music in my daily life, Conqueror doesn’t provide enough of it. And yet it is certainly “good” so 3 stars straight up is the verdict.

Posted Sunday, January 13, 2008 | Review Permalink