All Prog From Italy Appreciation Thread

Sure they should, Micky.

Claudio Rocchi was the original bass guitarist of Stormy Six, and played on their first album Le idee di oggi per la musica di domani, leaving the band soon after the album release for a solo career that started in 1970 with the first album, Viaggio, mainly acoustic and with good flute playing by PFM's Mauro Pagani.

Always influenced by eastern doctrines (he later became a Hare Krishna), he was also active in anti-war movements and always present at the various italian pop festivals of the early 70's.
A second album in 1971, Volo magico n.1, is usually considered as his best effort, in much the same style as Alan Sorrenti's Aria with a side-long title track and softer tracks on the other side. The 18 minute long title track starts with a soft introduction and goes on with hypnotic move based on the guitars of Alberto Camerini and Ricky Belloni (from Nuova Idea and later New Trolls).

Next album, La norma del cielo (subtitled Volo Magico n.2) was similar, but weakest in comparison, and after a long journey to India he released Essenza at the end of 1973, with help from Elio D'Anna (Osanna) and Mino De Martino (Giganti) among others. 

Il miele dei pianeti, le isole, le api was a six-track album mainly based as usual on Rocchi's acoustic guitar folk-psych compositions, but featured well-known guests such as Walter Maioli (from Aktuala), Trilok Gurtu (that played with the same band at that time) and violinist/multi instrumentalist Lucio Fabbri (from Piazza delle Erbe, then a long time Eugenio Finardi collaborator and from 1978 with PFM, he also released a solo album on Cramps).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ENZO CAPUANO

A little known album, Storia mai scritta is definitely a much more progressive album than the works of similar singer-songwriters like the expensive Affresco by Franco Maria Giannini or Antico teatro da camera by Gianni D'Errico.

A singer-songwriter from Calabria, but raised in Bologna, Capuano released this, his debut album, for the just born small independent Divergo label, and it is a surprisingly good album. 
An eight-part 36-minute long suite, Storia mai scritta, is in fact mostly instrumental, vocal parts just covering the first 6 minutes and a final reprise, and based on Capuano's impressive 12 string and classical guitar playing, with good keyboards (mostly synth, but even organ) and a rhythm section. The result is not far from Alan Sorrenti's Aria or Claudio Rocchi's Volo magico n.1 suites on the albums of the same title, starting with vocal parts and evolving into a long instrumental with a complex musical structure.

Helping Enzo Capuano, on vocals, acoustic and classical guitar, synth, are keyboardist Mario Panseri (with which Capuano had collaborated in his Adolescenza album on RCA from 1973) and drummer Giovanni D'Aquila, while the bass parts are obtained with the synthesizer. 

After this LP, Capuano dedicated to composition of movies and cartoon soundtracks and to his singing studies, graduating at the Milan Academy of Music. Since 1989 he is a professional opera singer (vocal range: bass).