Il Tempio delle Clessidre are an Italian prog band from Genova and were formed in 2006 on the initiative of Elisa Montaldo and Gabriele Guidi Colombi (two young musicians who previously had been both members of a band called Hidebehind) who met with veteran Stefano "Lupo" Galifi, vocalist on famous Museo Rosenbach's album "Zarathustra" and later rock-blues singer in local cover bands. The first line up was completed by Massimiliano Costacurta and Corrado Bronzato. The name of the band was inspired by the title of a part of the suite "Zarathustra" and the initial idea of the musicians was to play on stage the whole album "Zarathustra" with the original singer using vintage sounds a new arrangements, then turn to the composition of original pieces in the same vein.
After some line up changes, in September 2010 the band released an eponymous debut album on the independent label Black Widow Records containing only original pieces.
I got in touch with the band for their story. Both Elisa and Fabio answered my questions.
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Your biography has been covered in your PA profile. But why did you fall in love
with the old Italian prog scene and wanted to play this type of music
instead of any other form of music ?
ELISA:
some years ago I
felt in love with the ’70 progressive rock because I was actually
looking for that kind of music even if I didn’t know it yet! It has
been “love at first listening”, I was fond of hard rock and heavy
metal and one day I occasionally listened to “In the court of the
Crimson King”: well, it was a true discovery for me, it was the
music I was dreaming of!
I
unconsciously began playing progressive, since I was a little girl I
started composing music very near to progressive: it is now my
natural way of musical and emotional expression.
What is your musical
background and were you involved in any other bands before you
started Il Tempio delle Clessidre ?
ELISA:
I began
classical piano studies at the age of 9, but since I was 2 I
instinctively played piano (toy pianos!). I started playing in cover
bands in 1992, performing pop, rock, folk, metal, hard rock. I played
keyboards in a hard rock band for several years, we performed Deep
Purple, Uriah Heep and Black Sabbath. Then I entered in a band called
Trama, we played a tribute to Marillion and started to work for the
second album: that was a progressive rock band and I immediatly
understood that such genre was my ideal dimension. So I took part of
the prog band Hidebehind proposing my own compositions, in the
meantime I entered Narrow Pass project (Musea Records) for one year,
then in 2006 I finally decided to create a more precise musical
identity and so Il Tempio delle Clessidre came out!
FABIO:
my musical background emerges from classical music, too. I got my
degree at the music school playing classical guitar, then I started
playing electric bass when I came in contact with hard rock and metal
music (Queen and Iron Maiden among the others). I founded the prog
metal band Daedalus and entered the symphonic folk group IANVA (in
which I play classical guitar). When Lupo Galifi asked me to join Il
Tempio delle Clessidre I could barely believe my ears!
Please give us your long
or brief thoughts on your only album Il Tempio delle Clessidre
released earlier this year. How would you describe the music ?
ELISA:
well, I can
tell that “Il Tempio delle Clessidre” is not only an album for
me, it’s a whole world, a piece of life that took shape in the
course of the years. The music we propose is new and fresh even if we
know that it’s not so innovative, but this is a choice: one of our
aims is to recreate the sounds and atmospheres of ‘70’s
progressive rock; nowadays it’s hard to create something completely
new in progressive rock, because the music of ’70s has a heavy
influence in this kind of artistic expression, so we wanted to
re-create some typical ’70 sound even if it could be seen as a lack
of originality. But our music was born spontaneously and without
premeditations, we play what we like in the way we like. Obviously,
there’s a precise idea of which we want to express and if you
listen to the sounds, the atmospheres and every particular element
you can find several musical influences: that’s our music that grew
up under our eyes (and ears) without knowing where it would have
taken us!
FABIO:
one of the most important aspects in this band is the wide difference
in the musical taste of each of us. This helped creating songs with a
great variety of elements and nuances. Every musician adds a
character, an ingredient to the recipe, thus creating something
peculiar.
Where can this album be
purchased from and how is it's distribution ?
ELISA:
the label
which released the album is Black Widow Records and the main
distribution is managed by Masterpiece, but we think that soon the
album will be available in stores and mail-orders all over the world.
Black Widow has a really good action in promoting the band, so we
hope that people will search for the record anywhere!
How is your writing and
creative processes ?
ELISA:
we start
separate sections of work: I and Fabio compose the music by ourselves
and bring it to the other guys in midi versions or simple piano and
voice recordings: after that, we start studying the instrumental
parts but in the meantime we try also to do improvisation and add new
ideas to improve the songs. Then we propose the lyrics and melodies
to Stefano “Lupo” Galifi and decide the right tone for his voice.
Lupo has a “bluesy attitude” and he often puts some vocal
embellishments to the songs.
When
I get inspiration I immediately go to my piano and play:
improvisation is the most important thing for me, I compose music
directly from my emotions, dreams and ideas and try to translate
those ones into music. The following passage is the improving of the
technical aspects and then I give instructions to the other members
for the arrangements and style (even if each one of us has to put
into the composition his ideas and musical solutions). For instance
in this album there are even a lot of keyboard parts that came out in
the final recording session, I improvised on the main parts giving
more emphasis and fullness to the music. The research for the right
sounds is very important for our music: I often overlap different
sounds from my keyboards to create the right tone colour, and try to
emulate the classical progressive sounds that I love (Mellotron,
Chamberlin, Hammond organ). The guitars are strictly connected with
the keyboards in our music, they are very refined and versatile,
Giulio is a really good guitarist and he has a great musical
sensibility that makes the arrangements original, well balanced and
in harmony with the real sense of the compositions.
FABIO:
I like to give the band a trace of each section and instrumental line
in the songs I write, then we work together to obtain the best
sounding result through the technique and taste of all of us.
Sometimes,
at the end of a recording session, we listen back to the very first
versions of the songs and even to the midi files… our
reaction towards the huge differences is always funny and amazing!
How is your gigs and
festivals situation. Are you currently doing gigs or are you a studio
band only ?
ELISA:
we love to play live! We hope it could happen more and more from now
on. We had only two concerts before the release of the album, then we
passed the last year concentrating our efforts in doing the best work
we could. Unfortunately music is not our main job and we took a long
time to finish the record, working hard on weekends and evenings.
We
are looking
forward to do gigs, we have scheduled some showcases and live
concerts in October, we’ll be guests at the Centro Studi
Progressive Italiano during a radio show, we’ll have to introduce
the album in a couple of record stores, then we’ll play together
with Il Biglietto per l’Inferno.Folk in a teather here in Genoa at
the end of October. We’re very enthusiastic to play our music live,
we’ll try to transport the audience in a “vintage” atmosphere
where Lupo’s voice will thrill people who loves ‘70’s
progressive rock.
What is the
latest updates and the plans for this and next year ?
ELISA:
at first we’ll
try to have our music known by the most people possible and introduce
ourselves in different occasions. We planned to release a LP limited
edition with a fantastic grey vinyl with a signed poster, a real
photo of the band and a card with a silver printing. Thanks to Black
Widow and his attention to good packaging we’re happy to
accessorize our music with such images and materials!
We’re
not able to make
plans for the future ‘cause all starts by here and now…but we’re
already starting to work on some new compositions, even if we’re
working hard to prepare ourselves for the gigs. There are so many
things we’d like to do and we hope that the future will give us the
opportunity to express again and again!
To wrap up this interview,
is there anything you want to add to this interview ?
ELISA:
well, I would
like to put the light on this fact: Stefano “Lupo” Galifi passed
this last 35 years singing blues, hard rock and soul, he never
stopped singing ‘cause he really loves music and cannot live
without it. He accepted to face this difficult and long work and
returned singing with the progressive “attitude” and face new
lyrics and melodies after so many years, without guarantees of
success and with a great consumption of energies and money,
confronting with young musicians: I think that it’s a very
admirable fact. It’s just a demonstration of the endless passion
for music that makes his voice a great energetic flame with a
never-ending youth.
We’re
happy when someone gives us impressions, critiques, opinions and
thoughts about our work because we think that one of the most
beautiful and amazing aspects of create and playin’ music is to
share emotions and passion with the listening people and to create
moments of joy in the name of Prog!
Thank you to Fabio and Elisa for this interview
Their PA profile is here and the homepage is here
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Il Tempio delle Clessidre
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