All Prog From Italy Appreciation Thread

is all that's necessary after that.

American Khatru wrote: Battiato's Sulle Corde (I know a few tracks but not the whole album, excited to hear it)

An album that just keeps on growing. Have you heard Clic? That one's possibly even better than Sulle Corde, at least according to me .

American Khatru wrote: ^ I heard Clic once or twice from a friend, once in a good enough setting that I appreciated it.  Very free record, on a looooong list of things i need.

Yeah, that's usually what happens, isn't it?
Well, Sulle Corde di Aries is one hell of an album anyway, so that one won't disappoint you at all.

And, of course, you should read my review of it!

Will be very interested to hear your thoughts on Tower, AK, a very strange little album

Finnforest wrote: Will be very interested to hear your thoughts on Tower, AK, a very strange little album

Yeah, the description made me curious.  I hope it pulls off what it sets out to do, something I'm very interested in myself.

I know, I know, I have reviews to write.  Especially Architrave.  Hard to imagine what to say after a full-on, stellar review by a certain somebody , but I'll think of something.  Just went through a few hours making a decent listening version for my iPod.  (Those guys would want to skewer me!  Digital compression!)  I swear I spent about six listens by now in the "proper manner", but now I just want to get to know it more intimately, and time in front of the record player is not as, shall we say available as time with the iPod.

Been looking for Genfuoco's Dentro L'Invisibile for quite some time. Any prospects of a Mellow re-issue? Fingers crossed.

Paul, that one is loved by many!

Chris, I've heard nothing, and have been watching for that too.

Rob!  Nice one!

Hey RPI fans, It finally arrived yesterday!



Between work and all the snow around here I still haven't had a chance to spin it.  I will listen to it today, and even after that I wouldn't hastily review it.  Anyway, I thought I'd record a few impressions from just holding it.

I ordered the signed limited color-vinyl copy from the btf site.  I ended up with 30 of 33.  What is signed is an original photo of the band at a 1972 festival, marker-colorized by the hand of Luciano Regoli.

The La Nuova Raccomandata con Ricevuta di Ritorno album "Il Pittore Volante" is beautiful to behold.  There is a photo album-like appearance to the cover, very nicely old fashioned.  The old fashioned look continues inside.  A large black field with a muted yellow serifed type and some borderlines in a drab olive impart a very classy look. 

Details on the album, and the lyrics, fall in eight columns.  At the top of each of these columns is a painting; first is the cover image, then seven others, some or perhaps all of which are actually details of larger images.  All are described as oil on canvas and dimensions given.  I wasn't expecting this.  Searching the album details column (my Italian is not very good, really just derived from literature references and music notation) I learned, to my pleasant surprise, that all these paintings are by none other than Regoli.  Here's what it says:

Tutti i dipinti sono del pittore Luciano Regoli.
Le liriche sono tratte dal libro 'Il Pittore Volante' di Luciano Regoli.

Far as I could tell (someone please step in and correct me!), the cover painting and all the "lyric ones" - in other words all the paintings - are by Regoli, from his book 'Il Pittore Volante'.  I shot out on the internet and learned that indeed the man is a painter.  I must say I didn't even know about this, perhaps others of you did, but I am really taken with his immense talent as a painter in the classic sense.  Bravo! You can check these links for examples of his art:

http://www.lucianoregoli.it/en/dipinti.htm
http://www.arcadja.com/auctions/en/regoli___luciano/artist/335010/

His eponymous website doesn't even mention his "past" as a singer I don't think.


Back to the record.  The list of participants is mightily impressive.  I'm going to list it out here.  Oh, and I "raccomando" - ha ha - that someone with the pull to do it should correct the PA page for the album, because it has errors. 

Beneath each song is a detailed list of who played what.  All words and music are by Regoli.  The lineup and arranger rotate as per song, which makes for more detail than PA would put on the album page.  But one thing I notice right off is that, when you get down to it, only two people are consistently present on the record: Luciano Regoli and legendary drummer Walter Martino.  Though credited as a main member on the PA album page, Gardin only appears on two songs; and Civitenga appears on only three songs, in all of which he plays bass and only in the last one does he pick up the guitar (!) and even supply some keyboards.  So who is "in the band" and who is a "participant"?  Maybe there is no "band" per se, and the drummer was just more available than anyone else.  Can someone else clear this up?  In a group effort maybe we can get this right. 

I was originally going to just give names, but I'll just go ahead and go through the trouble of clearing up the whole business.  First duties given are those most employed.  Other than my breaking out the two most consistent players at the top, the order of names given is that of the album credits; from what I can tell just looking at the credits, this list does not necessarily reflect level of involvement - perhaps there's some reason for it. 

The credits list in parentheses the bands people were/are involved in.  I'm going to trust in the accuracy of this list and just give it.  If anyone notices any omissions feel free to indicate them.  Note well Cherry Five, discussed after the list.  Incidentally, there are some other background singers and instrumentalists, some of which even play more important roles from the look of it, but since they aren't given in the primary list (instead they're listed under "also...") I'll leave them out here.

Luciano Regoli: voice, guitar, rhythm guitar (RRR, Ritratto di Dorian Gray, Samadhi, DGM)
Walter Martino: drums, percussion (RRR, Goblin, Lybra, Ritratto di Dorian Gray)

Nanni Civitenga: bass, guitar, keyboard, arranger of track 6 (RRR, Samadhi)
Roberto Gardin: bass, guitar, solo guitar, arr. tks. 2, 7 (RRR, Ritratto di Dorian Gray)
Claudio Simonetti: guitar, bass, keyboard, piano, vocoder, hammond organ, arr. tk. 5 [actually, the only song he appears on] (Goblin, Ritratto di Dorian Gray, Cherry Five)
Lino Vairetti: harmonica (Osanna)
Nicola Di Staso: solo guitar (Lybra)
Maurizio Pariotti: keyboards, arr. tks. 1, 3, 4 (DGM)
Carl Verheyen: I scoured the credits up and down and I cannot find him anywhere, yet he's listed! (Supertramp)
Fabio Pignatelli: Rickenbacker bass (Goblin, Cherry Five, Le Rivelazioni)


As you can see, each name is followed by the bands the individual was involved with.  But I noticed the curious omission of the band name Cherry Five from any list.  I added the credit to the above list myself, in non-italicized font.  The band Ritratto di Dorian Gray (Picture of Dorian Gray) preceded Cherry Five, as I learned from Andrea's review of the Cherry Five album, but membership was not the same.  I don't know whether the omission of Cherry Five from the lists is just oversight, or something political/personal, or something else. 

Weird how Verheyen, session guitarist who appeared on Supertramp's last two studio albums, is listed as a member but then not shown as a player on any song.

In addition to the things listed above there is also present on the album some flute, sax, violin and female vocal work.

Finally, the color vinyl is nicely done.  The record is a good solid weight, with a random black and red pattern and a beautiful inner label bearing another image from a painting by Regoli.  From the look of it there are two more tracks on the CD (maybe that's where the missing persons are), but I don't care.  I'm more than pleased with the packaging. 

And now there's just one thing to do... listen...

I knew you'd have the breakdown, thanks Raff.  And please out there, cease the incursion of English onto one of the Earth's loveliest languages!!

Anyway, I'd love to hear what others have to say about my eyes-only write up, and I'd be honored if any of this were to be used on the site.