QUINTA DIMENSIONE

An obscure group from Genoa, formed by students in 1978 and led by keyboardist Marco Grasso, who was taught music at the Nicolò Paganini Conservatory.The other members were keyboardist Mirko Sannazzaro, drummer/percussionist Alessandro Castaldi, guitarist Roberto Gasparini and Marco Cipollina, who played both bass and guitar.They were named after an odd conductor-less orchestra found in Russia in early-1920's by Lev Tseitlin.The band released one album, ''Quinta dimensione'', and a single for the Eleven label the same year.

A trully bizzare effort of Avant Garde weirdness, Classical education, acoustic mysticism and deep experimentation, which breaks any narrow barriers and present a group of young guys ready to conquer the world with an undefined, cosmic sound, swirling around both grandiose orchestrations and very mellow textures.In that sense the name of Persimfans had much to do with the band, they really sounded like a totally free group of musicians, wanting to explore the possibilities in both synthesis and experimentation, as a result their only work lacks any sense of coherence, proper structure and melody, as they have chosen to compose short tracks with influences from Electronic and Classical Music, FRANCO BATTIATO's deep love for Avant-Garde Music and Minimalism and any other free form of music.They had an impressive armour of instruments, the notes display some 20 instruments, but their sound worked for the other side, they prefered to play slow-motion material with light symphonic and jazzy vibes, interrupted by occasional Mellotron majesty, Film-Score aesthetics and academic performances headed for teachers and not for the masses.The result was totally incosistent, often flirting with a mix between Experimental Rock and Library Music, propelled by a mood for haunting, cinematic atmospheres, but not having the appropriate experience to come up with something trully groundbreaking.

Original album is extremely rare and thus pretty expensive.Giallo Records reissued it in 1999 in CD with the pair of tracks from their only single of the band and other unreleased recordings.Weird listening experience, containing every possible music path with the only common link being the dark sound, definitely a work of an acquired taste, but you've got to have some love for mystical, experimental listenings to appreciate this.