LAVORO D'AMORE

As other reviewers in Prog Archives, I was asked to listen to this Russian band in their Bandcamp website. In fact, i think that this is the first time that I listen to a Prog Rock band from Russia. As the information says, the band is led by keyboard player Ivan Rozmainsky but the music in this all instrumental album was composed and arranged by the band as a whole. But there are some specific "conception" credits for the creation of each song.

Despite being an all-instrumental music album, it seems that there is a implicit concept described by the title of the album ("Lavoro D´Amore", that means "Labor of Love" in the English language), being explained by the band (in a few words) as "... a metaphor of a person's spiritual way. It is like a path from superficial knowledge to deepest insight. " They say that their music is difficult to classify under just one musical category. I agree with them. In fact, I listened to the album three times to write a review about it.

Well. I found some musical influences in their very elaborated music. It obviously is very Progressive, but even with some Folk-Rock , Classical Music and Jazz-Rock music influences. The use of the flute brought me memories from JETHRO TULL, PFM and FOCUS. I also found some influences from BANCO DEL MUTUO SOCCORSO (particularly from the use of the trumpet in their "Di Terra" album) and in the heaviest parts in the album from KING CRIMSON (from the seventies `s line-ups only, in the last case). But despite all these influences they have their own musical style. One could expect that the keyboards could take a central role in this album. Well. This is true in most parts of the album. But they also give space to other musical instruments like guitars, trumpet and flute, giving some variety to the musical arrangements.

The music in this album is very interesting and varied, with a lot of melodies and rhythm changes. They also used some vintage keyboards, sometimes giving to the album a "seventies" sound. The recording and mixing is very good, and I also like the cover art.