SENDAI NEBULA

Amministrazione Caos Popolare began life in Rome in 2010 on the initiative of Luigi Ranieri and Nicolas Sabini, two experienced musicians with different backgrounds. At the very beginning they began playing cover but soon they turned their attention to the composition of original pieces and started playing live on the local scene sharing their interests with other musicians that completed the line up. At the end of 2014 the band self released an interesting debut album entitled Sendai Nebula with a line up featuring Luigi Ranieri (guitar, vocals), Nicolas Sabini (bass, synthesizers, flute), Andrea Aliberti (guitar), Andrea Di Giovenale (piano, keyboards, synthesizers) and Attilio Renzetti (vocals). The overall sound of the band is not stuck in the past and combines neo-prog with other influences such as psychedelia, hard rock or new wave. The music is accessible but never banal and every now and again could recall some recent works by Franco Battiato without being too derivative. According to the official website, the title of the album refers to the passage from normality to an emotional, altered state and comes from the combination of two words: "Sendai", a term taken from a cyberpunk novel by William Gibson that defines a cyberdeck, a kind of machine that allows transportation to an electrostatic cloud where the peripheral nervous system changes, and "Nebula", a Latin word that defines a vaporous, transitory state. The art work by Ivan Pedretti in some way depicts this concept dealing with dreams, emotions and thoughts...

The opener "Esistenzialista" (Existentialist) starts by a burst of energy that takes you far away on a cold starry night. A multitude of thoughts and feelings pass through your mind in a stream of consciousness as you are wondering about the mysteries of the universe, trying to discover fragments of your future in the oracles of an ancient divination text called I Ching... In this fantastic, galactic ride there's room for relax and reflection as the rhythm calms down and the atmosphere becomes dreamy. But there's still a deep sense of uneasiness lingering in the air before the rhythm takes off again. You have to open your mind to avoid falling down, you are the maker of your own existence...

The following "Onde" (Waves) features the guest Roberto Segala on drums and begins with the sound of the sea in the background and a delicate piano passage. Then the rhythm rises evoking lively dances and the far echoes of a summer spent on a solitary beach... The music and lyrics draw games of light on the water and dreamy, distant horizons, new sensations and melted dreams. Bright memories alternates with the dark shadows of remorse and everything is carried away by the raging waves of destiny...

The melancholic, introspective "Buio assoluto" (Absolute dark) is my favourite track on this album. The music and lyrics depict a heavy silence coming down that begins to freeze a river of dancing words between smiles and sadness... Well, imagine a man who is looking at his dying father: asking for a few more words he begins to fly down into deep memories, between waves and regrets, errors and fears, joy and tears...

The folksy "Liverpool" is sung in English and depicts the image of a lady on a ship in the port of Liverpool. She's got a flower in her hand. She's ready to set off on her journey and hopes to leave poverty and famine behind her, maybe she's directed to America... It's an old, dramatic story of emigration that unfortunately has not lost its actuality.

The long, dark instrumental "Abandon" every now and again reminds me of Pink Floyd and leads to the surreal, dreamy "E la luna fuma" (And the moon smokes) where the music and lyrics conjure up the image of a strange moon that comes down from the sky just to sit in front of a glass of wine, smoking a cigarette like a black and white diva in an old movie. Maybe you will find her in a desert coloured of utopia trying to make real what people believe is nothing but fantasy...

The notes of Jingle Bells open the last track of the album, the long epic "No'l" (Christmas) where the hopes and feelings of a little child on Christmas Night are compared with the hopes and feelings of an old man who has not lost all his dreams and hopes. Time and space are intertwined in a dance of memories... There are sounds to cover the silences and smiles to smother the screams as Father Christmas comes on a bolero rhythm just to put another brick in the wall...

On the whole a very interesting album, full of poetry and dreamy atmospheres! Have a try and judge by yourselves, you can listen to the complete album on deezer or spotify.