CONCERTO GROSSO PER I NEW TROLLS

Named after a baroque music format in which a group of soloists trade licks with an orchestra, this doesn't actually include a full orchestra to my ear but does have a string section coming in from time to time to back up the New Trolls. Not that they entirely need it - they prove themselves to be a more than capable prog unit here, taking influences ranging from some decidedly Jimi Hendrix-like guitar (one of the songs here being a tribute to Jimi) to early King Crimson to the sort of sound Jethro Tull best captured on the Living In the Past compilation. (Vittorio De Scalzi has Ian Anderson's "toot then yell" motif down to a fine art.)

Where the Trolls excel is in taking all of these distinct influences and mashing them up into a whole which has a personality of its own. It is no surprise, then, that this release ended up being an important foundational document of the Italian prog scene, coming out at around the same time as Le Orme's Collage did and thus, along with that album, prompting the deluge of Italian prog that would later emerge in 1972.