LA MONTAGNA SACRA

Once again, i thank PA and it's members for showing me the way to great music, Arjuna was simply one more band i knew because of this site and one more band that i really enjoy listening to, thanks specially to my favourite admin who let me know about this album.

So here i am reviewing an album from yet another Italian band and i wonder how some members have not explored the RPI realm, it is so vast and with a lot of hidden gems that are awesome to find that makes this realm full of excellent music, this particular album is not the Italian prog album we are used to listen, this is different with some different ideas and cool music. Arjuna released this album called La Montagna Sacra back in 1996, and if i am not wrong i think it was their only album, what a pity. It contains 6 songs and a total time of 41 minutes, may the trip begin.

The album opens with their longest song which lasts over 11 minutes and whose name is Perso nel Vuoto, the start is very reminiscent to Zeppelin's No Quarter as Linus pointed out in his review, with a slow tempo beginning, some nice sax and a constant bass and drumming along with the vocals and a nice flute touch here and there, then at minute 4 it makes a stop and changes with a pastoral mood made with piano and flute with a delicate sound and a minute after the bass lines enter and it is where you will listen that they are an Italian band, and i am not saying that just because of the obvious vocals, but because of the music as well, with that 70s touch, a powerful and very enjoyable second part of the song which also includes some nices guitar solos, the last part has some psychedelic touch as well.

The next song is A Song for Timothy, this song opens very beautifully with melodic flute and a nice acoustic guitar that gives the folkish touch to the music, a much lighter song than it's previous one but that will mantain you listening due to it's delicate sound the percussion also play a nice role here, the song as a whole is the same all time.

Salva la tua Realta opens with a kind of jazz rock drumming and then the flute and guitars gather to create again very nice music, here you will listen to a clear psychedelic touch very reminiscent to some 70s moments, the keyboards and electric guitars are the ones who lead this song, but after a minute and a half you will appreciate the sax sound and the vocals return in this song, in some moments this track sounds heavier but without losing the soft parts.

La Montagna Sacra brings immediately to my mind that Indian or middle eastern sound because it adds the sitar sound to the music, sitar is an instrument that i like listening a lot, sometimes it gives me goosebumps so finding this different track with that sound was very cool, the song runs alike all the time, with sitar, percussion and flute, a delicious melody definitely.

E Cadere D' Improviso is quite different to he previous one of course, it opens with a slight piano sound but almost immediately shows the rockier sound of the band, with more agressive drumming and electric guitars, but agains with their prominent flute sound then we will hear to a very nice instrumental passage that contains also cool bass notes, a minute after vocals appear and the keys with that psychedelic sound as a background. the best about this song is definitely when the music just floats and runs naturally, those instrumental moments are very cool.

And finally we have Mushrooms as you can imagine due to the single name, it has a pyschedelic touch, some spacey synth and a nice acoustic guitar with also the prominent flute,the atmosphere all the time is very psychedelic, actually it reminds me to some krautrock moments, so go figure. A nice ending song for this album.

A very eclectic album indeed, with great moments and nice songs, however i think my final grade will be 3 stars, it is good but non-essential, but anyways i would recommend it to any prog fan.

Enjoy it!

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