IL TEMPORALE E L'ARCOBALENO

Corte Aulica is an Italian prog band from Brescia that was formed in 2006 on the initiative of drummer, keyboardist and composer Gustavo Pasini (Lithos, Notabene). The line up features Gustavo Pasini (drums, percussion, piano, vocals), Nicola Gasperi (keyboards, backing vocals), Luca Saccenti (guitar) and Emanuele Jaforte (bass) but on the album there's also the collaboration of Anna Paderni on flute credited as a special guest. Corte Aulica's debut album "Il temporale e l'arcobaleno" (The Storm And The Rainbow) was released by Mellow Records in 2007 and contains seven instrumental tracks plus two "bonus tracks" sung by Gustavo Pasini.

The main sources of inspiration here come from the "Canterbury scene" (especially Camel) and the Italian prog scene of the Seventies but the band managed to express their own original ideas without being too derivative... The result is excellent and all along the album you can listen to beautiful melodies soaring from complex rhythm patterns. In my opinion are especially good the title track where the "stormy" guitar work and dreamy and colourful piano passages produce a very interesting contrast and "Corte aulica", complex and melodic in the meantime. Anyway the level of all the tracks is absolutely good and there are no weak moments. The last two tracks are credited as "bonus" ones because they are older compositions by Gustavo Pasini... "The voice whispers looking for a reason / A smile shines new emotions / Without fears you are spellbound / Autumn makes you change your way..."... Gustavo Pasini's vocals on the bonus tracks are very far from flawless, but according to an interview with the musician these songs were "too personal" to be sung by a another person and the choice to sing them in an "imperfect way" was made to keep all their emotional content.

On the whole "Il temporale a l'arcobaleno" is an excellent work and even if the last two tracks are not flawless, they do not waste the final result.