PER UN AMICO

My renaissance into the world of progressive rock began one year ago with the discovery of Prog Archives. (Thank you all!) With it I at first concentrated on refamiliarizing myself with all of the music I purchased and loved in the 1970s, I am now beginning an adventure into all of the music I missed which Progarchives.com reviewers have praised. I am now the VERY HAPPY owner of my first PFM disc, Per Un Amico. Just as all the reviewers have raved, it is clearly a classic, with excellent songwriting, instrumentation, musicianship, vocals, pace, melody, and very few flaws or 'misses.'

The opener, "Appena Un Po'" is so tight and full of surprises and twists with such wonderful balance of melody and superior musicianship as to win over the new listener immediately [9/10],

"Generale: is a romp through the sheer fun of Django-land [7/10],

"Per Un Amico" shows off a gentler, subtler side with more constant mood and tempo streams, and with such wonderful clarity in the sound mixing, and, of course, the wonderful presence of violin and mandoloncello. This song is especially representative of the way PFM masterfully incorporates the electronics among the wonderful acoustic. [9/10]

"Il Banchetto" opens with the wonderfully clear guitars, followed by the beautiful CS&N-like vocals and bass, before setting up the haunting moog solos, harp arpeggios, and background mellotron, before a Keith Emerson-like keyboard interlude. With the return of drums, Nash bass and vocal harmonies the group brings the song to a satisfying if sadly premature, end. [9/10]

"Geranio" [7/10] again opens with a quieter, almost medieval-then-Debussy/jazz section alternating with a Beach Boys "Pet Stories" theme, before taking us back to the twists and turns of una carnivale for a while. While the fuzzed-up bass and accompanying synth of the outgoing section get a bit annoying after the eight or twelfth measure, the album ends in a way that leaves the listener wanting so much more.

A very enjoyable and addictive listen even 37 years after its recording/release. So, I start it over again-until I can start adding the rest of PFM's classics (and maybe more) to my collection. Though my song-by-song rating system only yields an 8.5 out of ten; making it a 4-plus on the Progarchives scale, I would rate this album or perhaps its performers as an essential assets to anyone's Prog collection.