DAYBREAKING LIVE

When the sound quality and the performance of a live album are so good to make it sound like a studio album, it's amazing. This live effort of Roz Vitais has exactly that quality. With a quite huge discgraphy including lives and compilations I can't be 100% sure, but I think that the excellent opener "Wides" is unreleased on studio. The middle part of the track with a repetitive bass line and a sort of obsessive lead guitar is a perfect introduction to the newagey part dominated by flute and electric piano which later goes uptime. A great instrumental which sets the mood. Good start. Only the sound of the drums reveals that it's a live execution. The crescendo is completed by a distorted guitar which turns to clear when the track slows down a bit.

I may be wrong, but also the title track sound "previously unreleased" to my ears. Not too different from the first track for what concerns the mood, but darker. The arabesque keyboard in the background adds a touch of ethicity but only if you pay enough attention. Then the final section, very melodic, arrives. It's likely because of the flute, but this part sounds very close to Camel of the late 70s or even to the Japanese Bellaphon. At the end, we can hear the first applause. So it's really a live...

Nepsis, from the album Lazarus is one of the tracks which justifies the inclusion in the RIO/Avant section of PA. Let's say that when in a single track you put an Emerson-like keyboard and a Fripp-like guitar adding a touch of weirdness in the central section, the subgenre classification means almost nothing. Also because when it exits the short chaotic part it acquires a particular taste. Maybe I'm not in a good metal shape, but what I hear is a mixture of Debussy and Gentle Giant. Something that I can't really explain in words.

The short duo "Loro con Dolcezza..." is, I think, another new track. I don't knw why tis he Rozmainski's band so used in giving the tracks titles in Italian. It means "Them, with sweetness and courtesy". It fades into "Fret not thyself.." whose studio version is on "The Hidden Man of Earth", their 2018 studi release. Here the effect of playing it live is evident as it's a little accelerated, it seems to me, respect to the studio version. Anyway it's another great track fronted by the guitar.

Patience of Hope is the first Roz Virtalis album that I've listened to, and it's nice finding this drreamy atmpspheric track, even if it's not the first time that it ends on a live album. Probably it's one is which Ivan Rozmainski has more feelings. It doesn't miss the dreamy soundscape even when the guitar takes the lead with a riff that could be called Gilmourian if it wasn't for the distortion. Mother of all Rain: the title describes it very well.

Strangers and Pilgrims is another track which I don't think I've found on a studio album before. Not bad but the intro takes too long I think. When it ends there's a harpsichord sound which introduces the electric piano. Another stop and a change with the guitar with a lot of chorus in the background and the bass riff that takes the lead until the whole band enters. This track is made f short circular sections with themes coming and going, repeating and disappearing. So, intro apart, It's a very good track which deserves the definition of "progressive". A sort of short epic with a touch of classical feeling.

The performance ends with Psalm 6, which is probably one of the ost well-known tracks of this band, again from the 2018 album. It starts uptime and full of rhythm. Excellent as closer, it makes me think to Niacin, just to give the idea, but it's clearly a Roz Vitalis track. The chord sequence is not particulariy original but 4 chords can be enough if used in this way. It reminds me again to Bellaphon and Camel. The coda has a bit of Lady Fantasy, but without being derivative. Excellent as closer for a live. I can understand the word "Spassiba" in the seech to the public that I suppose has left the concert very satisfied.

Excellent live album from an excellent band.

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