ARBEIT MACHT FREI

The Lp has an avowedly politicized cover in fact Area are not only a rock band but an icon of the Italian student youth movement of the Seventies, and carry on, together with the editor of their discographyc house Gianni Sassi (alias Frankestein), author of the texts, a Marxist revolutionary discourse.

1. Luglio, Agosto, Settembre (Nero) (4:27). Area's epochal debut starts with a woman's voice reciting very musical verses in Arabic. Then the operatic vocals by Stratos fill our ears, and finally the guitar (Tofani) draws an arabesque but also medieval melody (worthy of Branduardi, minstrel and Italian violinist who only in 1975 will release his first album). The medieval nursery rhyme melody is then doubled by another electric guitar then starts a moment of jazzy cacophony, noise, with avant-garde sounds, then restarts the melody. It will remain the only melodic and captivating, catchy piece on the album. The lyrics talks about the palestinian drama. Masterpiece. Rating 9.

2. Arbeit Macht Frei (7:56). The piece begins with a free-jazz improvisation with the percussion (Capiozzo) in the foreground, then sound effects arrive, electronic sounds that increase more and more, accompanied by the powerful bass by Djivas until, around two minutes and forty, a blues drumming explodes and finally around four minutes a bass riff takes shape which becomes the rhythmic axis of the song, in fact a blues. The singing of Stratos arrives at four and a half minutes from the beginning, the duration of the previous song. Together with the singing and the blues rhythm, the sax played by virtuoso musician Busnello continues with its jazz improvisations, then the music stops, the rhythm changes and the guitar solo of Tofani starts, which then gives way again to Stratos' powerful voice, who sings for a short while before the sudden ending arrives. Masterpiece. Rating 9+.

3. Consapevolezza (6:06). Fariselli, author of all the music, and synths player, brushes a very progressive instrumental intro, full of changes of rhythm and very atmospheric, which after a minute and a half gives space to the energetic voice of Stratos that has no equal in approach, and creates a sense of alienation with the jazz rock music of the group. After two verses, a jazz improvisation led by Busnello's sax, which reveals himself as the album's main soloist, starts. Under the sax, in the background, Capiozzo makes great jokes on the drums. The song despite having a strong blues riff as the first has at least a more relaxed air than the previous two, which were a real tour de force. But towards the end, when Stratos' voice returns, the song explodes. Great song but in comparison with the firsts two is more ordinary. Rating 8+.

End of wonderful A-side.

4. Le Labbra Del Tempo (6:00). Jazz-rock music with the bass in evidence, Strato's voice is not in the foreground, and neither is the drums, in a very jazzy style. Then towards 2'15'' the virtuosic jazz instrumental piece (bass and keyoboards in evidence) starts and ends with a cacophonic piece, then, towards 4 minutes the music stops, Strato's voice returns, making virtuoso vocalizations and then there is an orchestral orgasmic ending. After the first song it is the most sung one of the record. Rating 8.5/9.

5. 240 Chilometri Da Smirne (5:10). Instrumental jazz-rock song, with the sax in evidence, which deepens into an orgiastic virtuoso solo up to two minutes, accompanied by a very jazzy drums. Then a bass solo starts, then the drums come back, Tofani on the guitar plays his solo and then the saxophone and the organ start to draw their lines again. Rating 8.

6. L'Abbattimento Dello Zeppelin (6:45). We got to the last piece of the album, the most arduous, cryptic, avant- garde. Slow start with sound effects, then starts a cacophonous piece where Tofani and Fariselli play at high volume, and the bass of Djivas, a real gem, embellishes the sound, while Capiozzo focuses more on the dishes than on the snare. Stratos' vocalizations create onomatopoeic sounds that blend with the lyrics in Italian, the sax this time is in the background and is prodigious in dissonant sounds almost in the style of Van der Graaf, and with a suspended atmosphere, true avant-garde, we hear a disaffected music, atonal, until the cacophony explodes again. It's an extreme song, which is more like or be detested. I like it, especially as the conclusion of this album. Of course, if it was all six like this, we would have lost a lot in sound content, but as a forward epitaph it's great. Rating 8,5.

Area created with this record what they called international-pop and which was instead a jazz-rock / avant-garde / fusion prog-rock, an absolute masterpiece where the instrumental part was predominant on the singing of Stratos, which was completely alien to rock and melodic music, it was an emphatic and solemn singing, much sought after, sometimes recitative, sometimes tending to the singing of the opera. The musical part is very strong and innovative. This album has nothing to do with Italian progressive rock and is actually a case also internationally. Difficult to catalog, I would include it in the jazz-rock/fusion genre but also in the avant-garde. Area, however, is not limited to writing a music never heard, without genre, and to prodigious in great instrumental and vocal performances, they manage to forge a music rich in suggestions and innovations, that is, they make history. We are facing, in my opinion, one of the greatest masterpieces of prog - and contemporary music.

Medium quality of the songs: 8,67. Absolute masterpiece. Rating 9,75. Five stars (six, If I could).

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