PHOTOS OF GHOSTS

I was really amazed watching the PFM+Pagani DVD "Piazza Del Campo" last night which proved that the band is still great after more than thirty years in music industry. Awesome. The opening track of the DVD is my all-time favorite PFM song "River of Life" which represents my first introduction to this album. I was lucky that I knew the album from the English version so I had no problem at all and it seemed natural prog music to me even though when I knew the Italian version later I prefer this album was sung in the band's mother's tongue. But it does not mean this English version is bad at all. Well, especially when I consider vocal is another musical instrument as well - what is language anyway? It does not really matter to me. I always come back to my basic philosophy: music is emotion! So, I always find the joy of writing a review as an expression how I feel about it. This "Photos of Ghosts" does its job really well to serve that purpose.

I have always considered this album as one of the finest moments in progressive rock scenes. It blends all elements of classical, electronic (with mellotron sounds that characterized the era), traditional folk, and acoustic music with no particular focus on certain element , such as rock, jazz or pop as later albums being criticized. "River of Life" blew me away at first listen due to "really" touchy melody for the whole song. It opens beautifully by Franco Mussida's classical guitar work that in a way reminds me to the intro of Genesis' "Blood on A Rooftops". It's probably - accidentally (?) - Genesis heard this before making their Winds and Wuthering album? It's probably not also, of course. But Mussida's guitar work is really stunning. It's then followed with Mauro Pagani's flute work and Flavio Premoli's keyboard. The combination of this three instruments in itself has projected a complex arrangement even though it's performed acoustically. The music suddenly turns into a full blown one with the entrance of drums and bass guitar combined with beautiful violin. The music mood increases and suddenly stops beautifully, continued with first lyrical verse: "River of life ." oh my God . what a great melody! " Rain was your birth / Gathered deep / Beneath the earth./ Search and seep/ Hollow stone/ Issue and flow ..". The music flows really well with great instrumentation and heavy mellotron sounds. It's really a masterpiece!

The second track "Celebration" has an upbeat tempo with keyboard as the main melody and rhythm section combined with the pan-pipe. Vocals are done together by the band members. The album title track "Photos of Ghosts" is another excellent one with a combination of silent passages with the full blown musical streams. Great flute work and keyboards. "Old Rain" explores another acoustic guitar work in ambient nuance combined with a very nice violin. It's a mellow track with a bit of jazzy / avant-garde touches. "Il banchetto" is another excellent track that was not translated with an excellent combination of keyboard and acosutic guitar. "Mr. 9 till 5" and "Promenade the puzzle" are also classic tracks that have become legendary as well.

Sonic quality is excellent. The instruments were impeccably recorded with clean mixing, so when I turn my volume louder all instruments can be heard even better. This combines the right balance of simple and complicated arrangement. The musicians seemed like having shared the same feelings in composing the album as they seemed playing with their hearts and their minds. Highly recommended album!

Progressively yours,

GW

"Caves and canyons / Stark prison walls / Swirl and hurl you / From white cascading falls. Across the plain / Sweep your course / River roll / Follow your star ." - PFM "River of Life"