L'ULTIMA ILLUSIONE

Euthymia is an Italian project that emerged in July 2008 with the idea of ​​creating "Rock Operas" influenced by literature, theater and music. The project consists in the musical side by Alan Brunnet (drums) and Dario Alein Mecca (keyboards), they are responsible for the music, arrangement and mixing of the first album: "L'ultima Illusion". Umberto Poli is responsible for all texts, history and literature of the album, forming an unusual trio but certainly interesting in this literary-musical experiment.

On its website, the band stress influences from legendary bands like: Premiata Forneria Marconi, Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, Arti & Mestieri, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Emerson Lake and Palmer, King Crimson, Yes . The band features vocals, keyboard, bass and drums, evoking the classic progressive sounds of the seventies. "L'ultima Illusion", they said, is a triumph of the mini moog and synthesizers.

From now on, we can get a clear idea of the musical line that the album has. The lack of guitars recalls the sound of ELP, with the predominant sound of keyboards and synthesizers. In "L''ultima Illusion" is quite the same, the keyboards take the lead role of the work and guide us from start to finish, with that "old" sound that I personally love.

The Italians takes the rock opera to the extreme, in which a great part of the time, an actor tells the story (spoken), while the music only helps to create a certain feeling or ambient depending on the act. At first listen I found disconcerting that after each piece of music, they include an entire track dedicated to telling the story and set aside at least a leading role, to music. And this is one of the points I'm sure many people will not be too much attracted to this album. This is not an album that can be heard while you're doing something else, since it doesn't flow continuously. You have to hear it carefully and keep handy for those who do not know Italian, the booklet accompanying the album in which the story is written.

In general, the story centers on a lovelorn boy who begins to have visions and visits from a mysterious man, who tries to persuade him, that his girlfriend is cheating him with another man. From there, a flood of feelings inundate the boy and take him to make an important decision about the trust he has for his girl. The album is divided into 6 parts (feelings of the protagonist), which are: illusion, fear, despair, rejection, betrayal and death.

It's amazing for me that the music reflects with a lot of exactitude each of these feelings and evokes them in you, while listening to the album. After an opening where you can immediately appreciate a mix of their musical influences, the "illusion" begins, where the narrator spoke with a love and hope tone. This is the only part in which the music is hopeful and happy, because after that the confusion of the protagonist begins to take action. The second act: "fear" is pretty scary because of synthesizers and the aggressive and fast female vocals. In the third act, "despair", we can feel the protagonist's confusion, not knowing where to go, the keyboard that guides the song leads us to a maze of thoughts and doubts that gradually become clearer when listening to the best song on the album: "Oblio" an orgasmic 9 minutes piece, thanks to the voices and symphonic work, without a doubt the climax of the album. Halfway through the song there is a slight pause, to enter into a crescendo that reminds me to Phideaux in his later works.

The last part of the album since the fourth act, turns to be the best in terms of emotion, "Luce nell'ombra" is a truly beautiful song with some peace and quiet, trying to give us a little clarity in the story. The "betrayal" returns us into the endless roller coaster of emotions in the work, with much more jazzy tones. The "death" closes the album with cryptic sounds that combines perfectly with female voices and lead to an unexpected ending that leaves the story final to the interpretation.

In conclusion, this is a great album if we grade it as an entire piece of art with the full story. At times one would like that the music could flow more freely, but is clear to me that the goal of the band is different and they have succeeded magnificently, using music to convey the story and evoke the feelings experienced by the protagonist in all who hear it.

Original review on spanish at: rockateca.com