STORIA O LEGGENDA

In 1977 progressive rock wasn't exactly in his finest hour and Le Orme was a band,which struggled around this time.Good thing was the band now was a stable quartet with guitarist Germano Serafin being a permanent member.Le Orme released ''Storia o Leggenda'', again on Phillips, and the sound of the album would be a huge questionmark.

Despite the rough years for progressive music in general,Le Orme surprise the audience with their new album.The band would somehow turn back in time and tried to re-produce the sound of their early years.Tony Pagliuca performs in the fully-oriented dreamy Baroque style,definitely a trademark the band.Aldo Tagliapietra sings in the same style over the years,but combined with this music,his voice now sounds more ethereal.The tracks are short,but they are full of intricate vocal harmonies, classical influences, intricate melodies and dreamy acoustic passages.But this not the whole story.In places Pagliuca recreates the space weirdness of ''Felona e sorona'' with his moog synthesizer and actually this specific style prooves to be excellent for supporting music than performed in a full album.The result is certainly one of the best Le Orme releases,soft classical prog with plenty of trippy soundscapes.

Progressive music was alive and well with albums like this.Filled with perfect harmonies,splendid vocals and unique keyboard work,''Storia o Leggenda'' is one of the rare examples of good Italian Prog music towards the end of the 70's and deserves a special place in a decent prog collection.Highly recommended.