MAURO PAGANI

Mauro Pagani left PFM late in 1976 to take a break really from the world tours and recording studios to do some teaching. He would deepen his knowledge of Mediterranean music at this time as well. This is significant as his passion was renewed to get back in the studio and record this style of music we now call World Music. It's very cool that Mauro gets help on this album from not only his PFM bandmates but several from AREA as well. It would be the following year that Mauro would join Demetrio Stratos and Giorgio Vivaldi (both help out on this record) to further push the boundries of this style of music into more Avant territories in a band called CARNASCIALIA. Well I took the usual route into work this morning as I listened to this album yet I felt like I should be riding a camel on a dusty road in the Middle East.

"Europa Minor" features several AREA members instrumentally and it hits the ground running with violin and a beat leading the way. Aboe replaces the violin before a minute but not for long. Check out the violin 2 minutes in as the aboe comes and goes. I like the percussion 3 minutes in. "Argiento" opens with Bouzouki and it sounds great as female vocals join in. Vocals stop and violin joins in at 2 minutes. Aboe too then the vocals return around 4 minutes. "Violer D'ammes" has violin throughout and Mauro is very impressive.

"La Citta Aromatica" is where Mauro's PFM mates (drums, guitar & bass) help him out. We get drums, bass, violin and more. So much going on. Guitar before 1 1/2 minutes. A great sounding track. "L'albero Di Canto Pt 1" is Stratos on vocals with three other AREA mambers helping out instrumentally. It opens with piano then we get violin, drums and bass after a minute. Killer sound before 2 minutes.The piano leads before 3 minutes in an uptempo section.The bass then becomes prominant then violin. Piano is back then Stratos. "Choron" has flute of some sort only for 2 minutes then a new soundscape takes over with a cool sounding rhythm. "Da Qualche Parte..." has this intricate Bouzouki melody then the sound builds. So good. Beautiful stuff. "L'albero Di Canto Pt 2" opens with violin as Stratos joins in.

Not as good as as the album that would follow under the band name CARNASCIALIA but still a four star album.