PRODIGIOSA MACCHINA

Italian multi-instrumentalist Mario Cottarelli was born in Cremona in 1956, showed his love for Progressive Rock at a very young age but by the time he produced his first demos in late-70's the interest on prog music had faded for good.For the next two decades Cottarelli turned to more commercial music, composing songs for dance and folk acts, but ,with the revival of Progressive Rock, he revisited some of the pieces he composed back in the 70's, re-arranged them and wrote new lyrics.The result is the 2007 CD album ''Prodigiosa macchina'', released on the Ravenna-based New Lm Records.

Cottarelli is responsible for all instruments, vocals and programming on this album, highlighted by the eponymous 22-min. epic track, where the musician offers some great musicianship in a Classic Italian Prog style, though more modern sounding, with evident LATTE E MIELE and LE ORME influences.Melodic keyboard-based Symphonic Rock with a slight New Age/Jazz vibe on a couple of instrumental parts is the style here with dominant almost psychedelic organ parts, superb work on synthesizers but also some lovely work on guitar, featuring also numerous shifting moods and breaks, resulting a fantastic modern prog opus of high quality.The pair of tracks following and eventually closing the album are more of the same.Great marching keyboard parts, grandiose symphonic organ passages and some great guitar solos just proove that Cottarelli was much unappreciated back in his youth and unlucky enough to record a proper album.Especially the keyboard interludes have a superb haunting atmosphere you can't get enough of.The only flaw of the album are Mario's vocals, which sound a bit melodramatic, but not too bad to spoil the whole atmosphere.Nevertheless the musicianship coming out of this man's mind is so rewarding you will never pay attention at first place.

This is some excellent Symphonic Rock music in the best Italian tradition and if you are a lover of keyboard-based adventures ''Prodigiosa macchina'' is an absolute must-have.Highly recommended.