GUDRUN

Towards the end of 1975 Pierrot Lunaire entered the studio for the recording of a second album.However Vincenzo Caporaletti had already left the band to work as a session musician in the USA, before returning to Italy and participate in several collaborations.Instead of him the remaining duo of Stalteri and Chiocchio recruited Welsh female soprano Jacqueline Darby.The album initially was planed to be released in 1976 on the Vista label, eventually it came out a year later on It label, entitled ''Gudrun'' from the eponymous figure of the Norse mythology.

The album is of course centered around the 11-min. self-titled track, a complete Avant- Garde/Folk Rock experience filled with obscure keyboard sounds, wordless vocals, fast piano paces and sound effects, characterized by the impressive voice of Darby and the high level of experimentation and dissonance.The rest of the album contains seven shorter tracks with a diverse but always experimental sound.Most of them are based on Classical Music, Folk Rock and Opera, either driven by Stalteri's piano and organ or the haunting operatic voice of Darby, which is excellent but a bit too excessive for the average music fan.A few of them are closer to traditional Prog sounds like the nice ''Giovane madre'' with the fiery organ work and massive synths' parts of Stalteri along with the great bass/drum support, the dreamy ''Sonde in profonodita'' with its folky atmosphere, characterized by the ethereal acoustic guitars and elegant organ sounds or the delicate ''Morella'', which is closer to Classical Rock with a fine combination of piano, synthesizers and operatic vocal lines.

Pierrot Lunaire disbanded soon after this release with Stalteri releasing the solo album ''Andre sulla luna'' in 1979, while Chiocchio became a musical director for It and was involved in the 80's band Effetto Notte.He, along with Caporaletti, tried to revive Pierrot Lunaire's sound in the 90's, but no recorded tracks were ever released due to his sudden death from heart attack in 1996.The CD ''Tre'' on MP Records from 2011 contains material for a third album scheduled for release in 1978 along with alternate versions and cover songs by contemporary groups of old Pierrot Lunaire material.

''Gudrun'' shows a tendency by this unique band towards more groundbreaking and innovative realms compared to their debut, it still is a good album with plenty of interesting parts, but its more experimental moments are really hard to get into.Recommended overall.