INUIT

Short-lived Italian act from Pavia, Italy with a unique line-up featuring two electric violin players.Armonite was an idea of drummer Gabriele Rossi, who recruited Giovanni Lanfranchi and Jacopo Bigi in 1996 and completed the line-up with bassist/flutist Andrea Bacchio and keyboardist Paolo Fosso.Several succesful live performances would follow and after a year of hard work Armonite self-released their debut ''Inuit'' in 1999, re-released a year later by Mellow Records.

Things are simple.If you love the sound of violins, refined melodies and calm atmospheres, Armonite is your band.Six instrumentals along with an intro and a short outro of a total running time under 40 minutes is the proposal of this unique Italian group and the style draws influences from Classical Music as well as modern Progressive/Art Rock, delivering them in a very smooth and elaborated way.The approach of the band is trully personal with dominant use of dual violins and sometimes delicate flutes, supported by a solid rhythm section and the careful use of background synths and pianos by Fosso.The musicians are all excellent, no question, but on the other hand the tracks sound extremely similar with little diversity and the album generally shows a lack in dynamics with these five Italians insisting on creating relaxed and dreamy soundscapes with no presence of more energetic parts, though some moments offer a somewhat dramatic twist.

A few years after this work nothing was heard about Armonite and it seems that the band dissolved as silently as it entered the music world.''Inuit'' is an original work of violin-driven instrumental Art Rock with the simple aim to please all fans of melodic, instrumental Rock music.Recommended.