LE PORTE DEL DOMANI

La Maschera di Cera's latest release, Le Porte del Domani (also available in an English version, though I went for the Italian one since generally I find people sound a lot more natural and flow better when they sing in their native language) sports a cover which is more than a little reminiscent of Le Orme's famed Felona e Sorona, though the band do not offer up a mere Le Orme clone here. Instead, they establish a foundation of folky acoustic guitar and flute, embellish it with a range of unusual percussion instruments, and then go to town on it with a veritable museum of keyboards and synthesisers.

Fans of eclectic prog instrumentation will find it a treat, but even if you set aside that aspect of the album the musical approach - wavering at points between extremely proggy passages and very folky sections - is a cut above the sort of nostalgia-dependent 70s throwback retro-prog material which the cover art may make you think of. So, let's forgive La Maschera their borrowings from Le Orme, because in this case they've more than earned the right to compare themselves to RPI giants of the past.

EDIT: I've been told I need to add a correction here - apparently, had I read La Maschera's press release surrounding the album, I'd have known that the album was in fact deliberately conceived as a sequel to Felona e Sorona - hence the cover art. On the one hand, that resolves the cover issue, on the other hand I do wonder whether this won't spark a little controversy - I'm sure some would say La Maschera are being rather presumptuous in trying to craft a sequel to another band's work. I'd actually say the two albums are roughly on a par, though, so I'm not too fussed.