Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Pierrot Lunaire: omonimo (It, 1974)

Starting from today, I'm going to alternate my post following a rarity criterion: semi-forgotten gems will turn about with more renown and easy to find albums which are the key works of the fields this blog is more concerned.
Of course this does not mean I've run of gas and I'm trying to make up for the missing delicacies with fillers: the post rate is going to double. I've simply thought some of these more "introductive" posts might be useful for the ones which aren't really into the kind of music I usually deal with.

I'm starting now with an album I've already mentioned a couple of times: Pierrot Lunaire's first LP.
A juvenile effort of three classically-trained musicians from Rome, the album isn't generally regarded as one of the most accomplished Italian albums of the progressive era. Nonetheless, it's very original and far from the dominant spaghetti-prog style.
Acoustic atmospheres are fused with Arturo Stalteri's piano passages (which manage to sound dreamy and exuberant in the very same time) and some Hackett-like electric guitar lines in a very peculiar, fairytalesque atmosphere which surprisingly lacks any emphasis. The overall mood's in fact very simple: its placid, candid joyfulness might remind such diverse spirits as the utopian ingenuity of West Coast psychedelia, the light playfulness of the Canterbury scene or the luminosity of some christian folk-rock abums of those years.
The album has a very unique, magical feeling which ties both the more keyboard-lead episodes and the song-oriented ones. A special attention should be paid to the excellent and tuneful melodies sung by Stalteri's delicate voice, but also to the impressive blend of the timbers. A lot of different keyboards, guitar-like instruments and even some flute merge to create a soft, bright sound which is somehow immersed in a misty, moony aura.


Tracklist:
  1. Ouverture XV
  2. Raipure
  3. Invasore
  4. Lady Ligeia
  5. Narciso
  6. Ganzheit
  7. Verso il lago
  8. Il re di Raipure (stream it!)
  9. Sotto i ponti
  10. Arlecchinata
  11. La saga della prima primavera
  12. Mandragola
Download (~200 kbps)

1  :

C'era una Rivolta said...

:o questo mi era sfuggito. Bella lì :D.