Mauro Pagani: Self-Titled (Ascolto, 1978)

The late Seventies are one of the most overlooked periods in the history of Italian rock music. Just while our mediocre "punk" scene was slowly mutating into a florid post-punk milieu, the last remnants of the progressive era were evolving into something new and really unique. Some artists would undertake a "new wave" metamorphosis (think of Franco Battiato), some would hybridate with disco music (Goblin's Claudio Simonetti for example), some would delve into the fascinating musical traditions of the Mediterranean, getting closer and closer to the musical resarch of the "Canzonieri" movement.
P.F.M.'s Mauro Pagani's one of the key figures for this latter trend. After quitting P.F.M. in 1976, he ventured in a dense series of projects aimed at a new fusion of jazz-rock, ancient and traditional folk music, avantgarde experimentation. His first solo lp is perhaps the most mature fruit of his new interests and vision. The recording of the album involved three of the most proficient units around at the time in those fields: Area, P.F.M. and Canzoniere del Lazio, which cooperated in many tracks. It also features guest appearances of outstanding musicians such as former Musicanova singer Teresa De Sio and the amazing acoustic trad-folk guitarist Luca Balbo.

The music is outstanding and extremely varied. A mix of Middle-Eastern flavours, Southern Italian melodies, Sardinian dances; all coupled with refinate arrangements blending chamber music, jazz-rock and captivating avantgarde dilatations in a surprisingly light style.
To make it short: this is one of the best Italian albums ever published. Get it.

Tracklist:

1. Europa minor
2. Argiento
3. Violer d'amores
4. La città aromatica
5. L'albero di canto (Parte 1)
6. Choron
7. Il blu comincia davvero
8. L'albero di canto (Parte 2)

Credits:

• Mauro Pagani: violin, viola, mandolin, bouzouki, flute, composer, arranger (all tracks except 7)
• Mario Arcari: oboe (tracks 1, 2)
• Luca Balbo: guitar (track 7)
• Walter Calloni: percussion (tracks 1, 6)
• Teresa De Sio: vocals (track 2)
• Roberto Colombo: polymoog (track 4)
• Area:
  Demetrio Stratos: vocals (tracks 5, 8)
  Patrizio Fariselli: piano (tracks 1, 5)
  Giulio Capiozzo: drums (tracks 1,5)
  Ares Tavolazzi: bass, double bass (track 5)
• P.F.M.:
  Franz Di Cioccio: drums (track 4)
  Patrick Djivas: bass (track 4)
  Franco Mussida: guitar (track 4)
• Canzoniere del Lazio:
  Giorgio Vivaldi: percussion, talking drum (tracks 1, 6)
  Pasquale Minieri: percussion (track 1)
• Allan Goldberg: engineer (tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 8)
• Carlo Martenet: engineer (tracks 4, 7)
• Marco Inzadi: engineer (track 6)
• Piero Bravin: mix (tracks 4, 7)

Download (224 kbps)


Similar music on the blog:
Premiata Forneria Marconi: Passpartù (Zoo Records, 1978)
Area: Maledetti (Cramps, 1976)

Giorgio Laneve: Accenti (Divergo, 1978)

Just like writer Gianni Rodari revolutionized children's literature between the Sixties and the Seventies, during the latter of these decades many songwriters impressed a definite shift in the style of children's music. Their songs were much closer than usual to children's kind of imagination and irony, and in the same time tried to explain much more complex concepts. War and peace, ecology, solitude, the way children are really born: these are some of the themes dealt by Giorgio Laneve's "Accenti". As many other works in the field, it's a very rare record, and definitely a poorly celebrated one.
It should be known much more, though. It's light and breezy, both musically and lyrically. Words and rhymes are esasy to understand, perfect for children, but totally lack the silly moralism and dogmatism which was typical of the genre just some years before. The vocals are sung by both Laneve and children from the vocal group "Le mele verdi", in tender call-and-response dynamics. The music is rich and skippy, mostly based on very clean chamber-music arrangements strengthened by unpretentious drums and bass figures; many a song, however, feature delightful funky accents - often quite ingenuous, but somehow perfectly fitting with the spirit of the songs.

Electronic engineer Giorgio Laneve debuted as a singer/songwriter in 1970, with a quite rhetoric style inspired by the likes of Fabrizio De André. After a few other lps, he entered the realm of children's music and published "Accenti" for Ricky Gianco's "Divergo" label.

Tracklist:

1. Accenti
2. Girandola
3. Amedeo Wolfango
4. Gi-O-Erre-Gio
5. Le formiche
6. Augurissimi
7. Bernardo l'eremita
8. Rocky Boom
9. L'uovo
10. I venti
11. C'era una volta

Download (224 kbps)

Similar music on the blog:
Musica per bambini: Nascondino coll'assassino (La mia cantina, 1998)
Angelo Branduardi: Cogli la prima mela (1979)

Premiata Forneria Marconi: Passpartù (Zoo Records, 1978)

P.F.M. are the giants of Italian prog-rock. Despite their celebrity, their records always showed some consistent flaws: the lack of a gifted singer; the poorness of the lyrics; the substantial unoriginality of their musical themes. "Passpartù" isn't generally regarded as their peak, but unquestionably solves two of the three problems above.
Though the singer - Bernardo Lanzetti from Acqua Fragile - doesn't have a versatile voice, the lyrics are brilliant and imaginative: they are a work by singer/songwriter Gianfranco Manfredi, who privileged levity above his usual causticity for the occasion. What's more, the music makes a resolved step towards the incorporation of folkloric material: the resulting sound is a hybrid of jazz-rock fusion in the vein of Weather Report and Mediterranean suggestions which remind of Area (compound meters in profusion!) but show a very personal acoustic edge.
Everything converges to a surprisingly breezy album, where the instrumental skill of the musicians doesn't suffocate the pop appeal of the music, but weaves smart woofs which enhance it with class and moderation .

"Passpartù" ninth studio release from P.F.M., and the second without their well-known violinist Mauro Pagani.  Many tracks feature Roberto Colombo on keyboards - later a key producer of Italian new wave.

Tracklist:

1. Viene il santo
2. Svita la vita
3. Se fossi cosa
4. Le trame blu
5. Passpartù
6. I cavalieri del tavolo cubico
7. Su una mosca e sui dolci
8. Fantalità

Download (128 kbps)

Similar albums on the blog:
Gianfranco Manfredi: Zombie di tutto il mondo unitevi (Ultima spiaggia, 1977)
Alberto Fortis: omonimo (1979)

Automat: Automat (EMI, 1978)

Progressive and italo-disco? Sounds foolish, but "Automat" is not an isolated case: in the end of the 70s, more than an artist tried to merge the neoclassical grandeur of spaghetti-prog and the electronic grooves of Giorgio Moroder.
"Automat" is anyway one of the most accomplished attempts at this fusion. Listening to it is like spinning Jean-Michael Jarre on one deck, Midnight Express theme on the other and discovering they fit perfectly. The album has something like a concept, dealing with the adventures of a golem-like robot. It is no futurist work though: instead of celebrating the glory of the machine, the music portays a somehow disillusioned spleen. Baroque fugues inspired by Bach, minimalist repetitions and crystalline synth layerings disclose an alabastrine melancholy, the one of a creature which can't feel at home in the human world. A steampunk version of Alan Moore's Dr. Manhattan.

Automat was a short-lived project of soundtrack composers Claudio Gizzi and Romano Musumarra, together with sound engineer Mario Maggi. The album was entirely performed (even the drums!) on the MCS70 analog synthetizer, designed by Maggi himself. The first half of the record features Gizzi's compositions, the second one Musumarra's.
Trivia: J.-M. Jarre was the first person to get a copy of "Automat".

Tracklist:

1. Automat: (The) Rise
2. Automat: (The) Advance
3. Automat: (The) Genus
4. Droid
5. Ultraviolet
6. Mecadance

Download (320 kbps)

Similar albums on the blog:
Easy Going: Fear (Banana Records, 1979)
Giorgio Moroder: E=mc² (Durion, 1979)

Marcello Capra: Aria mediterranea (Mu records, 1978)

"Aria mediterranea" is a lighter-than-air instrumental masterpiece, fusing European folklore, jazz and improvisation, progressive, minimalist and baroque nuances. The center of the music is a sparkling and very rich acoustic guitar style encompassing interwaved arpeggios, three-string strumming and skipping solo lines; breezy, elegant and free, it creates a sense of suspension which is unpredictably close to the unique feeling of Van Morrison's "Astral Weeks". John Fahey might be another ponderous but fitting comparison.
Vibes, flute, bass, percussion and very rare electric guitar interventions are the other few elements completing the palette for this unparalleled revisitation of the folk heritage.

Marcello Capra is a guitarist from Turin, active in the local beat/progressive rock scene since the late Sixties. "Aria mediterranea" is his first solo LP, with collaborations from some members of Arti & Mestieri and Procession (the band Capra was playing with at the time).


Tracklist:

1. Aria mediterranea
2. Biosfera
3. Il ballo degli gnomi
4. Danza russa
5. Il sole sulla palude
6. Merligen
7. Dedicato ad irio
8. Canto di mare

Download (256 kbps)

Musicanova: omonimo (Philips, 1978)

This is the first time I post two albums by the same band. I won't dwell on the presentation on the band therefore, having already talked about Musicanova for the album "Festa festa".
The album I'm posting today is Musicanova's second album, an almost miraculous collection of songs composed to renew the traditional music of Campania. The vocals are all in Neapolitan language and their interpretation is stunnigly keen and lively. The arrangements are complex, layered but always focused on the traditional styles: many tracks feature flute, violin and refinate rhythm guitar figures, and the overall sound is some sort of very cultured, inspired and ancient-sounding folk music. The presence of odd meters directly links to baroque music conceived for the dance, giving the songs a very astir and physical temper.
"Pizzica minore" opens on an impetuous zampogna-violin blast followed by an impressive vocal performance by Teresa Di Sio. "A la muntagna" is an apology of brigandage. It juxtaposes a tense, pastoral metaphore about sheep, wolves, hunters and robbers with a trampling, choral 15/8+9/8 strophe which recites:

Se n'è fujuto 'o rre Burbone
e n'è venuto n'ato cchiù putente:
cagna 'o guverno, cagna 'o padrone,
sulo pe' chi stà 'a sotto nun cagna niente.

The Borbone king fled away
Another one came, more powerful:
The government changes, the master changes,
Only for the lower ones nothing changes.

Tracklist:

1. Pizzica minore
2. Riturnella
3. A la muntagna
4. Siento mò che t'aggia dì
5. A' morte 'e Zì Frungillo
6. Tempo di carnevale
7. Ninna nanna per voce e mandoloncello
8. Canto allo scugnizzo
9. Tarantella finale

Download (~230 kbps)