Italian Experimental Progressive
Aria
A very important artist from Naples, Alan Sorrenti released his first album in 1972 on the legendary Harvest label. Aria is an absolute Italian prog classic, with two different sides: the first only contained the long title track, a dreamy psych-suite starting with acoustic guitar and based on the marvelous instrument-like voice of Sorrenti, and exploding in the final part with a memorable violin solo by Jean Luc Ponty. Side 2 was softer, with three tracks, two of which also appeared on a singl…
Saint Just
Here's one of those surreal, strange trips that just throws you off-kilter at first but soon enough becomes irresistible. Saint Just was an avant-folk group from Naples who fashioned this haunting interpretation of prog-folk with elements of centuries past classical, romantic and traditional folk influence. They don't sound like anyone precisely, but to give a general idea I can float the names Pierrot Lunaire, Trees, Fairport, Vashti Bunyan, Holderlin's Traum. The band contrasts simple and spar…
La Casa Del Lago
"La Casa del Lago" came out just a year after Saint Just's eponymous debut album; in 1973 the band were a very special trio, consisting of Jenny Sorrenti (voice), Antonio Verde (guitar) and Robert Fix (saxophone). They had a contract with Harvest (as well as Jenny's brother Alan Sorrenti, who debuted with "Aria" the previous year), and managed to stand out in the vast Italian pop scene of the early '70s.Unlike many other musical realities, they had a concrete support from the record label, which…
Forse Le Lucciole Non Si Amano Più
**Green Vinyl** Originally released in 1977, Locanda Delle Fate's "Forse le lucciole non si amano più" is an LP for which the term 'masterpiece' is never wasted. Perhaps the last true album of Italian Progressive Rock, before the genre was completely overshadowed by waves of 'new' music, and then come back strongly in vogue in the new millennium.Reviewed hundreds of times and as many incensed, it is a record that has stood the inexorable passage of time, due to its perfect balance among its part…
Flying Tapes
Limited Time Offer **First ever LP reissue, on blue coloured vinyl!** Listening today to the music produced by Sensations' Fix, a project founded and directed by Franco Falsini in '70s, can't just leave anyone indifferent. Already in the mid-'60s, Falsini was full-time involved in musical activities: a tireless traveler and experimenter, an artist with uncommon curiosity and intuition, after having lived for some time in the United States and England, he finally established again in Italy where …
Boxes Paradise
Limited Time Offer **First ever LP reissue, on violet coloured vinyl!** Listening today to the music produced by Sensations' Fix, a project founded and directed by Franco Falsini in '70s, can't just leave anyone indifferent. Already in the mid-'60s, Falsini was full-time involved in musical activities: a tireless traveler and experimenter, an artist with uncommon curiosity and intuition, after having lived for some time in the United States and England, he finally established again in Italy wher…
Finest Finger
Limited Time Offer 180g Green LP. “Finest Finger” is Sensations’ Fix’s fourth album, originally released in 1976 and never officially reissued on vinyl until today. The making of this record coincided with the line-up addition of a second keyboard player and, even if Franco Falsini remains the only author of all its songs, the album sounds much more homogeneous, fluent, inspired, better produced than the band’s previous ones and is clearly the result of a proper teamwork. For the first time, Fal…
Fragments Of Light
Limited Time Offer Clear Blue LP. Listening today to the music produced by Sensations’ Fix, a project founded and directed by Franco Falsini in ‘70s, can’t just leave anyone indifferent. Already in the mid-‘60s, Falsini was full-time involved in musical activities: a tireless traveler and experimenter, an artist with uncommon curiosity and intuition, after having lived for some time in the United States and England, he finally established again in Italy where he gave shape to Sensations’ Fix and…
Cold Nose
Limited Time Offer * Limited white vinyl edition. Packaged in a single jacket with color printed LP sleeve and hype sticker affixed to the shrink wrap on the front * Originally released in 1975 as a soundtrack to a little-known film, his debut solo release experimented with complex brain studies borrowed from the Bio-Electronic Meditation Society. The result is a kaleidoscopic album with touches of ambience floating in amongst organic guitar leads and rushing synthesizers. Franco Falsini is an I…
Quinto Stato
Temporary nicer price * High quality vinyl reissue with remastered sound. Transparent vinyl * Originally released in 1979 on Cramps. This is Arti E Mestieri's second album. More dynamic and inspired than their debut title The sound has not changed much in comparison to the previous album but it is slightly less raw and vocals prevent from getting much focus on instrumental prowess. Arguably there is less space for brass instrument and more vocalized sections. Drums are usually more aggressive …
Arbeit Macht Frei
Temporary nicer price * 500 copies, numbered edition. Clear Splatter Vinyl *Appearing as it did in 1973, Area's debut album must have sounded to the average Italian pop critics like the end of the world. Issued on the Cramps label, the album highlighted Area's early sound, which featured overt folk melodies, Canterbury Scene prog rock, acid psychedelia, and vanguard jazz all filtered through a particularly Italian sensibility. Those who came to love PFM later will not be able to handle the beaut…
Radius
**Red vinyl, numbered edition** Alberto Radius first solo album - Originally released on Numero Uno label, cat. # ZSLN 55153. September, 1972.- and regarded as one of the Italian prog rarest though not particularly representative of the genre, was issued in 1972 when Formula Tre were still active, and was a sort of jam session with important Italian musicians of the time, including Franz Di Cioccio from Premiata Forneria Marconi and Area's Demetrio Stratos and Giulio Capiozzo along with Gianni D…
l'Egitto prima delle Sabbie
*White vinyl repress* Mindblowing! The last album of what could be called Franco Battiato's "experimental prog" period, L'Egitto Prima Delle Sabbie consists of two sidelong compositions strictly arranged for piano only, without any vocals; and even more intriguingly, neither of the performers on the album are Battiato himself. He limited himself strictly to the roles of composer and producer. After Battiato's many different sonic explorations and efforts throughout the '70s, such an effort may s…
Per Le Strade dell'India
* Original 1977 copies. Comes with a 8 page booklet * voices, small bells, big cymbals, sarangi and drums, street musicians, buskers -- this puzzling collage of a journey made in 1976 on the roads of North India by Aktuala's sitar player Fabrizio Cassano is hypnotizing. It opens the way to the state of trance.
Hieros Gamos
Of all the recent Italian prog comebacks, Pholas Dactylus' return is certainly the most unexpected. Exactly, Pholas Dactylus, the authors of the unreachable masterpiece "Concerto delle menti" (1973). Forty-five years later, "Hieros Gamos" ('sacred wedding' in Greek language) marks one of the most resounding rebirths for a band that everyone believed to be lost forever. The album, divided into two parts - one that bears the album title and consists of a long suite, and a second entitled "Ognuno d…
Reflex
Francesco Messina is perhaps best known for his collaboration with fellow composer Raul Lovisoni on the album Prati Bagnati Del Monte Analogo, originally released on seminal Italian label Cramps in 1979. Along with contemporaries Franco Battiato, Juri Camisasca and Giusto Pio, Messina would help reshape the world of modern composition with an organic rawness and haunting beauty.In 1979, Messina was asked to perform at the Teatro Quartiere in Milan. As the composer writes in the liner notes, "Due…
Encyclopedia of Italian progressive rock, experimental, electronic music (Book)
A Fistful of Spaghetti, Encyclopedia of Italian progressive rock, experimental, electronic music, etc. by Steven Freeman & Alan Freeman. From the writers of The Crack In The Cosmic Egg, probably everything you needed to know about Italian Progressive music & the wider prog, electronic, experimental music scenes from Italy. Although centered on the progressive rock scene of the 1970s, the authors have attempted to cover all related genres here, amounting to more than just another prog rock guide…
Darwin!
*500 copies, numbered edition. Clear Splatter Vinyl* The perfect mixture between complex and beauty. The best of Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso, a superb album. Incredible instrumental richness, lots of variations, very expressive voice, long epic tracks and beautiful short songs, all in the same bag. This stuff is the pearl of the great Banco's trilogy (the first three albums they edited), and deserves a privileged place in a serious prog discoteque. One of the Italian monsters, highly recommended! (…
Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso
*500 copies, numbered edition. Clear Splatter Vinyl* Legendary Italian progressive rock band Banco del Mutuo Soccorso released its first LP in 1971 on the label Dischi Ricordi. The lineup included Vittorio Nocenzi (keyboards), Gianni Nocenzi (piano), Francesco Di Giacomo (vocals), Renato d'Angelo (bass), the newly arrived Pierluigi Calderoni (drums), and guitarist Marcello Todara, who would soon be replaced by Rodolfo Maltese. Although plagued by poor sound quality (something frequent with Itali…
Scerizza
* Edition of 200 copies * Archeo is back with another stunner - a true gem of Italian, minimal and ambient music - Pepe Maina’s Scerizza, originally self released in 1979, and until now never reissued. Like everything they do, Archeo has taken it the next level, expanding this edition with a previous unreleased work. Almost entirely overlooked for 40 years, Scerizza is sure to leave listeners reeling and take 2019 by storm.Born in Milan, Pepe Maina, like a great many of the figures at the vangu…