Italian Experimental Progressive
Maxophone
* Limited edition on crystal vinyl. 180 gr. Gatefold Cover * Maxophone, from Milan, formed in 1973 as a six-piece with an unusual assortment of instruments, due to their past experience as music students. A band of great talents and musicianship, their only LP, released in 1975, came too late to compete with the most important Italian bands of the genre and went sadly unnoticed. "Maxophone", released on the Produttori Associati label (along with Duello Madre one of the few ventures in rock reco…
Agora' 2
Tip! After the moderate success of the debut album "Live in Montreux", Agorà published their first and only studio work in 1976. The possibilities offered by the recording studio seemed more congenial to their proposal, which turns out to be a deeply matured LP, technically flawless and with songs that still belong to the best Italian jazz-rock, with a more intense jazz component at the expense of the progressive one.Unfortunately, both "Agorà 2" and the single "Cavalcata Solare" taken from thi…
Atomic System
Finally available again, this rare Italian prog classic! New Trolls Atomic System were an offshoot of the New Trolls, one of Italy's best-known progressive outfits. A messy split between the two main members lead to an uneasy compromise where the splinter faction were known as 'N.T. Atomic System', although initial copies of the album had a sticker on the front with the full name... While the New Trolls were sporadically good, New Trolls Atomic System is a stormer of an album, radiating energy, …
Albergo Intergalattico Spaziale
** 500 copies only reissue, housed in its original artwork with the addition of a bonus 7" EP, a reproduction of a giant original poster and 3 inserts** Giacomo “Mino” di Martino started his musical career in several early 1960s Italian beat bands. By 1968 he had found enormous success with pop superstars I Giganti. After a brief split in 1970 –during which Mino formed Il Supergruppo with Ricky Gianco and other greats of the Italian scene– he came back to I Giganti in 1971. With them and with ne…
Ictus
A real masterpiece....dreamy improvised music with eastern influences and electronics!! "Before his magnificent experiments with electronic music on Elektrictus (previously reissued on Wah Wah), Andrea Centazzo was already an accomplished musician who had issued his recorded works on the PDU and RCA labels. His first release was Ictus, a free-form avantgarde jazz oddessey on which he already started to experiment with electronic generated sounds. Ictus was a band formed by Centazzo, Armando Bat…
Suspiro
Sister of well known artist Alan Sorrenti, Jenny (or Jane, as she was called in her early releases) was born in Naples from a welsh mother, and formed there the acid folk trio Saint Just. With this band, she released two albums before embarking in a solo career that only produced two more albums in the 70’s.
Jenny Sorrenti’s style as a solo artist is far from her previous bands, being much closer to the song format. Both albums being mainly built on Jenny’s delicate voice; “Suspiro” is the best …
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.