Before diving into this gem, I wanted to throw one thing out there that you should know. This cd is split into two parts.
Part 1 contains 4 songs done in the studio this year which total about 21+ minutes.
Part 2 contains 3 old live recordings from 1977 which total about 15-16 minutes.
Having said that, you'll get about 35 minutes of music from this cd.
On to part 1 which is why I bought the cd in the first place. I remember years ago listening to the Mellow Release "Locanda Delle Fate Live" (Bless Mellow records for making all this available to us) and being very very sad that the only recording of "La Giostra" in existance is a recording that is practically unlistenable. For all practical purposes, that song may be better than any of the songs on their "Forse" album which is really saying a lot (for those who know that album)...
Ah and what a treat that there is a clean/crisp/re-recording of "La Giostra" done on Part 1 which clocks in close to 8 minutes. I was nervous that perhaps LDF would use new modern instruments (ie, drum machines and digital keyboards) as it seems to be trendy these days. Ah but what a surprise as this song (and all 4 of the studio songs) sounds so nostalgically 70's that I cannot tell the difference. You could literally put these 4 songs on their 1977 album and not know the difference.
"La Giostra" is simply a beautiful emotional epic with many melodic surprises. And Sasso's voice has not really lost a heartbeat. IN-fact, it sounds even more awesome on parts of this album.
"La Giostra" alone is worth the price of this album.
Another pleasant surprise is a studio version of their 1977 song "No chiudere a chiave le stelle" with Sasso doing all the vocals on this. If you recall on the 77 version (track 6 on their "Forse" album), Sasso does is not doing any vocals on that one. So once again, a beautiful track with a twist (Sasso on vocals). The opening studio song "Crescendo" is another top notch 8+ minute "emerson-esque with italian touches" song in the style that you came to know and love on their original 77 album. Plenty of surprises and emotional vocals. The 2nd song "Sequendza circolere" is a 3+ minute instrument classical piano piece (maybe the least interesting of the studio songs but still very good and definitely not a throwaway track) .
Now you get into part 2 which contains 3 live versions from 1977 with better sound quality than anything on their "Locanda Live" mellow releases album. But still I won't be listening to these 3 songs on part 2 nearly as much as they're there for the fans I think.
All in all a slightly disjoined album (in terms of parts 1 and 2) but oh my oh my the 4 studio songs you get on part 1 make this another essential classic italian prog album.
Just be warned though that you'll only get 21 minutes worth of studio music on this album so it's more like an "EP" with an extra 15 minutes of live recordings from 1977 thrown in.
Still though "La Giostra" makes this all worth while and it may be in my top 5 all time favorite prog songs and I'm so grateful they came into the studio (with Sasso) 34+ years later to do it the way it should have been done in the first place.
For that, I rate this a "masterpiece" but take my review with a grain of salt if you're only a mild fan of italian progressive rock...
I love that these italian prog bands are getting together again after 30+ years and doing new albums.
Now if only Alphataurus can complete their new album (which was supposed to be released in Jan of last year) but I'm not sure what the hold up is.
If you like the 1977 "Forse" album and can accept you'll only get 21 minutes of new material in the same vein of their 1977 album, then this purchase is a no-brainer...
This is also a "no-brainer" if you were sad (over the years) about the low-quality recording of "La Giostra" from their "Locanda Live" album and wished to have a good clean crisp studio recording of it. Here's your chance now 🙂 It was the primary reason I bought this album and I ended up pleasantly surprised at the other 3 studio tracks. In the order of my favorites, it's "La Giostra", the opening "crescendo" track, "Non Chuidere a Chiave le stelle"(thanks to Sasso for the vocals) and the instrumental "Seqquenza circolare" track. I don't see myself listening to the live tracks much but please know the sound qualify of those is better than that of which you'll hear on the "Locanda Live" mellow release. But these live tracks still suffer a little bit from bootleg quality but they're still listenable. I would have been just as happy without the live tracks and would have still given this ***** for the 4 studio tracks alone.
1. Crescendo
2. Sequenza circolare
3. La giostra
4. Non chiudere a chiave le stelle
5. Non chiudere a chiave le stelle (Live)
6. Crescendo (Live)
7. Vendesi saggezza (Live)
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Based in Leicester, UK for over twenty years, Dawson Smith is originally from South Wales and has a well earned reputation for fronting great bands and rockin' venues all over the UK and beyond. Dawson first made his name as the frontman / songwriter of blues rockers The Healers during the 90's.
