Golden Age Of Italian Progressive Rock

La Locanda delle Fate live at RAI (Italian TV) in 1977, and....their about 40 years later live in Bloom: simply touching.

Yes, I love immeasurably this band: its sound, its elegance, its poetry.
In 1977, when the album "Forse le Lucciole non si Amano Più" was released, the band had no commercial success and it was forced to split: here in Italy we really wasted a lot of great music...

A small anecdote about their live show in 2010, immediately after their reunion: Yasushi Tsuruta, a Japanese fan, heard about the reunion of the band and took the plane to assist at the concert; this super-fan was celebrated by all members, who invited him on stage and honored him with a rare autographed poster!

 

Gianni Leone, Neapolitan enfant prodige, performs live at Stazione della Birra in Rome the album YS by Il Balletto di Bronzo originally released in 1972; the audio quality of the clip is good and the fingers of Gianni Leone always produce a so damned sound, now as then.

 

"Get ready to jump on your chair, dear ‘progsters’, because we can not imagine any different reaction upon hearing The Winstons’ debut album, a 100% Italian trio despite their name. Their genre in itself is hard to classify, but definitely has its reference point in the Canterbury progressive rock scene, in the Krautrock scene and in the psychedelic scene.

This is a power trio of multi-instrumentalists who hide under the pseudonyms Linnon Winston, Rob Winston and Enro Winston, but that are three well known characters of the Italian indie-rock panorama; their real identities are, respectively, Lino Gitto, a constant presence in multiple releases and events of the Milan scene, Roberto Dell'Era, best known as the bass player in Afterhours, and Enrico Gabrielli from Calibro 35, Mariposa and Der Maurer.

The surreal album cover is made by the Japanese artist Gun Kawamura, who also wrote the lyrics of two songs on the album (“Diprotodon” and “Number Number”), sung in Japanese by Gabrielli and Dell’Era”!"

(from BTF >> Italian Distribution >> CD & DVD - BTF.IT »)

Yes, I really think that this is a great album (available on CD and on record edition...), and someone on this board will appreciate this recent Italian release!

 

The Winstons - S/t is a great album. I've also seen it in a chart made by "Classicrockitalia.it", of the 10 best Italian record of the year. They placed it in third position.
Have you found a way to download it lossless? In digital format, I can only find it on iTunes, no lossless.

 

Sorry, I haven't..

 

Has anyone bought any of the recent reissues of Area albums? Especially Arbeit Macht Frei and Crac! I know Cramps, Akarma and Get Back have all released reissues recently. How do they sound? Also interested in the btf.it/Polydor reissue of Ys by Il Balletto di Bronzo.

 

Hi Stefano, you seem to be very knowledgeable on this subject. Im interested in getting reissues of Area albums like Arbeit Macht Frei and Crac. Cramps, Akarma and Get Back have all reissued these titles on vinyl but Im not sure which sounds the best. Also interested in the reissue of Il Balletto di Bronzo - Ys by btf.it/Polydor. I can't find any reviews about these reissues. Could you help me out?

 

Listening to an enjoyable obscure symphonic pop album as I type this: Mario Panseri's "Adolescenza". Judging by the title and the evocative album cover, it's a concept piece about the sexual awakening of a young boy. The music is mostly very soft, romantic and very, very Italian. Almost has a soundtrack feel to it at times. I like it a lot, but it's not "prog" like PFM, Banco or Museo Rosenbach.

 

Honestly, I never listened to Area's albums by a top notch system. But I listened to "Storia di un Minuto" (in its 1st original Italian edition engineered by the great Gaetano Ria) and "Forse le Lucciole non si Amano Più" (2013 clear blue reissue mastered by Alessandro di Guglielmo) by a really top notch ultra-expensive audio system (powered by the handmade HORO turntable) and I can say that "Storia di un Minuto" has a great sound, very natural and very "analog", if you can understand what I'm saying: no distortion, excellent balance between musical instruments.
As for "Forse le Lucciole non si Amano Più", its 2013 BTF reissue is not a sound masterpiece: midrange and treble too much boosted, creating a often confused sound; moreover, tracks of the A side seem to have been mastered each in a different way; tracks of the B side have a more equable mastering but they all the same suffer from boosted midrange and treble, although to a lesser extent than the side A.

I have in my collection some Area's album (original 1st editions and Akarma reissues) and "Ys" by Il Balletto di Bronzo in its BTF recent reissue but I never listened to them by a great audio system. In the next future I'll open a thread where I will write some opinions about some great "spaghetti prog rock albums" listened by the top notch system of my friend Luigi Pasqualini (HORO handmade luxury exclusive Italian turntables)...

 

Thanks for the detailed response Stefano. So since you have the Akarma reissues of Area and BTF reissue of Ys in your collection, would you recommend these reissues based on what you heard? Also any idea about the source used for these reissues?

 

Thanks for this tip. Sometimes I struggle to find contemporary "prog" that feels authentic, but this one seems to hit me where I live, offering a nice range of stylistic influences. I'm going to go for a download on this.

 

You're welcome.

Yes I would. But I have a modest audio system and often a good sound on my system is a bad sound on a top notch system....
Quality of the system is really very very important and affects 100% of the final result. I can say for sure that Area's reissues by Akarma have a good sound as for a low cost system. Never tested on a great audio system.

This is a great problem when we talk about Italian prog reissues: very often, original tapes are lost or destroyed. So, our mastering engineers do what they can...
I know for sure that many reissues are mastered transferring the sound of the original 1st Italian record edition in digital format: yes, some record collectors are contacted by reissue labels and they make available the 1st rare Italian edition as source for the upcoming reissue.

 

Again, thank you. That was really informative.

 

Hi Stefano, one more question. Are you familiar with Si-Wan Records from South Korea? I was interested in their reissues of PFM albums like Storia di un Minuto and Per un Amico. Are these good reissues? How do they sound?

 

I don't know this label. I'm not familiar with Corean editions. Sorry.
But "Storia di un Minuto" and "Per un Amico" are not so expensive in their first Italian pressings...

 

@acemachine26 maybe THIS outcoming reissue could be interesting for you....

 

Are first pressings by the more popular bands like PFM, Le Orme and Banco easy to find in Italy? Here in the US, those first Italian pressings go for a lot of money on E-Bay and Discogs. Frequently for hundreds of dollars.

 

"Easy to find" isn't right: I would say they are not so hard to find. But to find these albums in stunning perfect shape is very hard. In particular, is very hard to find "Storia di un Minuto" and the first self titled album by BMS in great shape.

 

Wow thank you Stefano, Im definitely interested in this. Will they also be releasing Per un amico digital transfer from original master tapes? Are you planning on getting this too?

 

I think this thing is very likely...

Yes I am! Storia di un Minuto is one of my fav albums ever: I have the first Italian pressing but one more good edition is welcome in my home!

 

I really like this one, and you can get copies at Wayside. Luciano Basso - Voci

 

Some really good Italian music?

Genealogia by Perigeo. A stunning masterpiece.

 

It's a nice album, though I wouldn't personally call it either a masterpiece or stunning. I happen to prefer their debut, Azimut, although I may be the minority with that opinion. To me, it's an edgier and more exciting album. It also has more of an individual personality IMO than any of their other albums.

 

This 2-hour documentary about Italian Prog was posted a week ago on YouTube.
It's titled: "Mellotron - Il progressive italiano - 2 ore di storia del pop anni 70".

I haven't watched it yet, but sounds promising.

 

I’ve really enjoyed going through this thread. Loads of information. Here’s my current Rock Progressivo Italiana collection (all CDs, no vinyl):

Le Orme: Uomo di pezza
Le Orme: Felona e Sorona (Deluxe Edition --- VERY RARE!)
Premiata Forneria Marconi: Storia di un minuto
Premiata Forneria Marconi: Per un amico
Premiata Forneria Marconi: Photos of Ghosts
Premiata Forneria Marconi: L'isola di niente
Premiata Forneria Marconi: The World Became the World
Premiata Forneria Marconi: Chocolate Kings
Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso: self-titled
Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso: Darwin!
Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso: Io Sono Nato Libero
Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso: ...di terra
Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso: Canto di primavera
Arti & Mestieri: Tilt
Museo Rosenbach: Zarathustra
Quella Vecchia Locanda: Il Tempo Della Gioia
Quella Vecchia Locanda: self-titled
Osanna: Palepoli
Il Balletto Di Bronzo: Ys
Biglietto Per L’inferno: self-titled
Semiramis: Dedicato a Frazz
Celeste: Principe di un giorno
Cervello: Melos
Franco Battiato: Sulle corde di Aries
Franco Battiato: Clic
Il Volo: self-titled
Perigeo: Genealogia
Reale Accademia Di Musica: self-titled
Goblin: Too many to list (around 12 in total I believe)
Locanda Delle Fate: Forse le lucciole non si amano più
Campo di Marte: self-titled

Let me ask you guys, from my collection above, do you feel I’m missing anything? Care to recommend me something that you feel is a must-have? Thanks!