★Sony
Anto/Logicamente
* 500 numbered copies, 180 gr. Red vinyl, numbered edition * Anto/Logicamente is the first compilation of the Jazz fusion band Area and was released in 1977. As the title suggests, the track selection focuses more on the tracks that were "hidden, ignored by the critics and many others", as told on the booklet. "Anto/Logicamente" is a play on words based on "antologia" (compilation, in this case), "anto" (not) and "logicamente" (with sense). Noticeably, this album contains "Citazione da George L.…
Franco Battiato
Temporary nicer price * * 45th Anniversary Edition, 180 gr. Red Vinyl * *Franco Battiato also known as "Za" was the first album for Ricordi, and the Franco Battiato's conceptualism becomes very rigorous and authoritative. It is made of two long tracks, Za, in the author's own words "Apparently poor. Almost completely made up of one chord. Deliberately percussive (the right pedal is never used), it divides and subtracts resonances, with a technique of release. It needs a listening that I would de…
Clic
* Deluxe edition, Numbered, Clear Viny * There is no figure in Italian music, nor within the country’s shimmering, expansive avant-garde, who demands the respect and awe offered to Franco Battiato. He is the beginning and the end. An artist whose output, stretching across six decades, is so diverse and singular, that it defies any concrete definition - darting from psychedelic Prog, definitive gestures in the history of Minimalism, to the heights of explicit Pop. Like many of his contemporaries,…
Per un Pugno di Samba
"Per un Pugno di Samba" is the fifth album recorded by Francisco Buarque de Hollanda, known as Chico Buarque, one of the most important authors and interpreters of Brazilian popular music. The album, released in 1970, was recorded during a self-imposed exile in Italy in 1969 following the arrest he had suffered in Brazil in 1968 for his political commitment against the military dictatorship. In Italy he met Sergio Bardotti who produced the disc writing lyrics in Italian and music, and especially…
Gente Distratta (LP)
**45th Anniversary Edition, red vinyl, 500 copies numbered** During the 1970s, Italy was one of the most exciting and fascinating musical contexts in Europe, birthing seminal projects and artists like Franco Battiato, Aktuala, Lino 'Capra ' Vaccina, Giusto Pio, Roberto Cacciapaglia, Futuro Antico, and so many more. Defining the scene was an ethos that rigorously pursued creative freedom and experimentation, with its artists fluidly moving between popular music - rock, prog, jazz, etc. - and more…
Volo Magico N.1
****50th Anniversary Edition, blue vinyl, 700 copies numbered**** One of the Claudio Rocchi's finest albums, included in the Nurse With Wound's influential list. A perfect combination of experiment, progressive music, acoustic foundations with tape collage, singer-songwriting, with lots of inspiration and invention with a good materialisation of it with clear structures, and interesting contemporary ideas. Trippy streched improvisation like tracks, as if the whole album are a kind of (acoustic)…
Suddance
High quality vinyl reissue with remastered sound. Osanna are considered one of the best bands to emerge from the fertile Italian prog scene of the 1970s known not only for their excellent blend of various musical genres but equally for the live performances that made them stand out from the pack from the getgo. This band from Napoli formed all the way back in 1970 and was known for changing things up radically on each album with the 1973 magnum opus "Palepoli" still considered one of the greates…
Napoli Centrale (1975)
* 500 copies, numbered edition. Remastered edition, Red vinyl *. Napoli Centrale were formed in Naples in 1974 on the initiative of James Senese (sax, vocals) and Franco Del Prete (drums) after their experience in another band called the Showmen 2. They joined forces with American keyboardist Mark Harris and British bassist Tony Walmsley and in 1975 released an eponymous debut album blending in an original way Mediterranean roots and jazz rock. James Senese’s father was an American soldier who h…
Pollution
* 500 copies, numbered edition. Remastered, colored vinyl * Pollution from 1972 is the captivating follow-up to Fetus. Like its predecessor, the album features Baroque textures, motorik rhythms, weird tape effects and Franco Battiato’s perfectly oblique vocals, with a minimalist sound mainly based on the use of a VCS3 synth, unusual lyrics, complex arrangements: upon hearing Pollution, Frank Zappa joyfully proclaimed it “genius.” While Battiato’s core group of collaborators remains largely the s…
1979 Il Concerto - Omaggio A Demetrio Stratos
* High quality vinyl reissue with remastered sound. 40th Anniversary Edition. Red Vinyl *On June 13th, 1979 in Demetrio Stratos, one of the most creative artists in the whole Italian progressive and experimental music scene of the 70's, died of medullary aplasia at the age of 34. Born in Alexandria in 1945 from Greek parents (his real name was Demetrious Efstratios), he moved to Milan at the age of seventeen to study architecture. After the experience with the beat group I Ribelli, in 1972, he …
Melos
* 180g pressing, Coloured vinyl, numbered edition of 600 copies * One of the most elegantly complex and fully realized of the "difficult" Italian classics. Cervello was a band from Naples like Osanna, and each band had a brother in it. Melos, originally released in 1973, is a stunning combination of primarily guitars, flutes and saxes are tightly woven into a very dense, often dark, unsettling, and just plain eerie feel. There is great deal of excellent acoustic guitar work and mellotron-like …
Non E' Poi Cosi' Lontano
* 45th Anniversary. 180g pressing, Coloured vinyl, numbered edition of 600 copies * A heavy-hitting, full-on jazz-rock progressive record from this Italian group – and probably their most underrated effort of the early years! Perigeo is in great form throughout, with a talent for time and chord changes that displays many years spent woodshedding solos from their biggest influences. Claudio Fasoli's reeds are nice and choppy, and work very well with Tony Sidney's strident guitar parts. Frando D'…
Barbara e altri Carella
* Limited edition 180 gram transparent yellow vinyl, gatefold * Beatiful reissue for this masterpiece by Enzo Carella whose original edition usually sells for crazy prices on the second-hand market. This undervalued piece of work was perhaps too avantgarde during the time of release to get the full attention it deserves.Carella was an Italian singer-songwriter who is best remembered for his 1979 major hit Barbara, which is the opening track on Barbara e altri Carella, his second album. All songs…
Piano Solo
Raw and angular as they sound, these nine pieces are utterly compelling. Without supporting bass and drums, Monk draws on his early influences to lay down left-hand rhythm patterns, including a kind of off-centre boogie-woogie. But it’s the authority and completeness of each performance that is so impressive, not to mention the considerable technique involved. An excellent booklet provides the background
Event '76
Wonderfully varied Free Improv, with a nice balance of different elements to keep it interesting (and not overly self-indulgent). One of those elements is Demetrio Stratos' voice, which is put to good use as a wild instrument (complete with duck quacking). It's rare for a band, that features Steve Lacy and Paul Lytton, to pull off free improv so completely convincingly when it is not within their normal milieu, but this performance is a testament to their musicianship and their listening skills.…
Recitarcantando
*Yellow Vinyl. Gatefold Cover * Of all of Demetrio Stratos' recordings, this 1978 live date with violinist Lucio Fabbri is easily the most accessible and least adventurous. That said, Recitarcantando is also perhaps the most songlike and beautiful of Stratos' albums and deserves recognition for showcasing the vocalist as a singer of uncommon power and originality. This album does showcase various aspects of the investigations undertaken on his previous studio recordings, including the "Investiga…
M.elle Le "Gladiator"
Before Franco Battiato went flying into the sun of mininalist avant prog... he gave us this absolute classic of an album. A dense ambient electronic album with some avant sections that hint broadly on where he would be heading in the years down the road. This album was the culmiination of his early electronic period. The avant hints that were dropped in Sulle Corde di Aries are even more pronounced here, and possbily more fully realized. A incredible album.
The opening track, Goutez Et Comparez,…
La Norma Del Cielo (Volo Magico N. 2) LP
* High quality vinyl reissue with remastered sound. Gatefold Cover * Always influenced by eastern doctrines (he later became a Hare Krishna), Claudio Rocchi was also active in anti-war movements and always present at various italian pop festivals during the early 70's. His second album, released in 1971 and titled "Volo magico n.1", is usually considered as his best effort, in much the same style as Alan Sorrenti's "Aria" with a side-long title track and softer tracks on the other side. "Volo Ma…
Andre sulla luna
* Edition of 500, remastered * The mastermind behind the sublime Italian cosmic rock group Pierrot Lunaire, Arturo Stalteri's work both within Pierrot Lunaire and here on his solo debut (1979) occupies a perch in that rarified strata of Italian kosmiche godhead that also includes Franco Battiato, Franco Leprino, St. Tropez, Luciano Cilio and a mere handful of others. Absent the contributions that Gaio Chiocchio or vocalist Jacqueline Darby brought to bear in Pierrot Lunaire, keyboardist Stalteri…
Are(A)zione
* High quality vinyl reissue with remastered sound. Gatefold, sticker. 45th anniversary edition.* The 4th album from the band that I consider to be possibly the finest Italian progressive rock band of the 1970's, & certainly a band in the top tier of all early 1970's progressive bands worldwide! Area combined jazz/rock/stolen ethnic music (mostly from Eastern Europe and the Middle East)/the avant garde and more. Superb playing from all (vocals/organ, guitar, electric piano/synths, bass & drums).…