Italian Experimental Progressive
Prati Bagnati del Monte Analogo
2023 Repress. Of all the releases on Italy's legendary Cramps Records, Raul Lovisoni and Francesco Messina's seminal LP from 1979 has long remained among the most beloved. Prati Bagnati Del Monte Analogo not only introduced the world to the work of two gifted composers, but also is notable for being produced by electronic pioneer Franco Battiato. A sister album to Prati Bagnati would be Giusto Pio's breathtaking Motore Immobile, likewise graced with the maestro's gentle hand around the same time…
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, …
Picchio Dal Pozzo
2022 Repress. "One of the most original, impressive and highly respected of all the experimental groups to have come out of Italy in the 1970s." - Chris Cutler. "Picchio dal Pozzo can be considered as the definitive 'Canterbury' inspired band, coming from Italy's 1970s progressive rock scene. Their 1976 debut album shows an incredibly rich sound texture, made out of some peculiar musical ingredients. Oblique tunes and liquid harmonies, airy flutes, crispy horns, loads of electric piano, fuzz bas…
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…
Il Grande Mare Che Avremmo Traversato
* 300 copies, 180 gr black vinyl * Among the many ones who left their band to pursue a solo career in the '70s we find Ivano Fossati. In 1972 his group Delirium had become very popular, thanks to 'Jesahel,' the song they presented at the Sanremo Festival in February: it became a real chart-hit 45 RPM, a very unusual thing for a progressive rock band. But commercial success didn't stop Fossati from leaving Delirium and releasing in 1973 his debut album, under the name of Alberto Ivano Fossati - I…
Azimut
* 500 copies. 180 gr. Red vinyl, 50th anniversary edition * First album from the one of the best Italian jazz-rock band (formed in Rome in 71), and the first of a few masterpieces in a row, all of them being distinctive from one another. Perigeo has their sound somewhere between Free Jazz, Soft Machine, Nucleus and Miles Davis' Bitches Brew period. Rising on spacey noises, the sublime Posto Di Non Dove starts to grab you with a quiet electric piano over a Floyd-like organ and Tommaso’s superb …
Galaxy My Dear
Synthesizer king J.B. Banfi, a.k.a. Giuseppe 'Baffo' Banfi, hit the record market with the great italian prog rock outfit Biglietto per l'Inferno who released a legendary LP in 1974 on Trident and have been reivindicated in several occasions since with the release of lost recordings from the era as well as unearthing an unreleased 1974 live album. The band existed between 1972 and 1975, and had both Pilly Cossa on Hammond doing the virtuoso work and Baffo's keyboard explorations adding sound tex…
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…
Vietato Ai Minori Di 18 Anni?
Limited Time Offer Deluxe ltd. ed. LP edition with original gatefold cover artwork and 180 gr. Clear Red Vinyl. One of the best italian progressive rock/experimental album released in Italy "Vietato ai minori di 18 anni?" is Jumbo's third album from 1973, is their most ambitious work, containing strong lyrics and fragments of avantgarde-inspired music, with the help of Franco Battiato's great VCS3 oscillators and Lino Capra Vaccina's (of Aktuala fame) bells and chimes' sinister tolling. Long spa…
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 …