Psychedelia & Kraut / Italian Prog

CD sized paper sleeve album replica, with obi-strip and insert of notes mostly in Japanese. The album was recorded at the Catoca studio in Rome in a week, under the name of Etna, and contains some absolute pearls of Jazz Rock, with completely personal and absolutely Mediterranean flavors and musicality. The album is a perfect blend of rock, jazz, funky, free, played with great technique and vituosity, with many references to Bitches Brew era Miles Davis and early-70s Soft Machine In this album y…

*Comes in a CD-sized papersleeve album replica (gatefold), with obi-strip and insert of notes mostly in Japanese..2024 stock* Their only album, released in 1973. The sound of the band's stable ensemble, with mellotron, flute, piano and saxophone adding colour, creates a unique world view. A high standard of Italian progressive rock, with elements of classical music and jazz. First domestic paper-jacket reproduction of the variant jacket, SHM-CD, two bonus single tracks not included on the LP, an…

Delirium formed in 1970 in Genoa from the ashes of the beat group I Sagittari and released the following year their first 45 rpm “Canto di Osanna,” which immediately attracted the attentions of critics and public alike. In 1971 they debuted with “Dolce Acqua,” an album with wonderful atmospheres that already from an iconographic point of view is exceptionally presented, with a three-panel gatefold cover and a visionary painting among the most memorable of the Italian progressive rock scene. Musi…

New reissue in jewelcase cd format. The origins of the Genoese band Garybaldi date back to 1965, the year in which guitarist Pier Niccolò "Bambi" Fossati, together with Maurizio Cassinelli (drums), Angelo Traverso (bass) and Marco Zoccheddu (guitar), founded the Gleemen, authors of a self-titled LP released in 1970: an excellent album, still linked to certain 1960s sounds, but in which Bambi Fossati's Hendrixian style began to make itself heard. In 1971 the band changed its name to Garybaldi and…

Sicilians Flea debuted in 1971 under the name Flea on the Honey and an album indebted to the British pop-psych scene. Their ranks include brothers Agostino (drums) and Antonio Marangolo (vocals and keyboards), Carlo Pennisi (guitar, vocals) - all future members of the legendary Goblin! - and Elio Volpini (bass, vocals, saxophone), the latter later merged into L'Uovo di Colombo. If the debut album can be considered at least partly immature and derivative, however excellently produced and structur…

Hailing from Milan, the Alusa Fallax were born in 1969 out of the Adelfi, and released their first single in the same year, followed by a second shortly thereafter.Also in 1969, one of the two Guido in the lineup released a 45 under the name Guido degli Alusa Fallax ("Guardarti negli occhi" for the West Side). The group stayed together for many years, and their only album was released in 1974 by Fonit; a beautiful album, which went sadly unnoticed, in the best tradition of Italian progressive ro…

Hailing from the city of Ancona, Agorà was founded in 1974 and, thanks to a simple demo, managed to capture the attention of the organizers of the legendary Montreux festival (which many will remember for the famous fire that inspired Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water"). Their technical skills enabled the group to arrive prepared on stage at the event, and to perform an outstanding performance immortalized in this historic LP, which also constitutes the first case of an Italian band's recording …

Yellow vinyl / 180 grams, limited and numbered edition 300 copies. Following the tragic passing of the legendary Demetrio Stratos in 1979, the band Area wisely chose to forgo vocals (save for a few backing harmonies) on this album, as no one could ever replace the "maestro della voce". While this instrumental album may not push boundaries like its predecessors, it showcases a commendable blend of talent, with each musician shining brightly, particularly the remarkable bass work by Ares Tavolazzi…

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…

Temporary nicer price 700 copies, numbered edition. Clear Splatter Vinyl * “Crac!” is Area’s third album, released in 1974 and one of the strongest in their revolutionary canon of political artfulness. The previous album had received some mixed opinions after the explosive debut; Crac!  is a departure in style from both of those two records—in a way, more compact and sleek if that is possible to think of with Area. In that aspect, this is the most “accessible” version of the band, and not surpri…

*Comes in a CD-sized papersleeve album replica (gatefold), with obi-strip and insert of notes mostly in Japanese..2024 reissue* Legendary Italian dark sympho band Semiramis disappeared from the scene in 1973, leaving only one album. Named after an ancient Babylonian queen who is said to have created hanging gardens, and to have been a lover and cruel and inhumane, their sound can be described as dark symphonic. This long out-of-print album was, oddly enough, reunited and released a new album thi…

*Comes in a CD-sized papersleeve album replica (gatefold), with obi-strip and insert of notes mostly in Japanese..2024 stock* Tempi Dispari is a live album from 1974 by the Atomic System variation, a line up formed by guitarist Vittorio DeScalzi after three members left to form what would end up being Ibis. DeScalzi is aided by future Nova keyboards player Renato Rosset, who influences this variation in a more jazzy oriented way than any other New Trolls incarnation. Two side-long suites (includ…

* 300 copies, machine-printed numbered edition, 180gr vinyl *A beatiful reissue of Flavio Giurato's second album released in Italy in 1982, whose original edition usually sells for crazy prices on the second-hand market. This undervalued piece of work was perhaps too unusual during the time of release to get the full attention it deserves. The powerful image of the high diver re-emerging to the light and air after his performance orchestrates and subsumes the spirit of the whole work, in which s…

“I was born in the sun of a big country that free maybe never was, a big country of happy people, of big forests and big cities.” This is how Alberto Camerini's second album opens, and it is clear from the outset that one is dealing with something not easy to categorize, wild, but equally enveloping and fascinating. The overall sound, while diverse, retains its own continuity and comes across as a blend of Brazilian sounds, singer-songwriter songwriting, and DIY bedroom electronics, with Camerin…

Campo di Marte self-titled album is considered to be one of the best italian progressive records of the Seventies. This Italian prog classic is now available from AMS Records in a new limited deluxe LP reissue on 180gr. crystal vinyl. Campo di Marte was one of the many one-shot bands of the Italian prog scene of the early seventies. It was mainly the brainchild of composer and guitarist Enrico Rosa who gathered around him a bunch of talented and "classical trained" musicians like Alfredo Barducc…

* Deluxe LP reissue on 180 gr.  Clear Red vinyl * Third album, and Osanna best one, "Palepoli", from 1973 sees the band at their peak. The album only contains three long tracks and is housed in a nice gatefold whose inner picture is based on the band live stage background. 18 minutes of sheer heavy progdom is 'Oro Caldo', a raw jambalaya of moody atmosphere, experimental samplings, greasy garage dirt, and some flat out classic symphonic prog with a great-sounding mellotron - and other unique and…

* Deluxe LP reissue on 180 gr.  Clear Red vinyl * Another band from Naples, and also connected to Osanna, formed by Lino Vairetti and Massimo Guarino when that band split in 1974. But Città Frontale were in fact two different bands, the first one being active in 1970 before Osanna were formed with four of that later band members and Gianni Leone, that left to join Balletto di Bronzo. After first Osanna's split up in 1974, former members Lino Vairetti (vocals, guitar, mellotron, harmonica) and Ma…

*2023 stock* "Io come Io" could be regarded as the first Italian heavy metal effort. Ok, the sound results a little smoothed by a typical 1970s production, psychedelic influences can be easily found (most of all in the semi-power ballad "Non io" and the jazzy coda to "Io come Io") and the style of the band here is not so far from what Osage Tribe did the year before this album was released. Nevertheless, "Io come Io" has got such a real tension and straight-in-your-face approach you'd hardly exp…

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…

The long-standing Italian imprint, ARTIS Records, returns with one of its most ambitious releases to date, the towering “Opus Avantra Box Collection” by Opus Avantra , a stunning Deluxe Box set which includes no less than five LPs, six CDs, two 7" records, a DVD, a book and various ephemera, offering a thrilling retrospective of one of the most singular bands to emerge from Italy's movement of Prog and “Rock in Opposition”. Ambitious, experimental, and wholly uncategorizable in the ways that few…

* Yellow Vinyl * A great Area 7", quality replica of their L'Abbattimento Dello Zeppelin first single. Kick-ass free-form music recorded in the glorious year of 1973 in Milan, Italy. Blow-out with blasting sax solos played by Victor Edouard Busnello, and a kicking Demetrio Stratos on these two extraordinary tracks

* Clear Vinyl * Nice and quality reissue of shis Area's 7" was distributed in the left-winged movement/circuit, as the money from sales financed the legal costs of the trial against the Italian writer and anarchist Giovanni Marini, caught up in Italy's Strategy of Tension and unjustly convicted of the murder. The B-side, Citazione Da George L. Jackson is a strong denunciation against the inhumane conditions of prisoners and inspired by Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson, a com…

*2023 stock* Reissue of debut album from this rare Italian prog rock group with some British members originally released in 1970 on the RCA label.

This is an excellent progressive recording by the Italian Hero trio, originally released in 1974 for an obscure German label. A very pleasant music style overall, at times close to harder New Trolls, but mainly influenced by the hard-prog style of the British bands of the 70s released on the historic Vertigo label.  One of the very first releases on AMS, this album is now printed on LP for its first legit reissue on this format!

* 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…

Having had a good career as lyricist, singer-songwriter Gianni D'Errico, from Brindisi, released some singles in the early seventies that went unnoticed, and an album that was released only in 1976, after his death (in September 1975, run over by a car). The LP, Antico teatro da camera, is usually considered as one of the best prog-inclined albums by solo artists, and a hard to find one! Produced by Equipe 84 leader Maurizio Vandelli (who also acted as producer for the first album by Reale Accad…

** 2024 Repress, Yellow Vinyl **The Capsicum Red were a group of Italian progressive rock formed in 1970. The name Capsicum Red was chosen by the producer Pino Massara when he discovered Canzian, singer and guitarist of the Prototypes, and took him to the new label Bla Bla in 1970. To attract the interest of the press, the Capsicum Red were presented as a foreign group, and this caused some success for the first two 45 rpm. The group disbanded in 1973, when Red Canzian went for a short time in O…

*Official reissue with same original packaging of 1973* The neapolitan singer Gigi Pascal (real name Giancarlo D'Auria) had a long career as soloist in the melodic pop field, with some singles dating from the end of the sixties.
 As many others he was attracted by the newly born rock groups of the early 70's, and assembled one with the odd name Pop Compagnia Meccanica. This group had a similar story to Fabio Celi & gli Infermieri, also from Naples, as they released an album in 1973 that sounds l…

*2023 stock* The fact that this album features not only new material by Picchio dal Pozzo, but also incorporates posthumous parts by legendary Area frontman Demitrio Stratos, should be enough to spur the fans of either or both ensembles into action.

*2023 stock* Duo of Luciano Margorani and Piero Chianura on Auditorium Edizioni.

2023 restock This album represents the intersection of a number of trends going on in Italy at the time it was made. One was for rock bands to adopt Classical forms, sometimes even involving actual orchestras (New Trolls, Rovescio della Medaglia). Another was movies about gangsters. Another was for movies to have soundtracks by rock bands (Goblin and so on). So here you have a rock band doing music in a Classical form (prelude, theme, variations) with an orchestra as the soundtrack to a gangster…

* 2023 stock * “Senza timetable senza Bandiera” was releasedo on October 23, 1968. It is the long-distance debut of the New Trolls and is also the first concept album in the history of Italian rock. A work born from the encounter between a group then considered avant-garde, the New Trolls, a singer-songwriter used to going in a stubborn and opposite direction like Fabrizio De André, the visionary poet Riccardo Mannerini and Gian Piero Reverberi, a cultured musician and arranger and prepared. A c…

* 2023 stock * The Raccomandata Ricevuta Ritorno (also called RRR) were a Roman group dedicated to progressive rock in the years in which the genre, in Italy and in Europe, lived its best years with enthusiasm. Formed by Luciano Regoli (vocals, acoustic guitar), Francesco Froggio Francica (drums, percussion), Manlio Zacchia (bass), Damaso Grassi (flute, sax), Nanni Civitenga (guitar) and Stefano Piermarioli (keyboards) they released only one album in 1972 - "Per un mondo di Cristallo" - and then…

* 2023 stock * That the vast majority of Italian prog groups, in the '70s, was inspired by the great English groups is a certain fact. But there are many groups that have been able to produce discs with personal elements, thanks to the use of warm Mediterranean sounds, typical traditional classicisms and, above all, an Italian feeling, a touch that distinguishes the product. The result was that of a total and worldwide appreciation, so as to make the Italian progressive almost a genre in itself.…

*2023 stock* Another very important chapter of Italian progressive rock must be dedicated to the Roman Metamorfosi, an interesting four-piece group, which mainly revolved around the figure of the excellent keyboardist Enrico Olivieri, accompanied by the singer and flautist Jimmy Spitaleri, by the interesting bassist and guitarist Roberto Turbitosi and by the drummer Gianluca Herygers. Inferno is their second album and comes out in 1973 for the Vedette record company. It is a very interesting rei…

Temporary nicer price  * 500 copies, 180 gr. Orange vinyl * Electric Frankenstein was the solo project of the multi instrumentalist Paolo Tofani who is best known for his work with the band Area. Tofani plays all the instruments by himself on this lone Electric Frankenstein album. The result is a highly satisfying mix of psychedelia and progressive rock, a guitar extravaganza with long spacey guitar solos by Tofani and all the instruments played by himself, the album will appeal to acid-psych lo…

Temporary nicer price * 500 numbered copies, 180 gr. Red vinyl, numbered edition * Gioia e Rivoluzione is the third compilation of the Jazz fusion band Area. This album concentrates exclusively on the albums released on the Cramps label. Just like the first compilation "Anto/Logicamente", this album contains "Citazione da George L. Jackson", the non-LP b-side of "L'internazionale". "L'Internazionale" appears as well, but instead of the studio version released on the single (which has only re-app…

* 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.…

**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…

"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…