Detailed Reviews [Ancestry - 2003 - "Descendenze"]

Prolusion. I haven't heard of Ancestry before. Most likely, "Descendenze" is the debut album by this Italian band.

Synopsis. Overall, "Descendanze" is an album of a unified stylistic concept representing Classic Symphonic Art-Rock of a moderate complexity, and the stylistic coherence is the central hallmark of it. Melodic, tasteful, purely symphonic and definitely romantic in character, this music is inspired by both of the classic English and Italian Progressive in general and Yes in particular. The album's 'boundary' tracks: the sidelong Colori dell'eta Sorgente and the 12-minute Verso l'Esterno feature broad instrumental landscapes consisting of diverse and inventive interplay between all of the main soloing instruments: synthesizer and piano, electric, acoustic, and bass guitar. Even though the arrangements here, as well as on Nuova Opera and Stanza Della Terra (2 & 3), are for the most part soft and quiet, frequent changes of a musical direction make them unpredictable and very interesting. Fabrizio Sicuteri is not only the masterful keyboard player, but also a great singer with a very warm voice, so the vocal palette of each of the aforementioned four songs (lyrics are in Italian) is as beautiful as the instrumental one. The music on both of the remaining tracks: Oasi and Labirinto (4 & 5) can be described as a real Mellow Symphonic Art-Rock. Both of these present the vocal and narrative talents of guitarist Fabio Venturini, the timbre of voice of whom is much lower than that of Sicuteri.

Conclusion. All of the songs on "Descendanze" are excellent, though of course, such large-scaled arrangements as those on both of the epics on the album are especially attractive. This is a strong and in many ways outstanding debut 'covering' interests of all sorts of the lovers of Symphonic Progressive.

VM: May 15, 2003