Detailed Reviews [Notturno Concertante - 2002 - "Riscrivere il Passato"]

Notturno Concertante (Italy) - 2002 - "Riscrivere il Passato"
(46 min, "Mellow")

Prologue. Until now, I've never heard the music of Notturno Concertanto. In fact, Mellow Records will release the "Riscrivere il Passato" album in a month or so. So here is just the pre-production review of this album.

The Album. As a whole, the music that is presented on this album can be defined as a melodious blend of Neo and Classic Symphonic Progressive with quite accessible and beautiful arrangements. It should seem that all of the fifteen tracks that are featured on "Riscrivere il Passato", were created within the framework of a unified stylistics. In fact, while most of them are just slightly different among themselves, Giga, If the Winter Had Its Spirit, and La danza (tracks 1, 8, & 10) are definitely of another story. The first two of these instrumental compositions represent nothing else but a real Prog-tinged Folk Rock, which is based on either English or Irish folk music. The last of them, on which the accordion plays a prominent role, reminds me of some of one East European folk music. All twelve of the remaining tracks have a distinct Italian feel to them. As well as three compositions that I've just depicted, Perversi, Electric Rain, Erewhon, Flood of Tears, Six of the Best, and So Many Things (tracks 2, 7, 11, 14, 4, & 13 respectively) are also instrumentals, which were performed by the band along with guest musicians. A wonderful female vocalize is featured on both of the latter tracks. Arrangements are usually lushly orchestrated. Most of them consist of diverse interplay between passages of acoustic and classical guitars and solos of synthesizers and violins. A few tracks contain passages of piano and solos of electric guitar. The work of the rhythm section is very diverse and often powerful, so this album really rocks sometimes. Io ti amo, La sitta nuovo, Gente dietro la finestra, and Lezioni di Vita (tracks 3, 6, 9, & 12) are the songs with lyrics in Italian. Sung by a male vocalist, they are full of warmth and beauty, which are typical for Italian music in general. All of the instrumental arrangements that are featured these songs are in the vein of those instrumental pieces that were performed by the band as a whole, excluding the folksy ones. Both of the remaining instrumentals, En clave de Sol and La luce della notte (tracks 5 & 15), consist of interplay between passages of classical guitar and lush orchestrations.

Summary. While in my view Notturno Concertante's "Riscrivere il Passato" isn't as perfect as, for example, "The Ring of Earthly Lights" by their compatriots Eris Pluvia, this is on the whole a very good album. I am sure that most of the connoisseurs of Italian Prog will be satisfied with it as a whole, including even those three songs that feature 'alien' folk motifs. After all, musically, "Riscrivere il Passato" is beautiful from the first to the last note. Finally, in fact, there are 9 tracks more on the CD-R, which I received from the band. They aren't included in the "Riscrivere il Passato" album and you can download them and a lot of Notturno Concertanto's other unreleased tracks for free here.

VM. March 15, 2002