Detailed Reviews [Perizona Experiment - 2006 - "Ora E Sempre"]

Prolusion. "Ora E Sempre" is the debut release by Italian outfit PERIZONA EXPERIMENT. The lyrics are in both English and Italian and are often intermixed within the same tune.

Analysis. Only four of the thirteen tracks that this CD is made up of contain genuine vocals, namely the title number, La Via, Now Is Forever and Ora E Sempre Reprise, though just one distich is really sung on each of the latter two. All the other tunes feature only vocalizations and/or spoken words; thankfully only a couple of those are overloaded with narratives. Sound effects are part of each of the tracks as well, the number of those where the electronics (generally speaking) are used without a sense of proportion being relatively large. The structurally most stable pieces, Redento, the title track and Now is Forever, all belong exclusively to contemporary mainstream Prog, even though the former discovers anew one of the 'classic' landscapes Pink Floyd mapped when visiting "The Dark Side of the Moon". The other two alternate typically hard rock and - still rather heavy - space rock arrangements (mainly within their vocal sections), the latter resembling modern-day Porcupine Tree on all levels. L'Infingarda Pescara stands out for some remarkable female vocalizations in a clearly operatic fashion, hovering over the uncomplicated, yet beautiful instrumental patterns that I can't define otherwise than as a minimalist approach to classic Minimalist music. Ora e Sempre Reprise is similar, but is too short to take seriously. It is an everyday rather than a rare occurrence that the longest tracks turn out to be the highlights of a recording, and this CD is no exception to that rule. While being basically structured too, A Billion Dollar Crop and La Via are both much less transparent (at least to a progressive mind) than any of the other tracks, each revealing a dynamic, meaty, genuinely full-band sound with plodding drums, now drawing Space Metal, now an intense space rock jam where, though, all the solos were scrupulously composed before being performed. On the rest of the material, the group less often deploy drums, the rhythmic elements being at times supplied by something like looped electronic patterns. They also occasionally use sampled orchestral sounds, particularly effectively in the introductory section of L'Urlo. Unfortunately this third longest track on the CD is not interesting throughout, to say the least. The next-to-intro movement, where the operatic vocalization unfolds to the somber interplay between 'two' distorted bass solos, is still impressive, as also is the space rock jam in the finale, but the piece's core finds the group being completely focused on randomly eliciting various sounds and effects from their instruments. The remaining four cuts, Reversus, Jimi Love, Speranza and Redento, are all drenched with reverb and delay, with the quantity of reversed solos noticeably exceeding that of forwards ones. Psychedelicatessen? Finally to the opening track, A Te: there is only one slide guitar solo accompanied by sounds of wind, thunder and rain, plus narration.

Conclusion. Well, experiments remain just experiments even in Italy, said Vitaly :-). Joking apart, perhaps some of this disc's content lie beyond my comprehension, but anyway I believe that in its entirety, "Ora E Sempre" may please only those who are equally interested in Space Rock and psychedelic / experimental music.

VM: May 8, 2007