Il Giardino Onirico are a rather new Italian progressive rock band formed in September 2008 when keyboard player Emanuele 'Vastitas' Telli, guitarist Stefano Avigliana, bassist Ettore Mazzarini and drummer Massimo Moscatelli decided to make music together. After their first composition Complesso K, a shifting suite containing a variety of visions, things started to work out positive for them. In 2009 they were awarded as the winners of the Salefino Rock Festival, a music contest for emerging bands. At the time Dario Hakim joined the band as the generator of sound effects and ambient textures. With the addition of poet, painter and photographer Marco Marini as narrative voice, the line up-was completed and they could work on the recordings of a full-length debut album called Perigeo, which was released in 2012. This debut album can be seen as a professional record that seems to have a musical concept as well, but unfortunately I neither could discover the concept, the story nor the theme. My knowledge of the Italian isn't good enough to understand the short narrative parts introducing all tracks. However, the music didn't have any secrets for me. Right from the start the five instrumental tracks, only containing some wordless vocals by the soprano voice of guest singer Elisabetta Marchetti, revealed its influences. On Utopia Planitia for example they seem to be strongly inspired by the music of Pink Floyd. On Agosto the influences of the Polish band Riverside shine through, but also Porcupine Tree was probably important as a reference as I noticed on Amigdala. Also traces of other Italian progressive rock acts such as Moongarden can be recognized as you can hear on B.S.D. and several other tracks. The musicianship of the band members is rather good, but throughout the album one musician has a dominant role, namely bassist Ettore Mazzarini. He has a very melodic way of playing the bass. Guitarist Stefano Avigliana included an amazing solo on the title track and final track of the album just to make sure that it ends in style. With Perigeo Il Giardino Onirico recorded an album without having any weak compositions. All tracks sound excellent, so there are no negative remarks to be made about this album. People who enjoy the music recorded by the above-mentioned acts will certainly have a great time while listening to Perigeo. Well done and I truly hope that the band will continue with recording this kind of music! **** Henri Strik (edited by Peter Willemsen) Where to buy? |
