Le Orme Dei Templari

Costituito ai tempi delle Crociate per proteggere il Santo Sepolcro, l'Ordine dei Templari era diventato via via sempre più potente e ricchissimo. Il suo prestigio e la sua influenza avevano raggiunto proporzioni smisurate. Ma nelle alterne vicende della storia, i monaci guerrieri, campioni di tante celebrate imprese in Terra Santa, dovettero pagare a caro prezzo la loro fortuna: l'invidia e il risentimento che suscitarono in chi, in Europa, deteneva il potere degenerarono presto in un'aperta ostilità. …

Le Orme ("The Footprints") is an Italian psychedelic and progressive rock band formed in 1966 in Marghera (Venice).
Their first record was for the tiny Car Juke Box label, in 1968.
They earned two gold albums, a discography critic award, an England Tour. Le Orme's most famous work, the concept album Felona e Sorona, was issued in English in collaboration with Peter Hammill of Van der Graaf Generator.
Le Orme's last three works (Il fiume, Elementi and L'infinito) show a return to a classic progressive sound, and form somewhat of a trilogy pivoting on the "becoming" of the human being.

L'infinito is the final installment of the trilogy that Le Orme began with Il Fiume. In terms of style, it closely mimics Elementi, including the Satriani style guitar early on and the sitar around the middle. In terms of quality, it's perhaps half a notch below Elementi, but still a pretty good album. Aldo Tagliapietra makes a thematic return to Indian spirituality, with tracks like "Shanti" and a roadsign on the cover with an OM symbol on it. Incidentally, the Paul Whitehead cover is again moderately clever, but this time more visually appealing to me…

At first listen, this seems a more experimental, obtuse follow-up to the lauded 'Felona E Sorona' album. After becoming more familiar with it, I can only figure it's due to the lack of cohesiveness between tracks. 'Felona E Sorona' had a certain flow because, not only was it a concept album, it was an especially well-written one. 'Contrappunti' simply seems like an unrelated series of songs, and it's not to be faulted for that, because what you get here are some of Le Orme's mightiest compositions…