Claudio Fasoli

Genealogia (1974) is their third record and follows the classic Abbiamo Tutti un Blues da Piangere (1973). The 1974 album sounds to me more varied but unfortunately the band leaves behind any vocalising. On the other hand, fortunately, they manage to create an unique atmosphere with the addition of acoustic guitars and saxophones. The most interesting track is the fantastic self titled opener which sounds a lot like a medieval dance, somehow unusual in the jazz rock genre. Other highlights are the explosive Polaris with its light crescendo and excellent work on electric piano and the strong (In) Vino Veritas (the longest track of the album being over 6:40 mns) where they give you a taste of their electric guitar playing. Pretty good the harder sound of this intrument and the slightly dissonant arrengements. The most proggy performance here.

First album from the best Italian jazz-rock band (formed in Rome in 71), and the first of a few masterpieces in a row, all of them being distinctive from one another, something that’s not always evident in the JR/F style. Perigeo has their sound somewhere between Mwandishi, MD’s BB, Soft Machine, Nucleus and Iceberg. I have rarely seen such a bizarre/ugly artwork illustrating so well the music on the disc: if you can easily picture your head/brains after listen of this album through the headphone, chances are that it wouldn’t look too far away from this, maybe with added smoke coming out of the ears.