Coscienza Zeno

Whether it's the luscious all instrumental four-album `Seasons' cycle or bombastic classical- influenced rock-operas such as `The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' and its live interpretation `Alive in Theatre', Hostsonaten has always been the most purely symphonic project modern Italian progressive music icon Fabio Zuffanti is involved in, and he and his music collaborators here return in 2016 with `Symphony N. 1: Cupid and Psyche'. Zuffanti and his musical friends, including La Coscienza di Zeno's keyboardist Luca Scherani, Laura Marsano on classical and electric guitars, Paolo `Paolo' Tixi on drums and Danielle Sollo on fretted and fretless bass, are backed up by multi- member brass and woodwind sections as well as a string quartet, and without a doubt they've delivered one of the most proudly grandiose, extravagant and bombastic symphonic Italian works of the year!

After having revisited Dante's "Divine Comedy" ala Progressive rock, Finnish fanzine Colossus and French label Musea dig deeper into Italian literature of the Renaissance with another classic: Giovanni Boccaccio's "Decameron". Many bands (Nexus, Phideaux, Daal, The Samurai of Prog, Jukka Kulju, Senogul and others) worked hard on that beutiful four-CDs album, worth listening.