Mangala Vallis

Voices is the fourth album by the Italian new prog band MANGALA VALLIS. An album that, once again, moves out of the path marked by the previous one, this happens because every creation of the band is the result of an ever changing journey, accelerated , mostly, by the events that occur inside the same band. It happened that the old members Cavalli Cocchi, Consolini, Milazzo and Tiranti were joined by an old friend of the band, Gianfranco Fornaciari, as a keyboard player and song writer.

Seven prog bands from the region of Emilia, Italy, contribute to this unique rock oper about the historical events involving the ancient castle of Canossa, a medieval feud of northern Italy.

Seven years after "Licanthrope", all is set for the release of "Microsolco", the highly anticipated new album of new prog band Mangala Vallis. A long span of time, during which many things have happened such as line-up changes, with the exit from the band of Bernardo Lanzetti (which continues his artistic collaboration with Gigi Cavalli Cocchi and Cristiano Roversi on the CCLR project) and Riccardo Sgavetti (bass player), and the arrival of Roberto Tiranti, extraordinarily gifted singer and bassist and with a rich pedigree (New Trolls, Labyrinth, Ian Paice and Glenn Hughes).

Lycanthrope is Mangala Vallis sophmore release and shows the band developing their own sound even more than on their already excellent debut. Not that they are dropping out all their 70's explicit references: in fact, right on the starting of this CD you will hear hints of Genesis Watcher Of The Skies-like mellotron, ELP's style Hammond organ and mini mogg riffs and, later on, some brief, but very familiar Steve Howe's guitar lines. But again this is less a case of copycats and more of a homage to their heroes. This disc is very much Mangala Vallis sound, even if soaked with that era influences.

"The Book of Dream" is dedicated to the memory of Jules Verne. While this is the debut album by the band called Mangala Vallis, its members are by no mean novices on the Progressive Rock scene.

The first thing that strikes the listener of Acqua Fragile's second and final album, 1974's Mass Media Stars, is that singer Bernardo Lanzetti sounds remarkably like Peter Gabriel. These six lengthy songs would sound more than a little like Selling England By the Pound-era Genesis even without that vocal similarity, however.

This is the debut album by gentle Italian progressive-rockers Acqua Fragile, featuring the Genesis-like "Science Fiction Suite." Where most Italian progressive rock favors the overblown symphonic tendencies of the music's Emerson, Lake & Palmer axis, the comparatively unassuming Acqua Fragile is a much more gentle affair. Think Gentle Giant or the more lyrical moments of early Yes or Renaissance. (It will be almost impossible not to think of early Genesis; singer Bernardo Lanzetti sounds frighteningly similar to Peter Gabriel, especially on the opening "Morning Comes," which would not sound out of place on Trespass or Nursery Cryme.)

After 5,000 concerts around the world, PFM feel the need and the desire to return to the Great Mother Classical music, where the band and the orchestra play respectful of their diversity. The performance of the songs takes advantage of a reduction of the original score, with inserts of original music specially created by PFM. The arrangements do not follow a fixed pattern. PFM is entrusted to the imaginative power of the original writing of the piece, integrating it with its contemporary vision. The choice of the authors so diverse one to each other (Mozart, Verdi, Saint Saens, Prokofiev, Rossini, Dvorak, etc..) has allowed the band to work on a wide range of expressive possibilities.

Horizontal Rain è la pioggia che ci arriva addosso, in piena faccia, sorprendendoci e disorientandoci, stimolandoci a nuove strategie: un album di avventure musicali diverse e imprevedibili con cui Bernardo Lanzetti celebra, con 120 brani/composizioni all’attivo, una carriera pazzesca e numeri importanti: Horizontal Rain è composto di 9 brani di cui 8 in inglese (2 testi scritti dall’amico Peter Jack Marmot, wordsmith e coach manager tra Londra e Marbella) 1 in italiano, Ero un num Ero (costruito su una elementare e casuale progressione numerica, come a dimostrare che la sbandierata, cosiddetta, “ispirazione”, a volte, può essere solo una favola per ingannare l’ascoltatore sprovveduto).