Once New Trolls ended up all the legal proceedings that led them to split into many different musical strands and other projects (Ibis, N.T. Atomic System, Tritons - real and fake ones -, Johnny from Tritons, and so on…), they reunited with “Concerto grosso n. 2”, published several reprints, live albums and compilations, and even entered the dance trend of the time with “Aldebaran” (1978), naturally followed by the Bee Gees-like “New Trolls” (1979), a.k.a. “La Barchetta” from its cover image. In 1981, with a line-up that reduced from 6 to 4 elements due to D’Adamo (bassist and lyricist) and Usai (keyboardist, who started an unsuccessful solo career), De Scalzi, Di Palo (the new bass player), Belloni (lead guitarist) and Belleno wrote “FS”, a back-to-the roots release, even in the shape of a concept album…
The overriding impression when listening to this album is of the consummate musicianship. Renato Rossert's piano and other keyboard work is superb, but then the other band members all contribute evenly. Even the drums are noticeably good. And the keyboards are sublime in places. Overall, the album would be a good addition to any Prog lover's collection.
Released at a time when Vittorio de Scalzi was not sure if he was able to use the New Trolls name, so the original LP was released simply as N.T. Atomic System. What happened was, shortly after the release of UT at the closing weeks of 1972, there was a split in the band. Vittorio de Scalzi wanted the band to go the prog rock route, which Nico di Palo wanted the band to go the hard rock direction…
Fourteen tracks cover the period between 1967-1972. The 15th track, La Nella Casa Dell'Angelo is actually from 1981.
Unique in the history of Italian progressive music, New Trolls were leaders and were for a time the top band in Italy. In 1973, New Trolls split into two camps, the hard-rocking Ibis and the symphonic-oriented New Trolls Atomic System. They crossed many different permutations of line-up changes, many musical stylings… and great hits, passing through beat, pop ballads, progressive rock works, hard rock, and melodic pop followed groups like Genesis and PFM.
This was the 1976 attempt by the New Trolls to repeat the success of their 1971 album "Concerto Grosso Per I New Trolls" (sometimes referred to as 'Concerto Grosso No. 1').
While the 'concerto grosso' on the 1971 album has four movements (well, three really: three rock-classical fusion pieces plus a coda that rehashes the second movement's theme in the style of Hendrix), the 'concerto grosso' on "Concerto Grosso No. 2" has three movements, the remaining five tracks on the album not being part of it.
The 1971 album's concerto has a Vivaldi feel to it, whereas this album's concerto has a hint of the Bach or Mozart about it, plus a slight classical Spanish feel in the third movement…
Unique in the history of Italian progressive music, New Trolls were leaders and were for a time the top band in Italy. In 1973, New Trolls split into two camps, the hard-rocking IBIS and the symphonic-oriented New Trolls Atonic System. They crossed many different permutations of line-up changes, many musical stylings… and great hits, passing through beat, pop ballads, progressive rock works, hard rock, and melodic pop followed groups like Genesis and PFM.
"Tempi Dispari" is a magical live album from 1974 by the Atomic System variation of The New Trolls, led by guitarist Vittorio De Scalzi after three members left to form what would end up being Ibis. De Scalzi is joined by future Nova keyboards player Renato Rosset, who influences this variation in a more jazzy oriented way than any other New Trolls incarnation. The band play here two side-long suites with side 1 really exploring the Jazz theme and side 2 including a theme from "Concerto Grosso 1" of excellent and innovative music with very heavy Miles Davis-like jazz prog rock influences.
The last album of UT New Trolls played in full on stage, with a special closing song. The energy of the concert, the songs "is" and the artistic and human alchemy the band immortalized in 11 live tracks…
Regarding their progressive face, New Trolls were undoubtfully on a decline in late-70's, despite also recruiting Nuova Idea's keyboardist Giorgio Usai in 1978.The group released series of average Pop Rock albums until the early-90's, when they finally spliy up.Various incarnations appeared later, like Vittorio De Scalzi's New Trolls, Il Mito dei New Trolls and Il Cuore dei New Trolls, all of them played live in several occasions and were led by different ex-members of the group.Eventually in 2007 De Scalzi reunited with Nico Di Palo and a rather fresh line-up with Alfio Vitanza (drums, vocals), Andrea Maddalone and Mauro Sposito (guitars, vocals), all members of Vittorio De Scalzi's New Trolls in early-00's, and Francesco Bellia (bass, vocals).Originally established as a live act, the brand New Trolls formation finally put up a third chapter in the ''Concerto grosso'' series, entitled ''The seven seasons'', originally released as an indepedent album…