Premiata Fornaria

PFM were never a group prone to stand still, or repeat themselves from one project to another. Their second international album release, The World Became the World, was a case in point – rather than continuing in the same precise direction as its predecessor, Photos of Ghosts (1973), it presented a serious challenge to their existing fans even as it pushed the envelope of their sound…

By the time of this album's release in 77, PFM had become a fairly different group than they had started out as and their influences had changed dramatically: gone are the Crimson ELP Genesis traits, and incoming are the GG and much jazzier inflections…

2010 release from the Italian Prog legends. To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the release of their album La Buona Novella, PFM has decided to revisit the album they had made in collaboration with Fabrizio de Andre'. La Buona Novella a.a. 2010 does not only contain new arrangements but also new music written specially for this occasion…

This is PFM's brilliant follow-up to Storia di un Minuto, and both albums are considered progressive rock classics, for good reason. The diversity, complexity, and integrity of the music here is as fine as anything produced during the early '70s from other prog rock giants such as Yes, Genesis, and King Crimson…

It's kinda hard to be into Progressive Rock and not be aware of Premiata Forneria Marconi. This classic Italian band was formed more than 40 years ago and it is still running the long run!…

Premiata Forneria Marconi is considered to be the best Italian progressive rock band ever. PFM recorded excellent progressive rock in the seventies as we can hear on albums as Photos Of Ghosts (1973), The World Became The World (1974) and Chocolate Kings (1975). During the golden era of prog rock they also assisted a good friend who made music with hardly any relation with their own musical style…

La fedeltà premiata (Fidelity Rewarded) is an opera in three acts by Joseph Haydn first performed at Eszterháza on 25 February 1781 to celebrate the reopening of the court theatre after a fire. It was revised for a new version first performed in 1782. The main opera house adjoining the palace at Eszterháza had been destroyed by fire in November 1779; La fedeltà premiata, composed in 1780, inaugurated the new state-of-the-art theatre in the grounds which opened after major delays 15 months later...

PFM were already Italy's premiere progressive rock band when Emerson, Lake & Palmer signed them to the British trio's own Manticore label in 1972 and turned to King Crimson alumnus Peter Sinfield to write English-language words (sung phonetically) for this, the Italian group's debut international release. A phantasmagorical creation, Photos of Ghosts is filled with lush melodies and rich musical textures, all wrapped around Sinfield's frequently surreal lyrics, which seem an extension of some of his better work from King Crimson's Lizard and Islands albums…

This excellent live recording served as my introduction to the wonderful Italian-flavoured progressive rock of PFM back in '74. The songs represented are all superlative, and the musicianship is amazing…