Premiata Fornaria

This album marked a continued maturing of both PFM's style and their presence in the Anglophone market. It benefits from Premoli's high-speed Hammond organ and synth runs on such all-out prog assaults as the conclusion of "From Under," as well as Mussida's gentle acoustic guitar lines on slower numbers like "Harlequin." The weak point, as in some of PFM's other productions, is in the vocals…

As PFM's work showed the increasing influence of electric jazz, the releases showed more impressive chops and yet also became less compelling to listen to. Jet Lag is the first release of theirs to cross this line, as it's noticeably less enjoyable than the previous year's Chocolate Kings…

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...

Premiata Forneria Marconi's third Italian album (their fourth if one counts the 1973 release Photos of Ghosts, the English version of Per un Amico) came out shortly before ELP's Manticore imprint released its English version under the title The World Became the World. Unless lyrics sung in a language other than English is aggravating to you, by all means prefer the original version. Like for Banco del Mutuo Soccorso and Le Orme, the music of PFM is impregnated with the lyricism of the Italian language. The most confusing of the group's first three LPs, L'Isola di Niente (The Island of Nothing) sees the group pushing its music to a new level of complexity, while giving a first hint at their later jazz-rock orientation. ..

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. There are still places where the band's lyrical side, strongly in evidence throughout Photos of Ghosts, comes through, especially on the softer tunes such as "Just Look Away."…

As PFM's work showed the increasing influence of electric jazz, the releases showed more impressive chops and yet also became less compelling to listen to. Jet Lag is the first release of theirs to cross this line, as it's noticeably less enjoyable than the previous year's Chocolate Kings…

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…

Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM) is an Italian progressive rock band founded in 1970 which continues to the present day. They were the first Italian group to have success internationally. The group recorded five albums with English lyrics between 1973 and 1977. During this period they entered both the British and American charts. They also had several successful European and American tours, playing at the popular Reading Festival in England and on a very popular national television program in the United States. PFM introduced new sounds, such as the synthesizer, to the Italian musical world. They were also among the first to combine symphonic classical and traditional Italian musical influences in a rock music context. Such innovations and their longevity have earned PFM a place among the most important bands in the Progressive rock genre.