Oldish Psych and Prog

genre: fusion, jazzy prog
country: italy
quality : lossless (WavPack, cue, log, booklet scans)
time: 1:11'58"
size: 385 mb
issue: 1993, recorded '77

ItalianProg:
Along with Museo Rosenbach, Celeste were born from the ashes of the legendary Il Sistema, a band from Sanremo whose only posthumous released recordings don't give a real idea of what they were.
Formed by drummer Ciro Perrino and sax player Leonardo Lagorio (who had played with Museo Rosenbach in their early days) this four piece went in a totally different direction from their beginnings, playing a mostly acoustic, dreamy and delicate prog. A studio group, they had a very limited live experience.
Their first album, Celeste, also known as Principe di un giorno, was released by the small Grog label only in 1976, but the tracks had been composed in 1973 and recorded in 1974. It contains seven tracks, with pastoral lyrics and a style not far from the softer side of early King Crimson.
A second album, recorded in 1977, was released in 1991 by Mellow with the obvious title of Celeste II. Closer to jazz-rock and very far from their debut album, this suffers from poor quality and unfinished recordings.
Another album, born as a soundtrack and called I suoni in una sfera was also released in 1992, more similar to their first work and including two songs also on Principe di un giorno.
After the band split Ciro Perrino played with St.Tropez (that also included Celeste bass player Battaglia), Compagnia Digitale and SNC and released a solo album (Solare in 1980), before founding with Mauro Moroni the praiseworthy Mellow label, so important during the years for the world diffusion of the Italian prog.


1. Il giardino armonico (2:37)
2. Bassa marea (5:03)
3. Un mazzo di ortiche (13:12)
4. Setteottavi (10:08)
5. All'ombra di un fungo (8:21)
6. La danza del mare - Parte I/II (14:42)
7. Slancio dell'immaginazione (2:55)
8. Un'anima nell'universo (2:21)
9. Nodissea (3:21)
10. Ala del pensiero (3:06)
11. Lontano profondo (3:51)
12. Il giardino armonico - Ripresa (2:20)


- Giorgio Battaglia / bass
- Francesco Di Masi / drums
- Loenardo Lagorio / sax, flute, keyboards
- Ciro Perrino / Mellotron, flute, drums, vocals percussions
- Mariano Schiavolini / guitars, keyboards

DDUniverse:
Hauntingly beautiful mellotron laden progressive rock with soft instrumental accompaniment throughout. In sharp contrast to their first masterpiece, "Second Plus" carries a much more "jazz-like" (loads of jazzy sax) approach and at times has a more random feel. Songs are generally shorter in length with 3 epic tracks (10, 13 and 15 minutes long). Although "Second Plus" is not as "Picture perfect" as their first release, it is still quite overly inspiring music with some delicious melodies and mellotron passages. I will admit that this album did take a little bit of time for me to warm up to, but without hesitation I recommend this album to all lovers of Italian prog.


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