MI CHIAMO PIERO

This was an Italiian trio, formed by musicians from Voghera, namely Piero Cairo (keyboards, vocals), Ezio Cristiani (vocals, guitar, flute) and Tino Negri (vocals, bass).They released a single album in 1972 on Rare Records, a division of the French Barclay, that had an office in Milan.All compositions are written by Cairo and two more persons under the names of G.Bertero and V.Buonassisi, while the sound engineer was Gianluigi Pezzera, who performed later under the Le Groupe X moniker.The album features also guest performances by Roberto Ferracin on organ and Sergio Chiesa on drums.

Named ''Carta d'identità n°1: mi chiamo Piero'' (''Identity card: my name is Piero'') and considering Cairo's deep involvement in the compositions, there is a strong possibility the album to have an autobiographical character, divided in 12 short pieces.Soundwise this is somewhere between soft Symphonic Rock and typical period Singer/Songwriter stylings with some Library Music injections.The music is heavily based on keyboards and acoustic instruments, having an slight folky enviroment, flavored by discreet Classical and Fusion influences.Harsichord, piano, organ and synthesizer appear occasionally and co-exist next to the acoustic guitars and flutes to produce soft, emotional music with limited instrumental parts but some very good singing lines.Imagine BLOCCO MENTALE with a less proggy and electric sound to get the picture.The atmosphere is pastoral and sensitive with decent songwriting, while there are a few piano dissonances and weird keyboard experiments (oscillators maybe) to be found.The result is not always convincing, hurt by a questionable recording quality and the secure path of pastoral Prog music with strong Pop colors.

The trio was not short-lived as you would expect, guitarist Graziano Binda refers to a collaboration he had with Piero Ezio e Tino in 1975, so they were around for at least three years.After their demise Cairo pursued a career within the Disco Music circles.

Obscure work of calm, vocal-based Italian Prog, very hard to be found in its original form.Dedicated mainly to fans of under-the-radar Italian releases and worldwide Prog collectors...2.5 stars.