DA NESSUN LUOGO

PENSIERO NOMADE's fifth album is the first one to feature vocals, but it's also otherwise more (art) rock oriented than the early albums with poetic, jazzy ambience. The leader and producer Salvo Lazzara (guitars, synth guitar, bass, programming) has written the lyrics and composed the songs with Andrea Pavoni, and the three instrumentals by himself. The line-up of six players plus Michela Botti on vocals is by far the largest in the band's history.

Personally, I clearly prefer the acoustically oriented, sensitive instrumental approach of albums such as Imperfetta Solitudine (and others that I'll review in time...), but probably many progheads would consider Da Nessun Luogo (= From Nowhere) as a major leap forward into a good direction. Indeed, there's already one 5-star rating. The atmosphere is rather dark-toned and slightly distracted. The sound contains a deep, roaring bass, some cool trumpet and lots of cold-hearted programming. There's some similarity with the colder tracks of the 90's PETER GABRIEL.

The female voice sounds pretty good per se, but because of the general mood, it is not there to add any warmth. In fact, the more central the vocals are, the more hostile the music gets. I wish I understood Italian to have a better access to the songs and the whole album... But before the vocals appear in the first place, there are two quite interesting instrumentals balanced between BRIAN ENO-ish ambient and hectic art rock. The third instrumental is 'L'Apparente allegria' which has a Crimsonesque, weird atmosphere. All in all, this album is too cold and alienated for my taste.