IL DADO È TRATTO

Since 2013, Sergio Caleca has been releasing solo albums, and "Il Dado è Tratto", released in February 2019 is his 6th studio album released under the name "Habelard2" which is listed as a Crossover Prog project, thus his music is varied under this project name. He has been a composer since 1977 and has had experience playing with other progressive bands, and, most recently, with the RPI band from Milano, Italy, "Ad Maiora". He is a multi-instrumentalist playing keyboard, guitar and bass. He plays all the instruments on this album, which is entirely instrumental. But even so, it is full of variety touching on several styles.

"Bad Shape" starts off with acoustic guitar and drums which lay the foundation for the lilting synths and either flutes or a reed effect that provide the melodic line. The sound is along the lines of a folk style, but the synths lead the melody. At first the melody is simple, but later it becomes more complex as the piano, guitar, mellotron and drums establish an odd meter, but it eventually goes back to a standard meter. The sound is pleasant, pastoral, folkish and sometimes complex.

"Carne, Ingranaggi, Tibie e Pulegge" begins with all synths and occasional cymbal rolls making it sound like electronic music. This changes when drums come in at 2 minutes along with bass and a guitar playing arpeggio riffs. Later, you get a synthesized orchestra and organ as the tempo picks up a bit. This is a nice and relaxing track that stays mostly simple and soft with a few crescendos to keep it all moving forward.

"Idiosincrasia" is a bit harder and much more suited for Rock Progressivo Italiano. It is quite dynamic in its meter changes and complex rhythms. The tone is usually quite dark and sinister utilizing mostly guitars, but also some jazzy piano and drums. Synths are also used later mostly for anchoring the track.

The next three tracks are below the 6 minute mark where the previous tracks were longer than this. "Il Pianto della Iena" has a progressive jazz foundation mostly created by piano and other keyboards and a melodic line created by synthesizer. It starts out quite cheery and upbeat, but later slows down to a moderate straightforward tempo with reed effects. It later returns to the original jazz style. "Empty Pages" is quite straightforward with a good upbeat feel with a slight pastoral feel to it, mostly produced by keyboards. "E7sus2" starts as a piano solo with jazz chords as hinted at in the title. A flute joins in later with light percussion. At 1:30, other instruments join in with a walking rhythm and guitar taking over the melody line with a synthesized brass section trading off. Other instruments trade off doing improvised melody over the jazz foundation before things get more complex and progressive with a start/stop section before returning to improvising on the main theme again.

The last track is the title track with a duration of over 16 minutes. It starts with a stately theme and some organ and heavy percussion continue before things get more progressive. The track has a jazz/rock fusion, always changing its meters and moods, going from pastoral to jazzy to heavy, yet everything keeps holding together quite well by creating continuous themes generated by the music's complexity. All of the instruments get a chance to shine usually against unique backgrounds. After 16 minutes, though, even with the ever changing atmosphere, it tends to go on too long without anything to really anchor it. Don't get me wrong, there is some awesome stuff going on here, but it's a bit too long and even then, it ends quite abruptly.

The album is quite pleasant with a lot of variety and styles throughout. There are some great passages and the music, although quite progressive in sections, is quite accessible and never abrasive. The reason this music is considered Crossover Prog is because of the variety in it. The production is great and the musicianship is close to perfect. The reason for the 4 star rating is because it could have been better with a little more heaviness, but that might not have fit well on this album. There are also sections that tend to wander a bit and some unexpected surprises would have been nice, but it is still an excellent album with some major high points.