FELONA E SORONA

After the settling step of "Uomo di Pezza", Le Orme aim higher, that is to combine music and lyrics in a real concept album (the previous two were not in all the respects) on a universe made up of two planets and a creator.

The first piece, "Sospesi nell'Incredibile" (Suspended in the Incredible), almost nine minutes, the only long track in the whole Lp, is an absolute masterpiece (vote 9), thanks to the technique of the three musicians and the compositional skills of the trio (always helped by the master G.P. Reverberi). Pagliuca bases an engaging melody, playing, in some passages, four types of different keyboards (I suppose: organ, synth, electric piano, mellotron), two for each listening channel. After about three minutes comes the voice by Tagliapetra to introduce the theme of the concept album, centered on the two planets of Felona (always illuminated) and Sorona (always in the darkness). First there is a strophe and then a progression that leads to a more acute melody, which would be the refrain if it were not that "Le Orme" don't respect the conventional song, preferring to give space, in this first track, to instrumental excursions and in fact after the singing by Tagliapetra comes a melody dictated by his bass, which is deep while De Rossi performs a work of absolute value, unstable, to the drums. Finally comes the synth by Pagliuca that plays a variation on the theme, which slowly fades, leaving space to the gigantic work of De Rossi, uncontanaible. Masterpiece.

Following are three songs linked together (Felona; La Solitudine di Chi Protegge il Mondo: The Solitude of the One Who Protects the World; L'equilibrio: The Balance; overall score 8). The first starts with the party bells, it's a simple folk acoustic ballad dominated by guitars. "Donne e cicale discorrono d'amore": "Women and cicadas talk of love", is a phrase that well represents the piece. After about two minutes there is a melodic passage on keyboards that leads to the next song, with a very dreamlike atmosphere that soon gives way to a melancholy melody; after another two minutes the fourth track arrives, which involves an aggressive rhythm, like the initial one, to underline the void between the two planets, the abyss that separates the two worlds. The music is perfectly in line with the text. This section lasts almost 4 minutes and has a beautiful instrumental tail, first conducted by the synth, then by a classical piano, then again by the synth, until the melodic, angelic part of the ending arrives. End of the first side. Applause.

The second side opens with another short piece (Sorona, two and a half minutes), which with a sad, subdued tone, talks about the death of wheat and plants on the planet Sorona. The austere, almost church-like vocals by Tagliapetra gives a sound that is always very Spartan, Catholic, to the piece. It looks like a litany of a penitential act. Mixed to this ethereal mood, comes a more aggressive sound to the keyboards, "Attesa Inerte" (Inert Wait) withot a melodic development. The sequence of these two tracks is the weakest of the album (vote 7+). It joins an atmospheric piece ("Ritratto di un Mattino": Portrait of a Morning: vote 8), suffused, in which the voice of Tagliapetra sings the maximum of the album: "La Felicità non puoi trovarla in te ma nell'amore che agli altri un giorno darai: You can'not find happiness in you, but in the love you'll give to others one day" followed by a melodic piece in solemn, triumphal "crescendo", with lots of final bells. The piano finally mixes this track with the next one ("All'Infuori del Tempo: Outside of Time", vote 7,5) "that overlaps with the acoustic guitars reminding the second song for arrangement and mood and melody, which is serene but less festive. Again it's an acoustic folk ballad. The voice tells the happy ending: "Due Mondi Felici Vibrano Insieme Nell'Arco del Cielo e Del Dolore Non c'è Ricordo, Soltanto Oggi Comincia la Vita: Two happy worlds vibrate together in the sky and there is no memory of sorrow, only today begins life"... Then the music stops, the acoustic guitar starts again and the bitter end arrives: "but while it still rejoices Sorona, Felona begins the Slow Inexorable Decline the Night Goes Down and the Balance Soon Ends, the End is the Circle, the Circle is Life, and is Destroyed and then Build Always Waits for Our Day, Doesn't Change Anything Outside of Time". Very inspired lyrics. The last part is narrated with the same serenity of the beginning, as the end of a fable, which however bitter must be accepted knowing that life is a circle where it is destroyed to rebuild. Final moment with keyboards and bass. The ninth track, "Ritorno al Nulla" (Return to Nothing/Nowhere, vote 8+), is a titanic final piece, to seal the return to nothingness. Led by Pagliuca with the synths, without the beating on the snare, it seems the end of the world is coming... And in fact it's an end of the world!

The concept album structure makes "Felona e Sorona", compared to "Uomo di Pezza", and especially to "Collage", an album much more narrated by the voice of Tagliapetra, formed by so many short sequences that don't leave much room for long instrumental digressions, which only focus in the last and in the first piece. The Lp almost seems like a theme music (Hector Berlioz) or a symphonic poem (Franz Liszt), where the lyrical part is sung. In any case, compared to Collage, what "Felona e Sorona" loses in surprise and originality and musical improvisation, it gains in homogeneity of arrangement and in the synergy of the union between lyrics and music that is really inspired and completely in unison. This album is the second small masterpiece signed "Le Orme".

Medium quality of the songs: 8. Vote album: 9. Rating: Five Stars.