FELONA E SORONA

Le Orme is considered to be a major '70 symphonic prog group from Italy. The band uses almost every keyboard sound from the ELP pallet. Yet, Le Orme ends up sounding more authentic because of the cultured Italian footprint that relies less on virtuosity, but on beauty and sensitivity. The airy vocals by Aldo Tagliapietra are among the best of the Italian prog genre and the band uses the short song-burst to great effect between the electronic & symphonic interludes. Though there are some folky bits with acoustic guitar, the band mostly uses organ, synths, bass guitar and drums. On this album the band uses more electronics then usual, sometimes adding a spacey layer to the music. Whilst the atmospheres change between dark and melancholic to optimistic and energetic, most of the album is actually quite dark - which I like. 'Felona E Serona' is a concept album mostly made up of shorter songs. It does however sound more like a single multi-part epic, also because of the short running time of 34 minutes. In Italian progressive music I usually get bothered by the slightly out of tune synths and 'Felona E serona' isn't an exception. Otherwise, this would have been a masterpiece - for it clearly has that memorable edge to it.

The remastered Universal vinyl reprint has a nice warm sound to it. I couldn't find any of the problems with the production sound that others have described in such detail.