PAPILLON

"Papillon," is the magnum opus by Italian Progressive rock band Latte e Miele. After releasing their most famous album, "Passio secundum Mattheum," they released this one. Both albums are concept albums and are classics of the RPI genre. The album has a very ELP-ish sound coupled with beautiful melodies and musicianship. The album consists mainly of 2 longer tracks "Papillon" and "Patetica," both of which contain many movements.

The album opens with the 20-minute epic suite, "Papillion," which has eight total movements. The first 3 three movements (Ouverture, Primo La Fuga, and Secondo Quadro Il Mercato) are among some of the best progressive rock ever made, all based on the same theme. The keyboard work from Oliviero Lacagnina is magnificent. In the 4th movement, (Terzo Quadro L'Incontro) we hear another softer theme based on keys and vocals, that reoccurs in the song. It is one of the highlights of the album. For some reason, I can't find credit to anyone who plays horns on this record, yet the song has great horn overtures as well as choir work. Movement 5, (Quarto Quadro L'Arresto) adopts a weird combined sound of PFM/Gentle Giant, which sounds great. After the soft and short beauty of movement 6 (Quinto Quadro Il Verdetto), movement 7 (Sesto Quadro La Trasformazione) opens up with a beautiful piano bit that progresses the main theme of the song and transforms back into the cross of PFM/Gentle Giant. After the somber movement 7, movement 8 (Settimo Quadro Corri Nel Mondo) ends the suite with a happy ELP-sounding adaptation of the main riff of the suite.

After the short 2-minute jazzy, mellotron-driven, "Divertimento," the 17-minute suite that is "Patetica" begins. The suite only contains 3 movements, albeit much longer ones. The suite is very classical, with movement 1 (Parte Prima) opening up with Bach-esque piano before a drumroll introduces the organ into the mix. This is another keyboard-driven track with excellent work from Oliviero Lacagnina and jazzy drum work from Alfio Vitanza. Movement 2, (Parte Seconda) begins with an interpretation of a Vivaldi song on the violin. The Hohner Clavinet work goes wonderfully with the jazzy drum work and mellotron in this section. This is one of the keyboard highlights of the album featuring every sound imaginable (Mellotron, Clav, Organ, Piano, Moog, etc). The third movement (Parte Terza) starts very softly with an acoustic guitar intro. The section is very mellow, with somber vocals, but picks up a bit at the end with a grand horn ending. The closing track "Stutture," (lit. Structures), is ironically enough quite structureless. By far the weakest song on the album, it is a 4-minute rambling jazz interpretation of one of the riffs from "Patetica." On the 2003 double CD, there is a bonus track called "Rimani Nelle Mia Vita," which is a radio broadcast of the 3rd movement from "Papillon." The recording is super fuzzy with 2 Italian guys talking over it for the first minute or so, but has such a beautiful old feel to it. Absolutely heartbreaking song.

This is a super strong album and highly recommended to lovers of classic RPI bands such as PFM and Maxophone. Latte E Miele seems to be able to put together an awesome album that contains Symphonic Prog, Jazz, and Classical. It is a little messy with all the movements, but after a few listens the flow becomes evident.