CASTLES, WINGS, STORIES & DREAMS

Excellent album from Prog veteran Paolo Siani, original Nuova Idea drummer on first solo project. It is classic, new, powerful and sweet: many flavours here in 'Castles, wings, stories and dreams'.Line-up is really amazing: Mauro Pagani (ex PFM) Ricky Belloni, Giorgio Usai from New Trolls ex Nuova Idea, Marco Zoccheddu first guitarist of Nuova Idea (then Duello Madre), Joe vescovi (The trip) Franco Testa, Carlo Cantini, Guido Guglielminetti, the soprano Nadia Enghèben and many others who Joined Siani not only with their music but to donate to the Gaslini Pediatric Hospital in Genoa. First a powerful incipit strong theme with "Wizard of your sky" "Madre Africa "- reminds me of a lot of early 70's progrock bands but also very much of Jethro Tull because of the flute - which I like. I like the melodious quality and voices of "Questa Penombra e lenta". "Chimera" is an interesting riff but seems to be a little "long" and repetitious for me. The four sections in "The Game" are all "interesting" - but having said that - I like the interesting "medieval" sounding harpsichord quality of "C'era una Volta". I would like this piece to be 4-5 minutes long! "This Open Show" is definitley one of my favourites, it has a sadness about it and leaves me feeling very melancholy. But my favourite track has to be "Cluster Bombs". Apart from the musical content - the background sounds of burning and the childrens voices make this the most haunting soundtrack - not to mention the "explosive" finish. This album is a 50 minutes concentrated of fine music and I hope Siani will have a large success both for him and his friends and for children of Gaslini. Absolutely a five stars album on my opinion.