ODISSEA

A group from Biella in the northern Piemonte part, Odissea emerged in 1972 from the band Pow Pow,when the quartet of Ennio Cinguino (keyboards), Alfredo Garone (bass), Paolo Cerlati (drums) and Roberto Zola (vocals, guitar) was joined by a second guitarist, Luigi Ferrari.They were quite popular at the time, even supporting Genesis and touring along with Banco del Mutuo Soccorso and Rocky's Filj.Their sole self-titled work was released in 1973 on Ri-Fi.

Though comparisons are easy to be found, Odissea's sound was quite personal, like if a Psychedelic/Folk Rock group was joined by two GENESIS-inspired buddies on keyboards and guitars.Almost every track fits with this decsription, offering an alternation between acoustic textures with raw Italian vocals and a good amount of instrumental sections with keyboards in evidence.The folkier parts are characterized by dominant acoustic passages and the hoarse voice of Zola, close to the style of JUMBO, while they give their place to decent instrumental sections led by the great keyboard parts of Cinguino in a TONY BANKS vein, based on his work on organ and moog synthesizer (and less on his piano) and delivering plenty of Classical-inspired themes.The electric guitars have often a distinct HAKETT-ish vibe as well.The result is some pretty good combination of folky themes with Symphonic Rock soundscapes, that mostly work very well.

Shortly after Zola left the band with the rest of the crew supporting singer Michele.Two new members Elio Vergnaghi (vocals) and Aldo Ambrosi (guitar) joined the band in 1976 and the new formation even performed live in Switzerland, before Cerlati quit and the remaining members returned back to supporting Michele for some more years.

Among the very strong releases of the classic period of Italian Prog, featuring a couple of unrelated styles already previously played by other Italian bands like JUMBO, PFM or BANCO DEL MUTUO SOCCORSO, but blended in a unique and original way, and a great addition to any prog collection.The album has seen some re-issues both in LP and CD format and thus it is quite easy to be discovered...3.5 stars.