ARE(A)ZIONE

difficult music with strong jazz leanings from an anti-fascist left-wing group that would make the equivalent to polit-rock in Germany in the late sixties( group like Amom Duul, Kluster etc....). Their first album disclaims that work makes you free , and on the third album they spend some time as being anti-nuclear. On this one they make a version of L' Internazionale (the well known Socialist anthem) and Cometa Rossa seems to be a wink at the red star. In any case . this is a live album with good sound , the music is rather difficult but seems to enbody wide variety of influences but primarily re-worked on a jazz feeling.

The fourth work released in 1975 is a live album "Are(A)zione". Vocal of sexy, overwhelming Demetrio Stratos and a dynamic performance are terrific. The performance it keeps powerful and with the speed, too makes one of the all-time best live bands AREA actually feel it. Pay attention to the organ of Demetrio Stratos. Patrizio Fariselli munches an apple by opening about "La mela di Odessa".

Just another good (and the first live) recording of Area! The first three compositions are absolute classics of them from their first three albums. But "Are(A)zione" is fifteen-minute- long impro-composition played with great feeling. In my oppinion maybe the most interesting one on this album. Finally we can listen Area's weird version of socialist working- class-anthem called "L'Internazionale" on this record. Conclusion: good hot political jazzrock with great musicianship - very fine album like about six other albums of Area!

The RPI (and related) live reviews series vol.13

The Italian founding band Area in 1975 produced Are(A)zione, one of the more important live albums from Italy. That this band is a Communist band is clear. But if you don't have problems with the political influence and inclinations in musical field Area is a fundamental band. So this live is a great document. The music is a collection of great songs. "Luglio, Agosto, Settembre (Nero)" is a good start for all live album because is a song that has in possess of a energy... Form atomic Bomb! "La Mela Di Odessa" isn't totally good because more long and boring. But in musically field "La Mela Di Odessa" is one of the all time Prog song. "Cometa Rossa" and "Are(A)zione" confirm that the power of Area is, besides the political message, the power of the songs. In conclusion the Communist hymn "L'Internazionale" that in musically field is a very great song. One of the more important live album is here. Thanks Area.

Beautiful if occasionally strange and silly performance from one of Italy's very best symphonic jazz-rock ensembles tearing off a taut and upbeat set at the Festa Proletaria in Milan, 1975. The five-piece find just the right blend of hot jazz lines, Baroque refrains and playful juxtaposition of musical themes. Not quite in the same technical league as, say, D.F.A., but for their time Area were exemplary of the better and more interesting groups in the endless tracts of fusion outfits. They also stretched out into folk, experimental mood-setting, and seem here to want to be a part of the audience as much as play for them.

The moaning of Demetrio Stratos will scare some off immediately but they'll miss the jumping start of 'Luglio,Agosto,Settembre', a festive number sounding much like ethnic dance music. But in place of flutes and balalaikas are the killer guitars of Paolo Tofani and synths of Patrizio Fariselli as they warm things up. 11-minute 'La mela di Odessa' gets kooky, switches to a competent drum solo by Guilio Capiozzo followed by a sweet synth/organ/guitar interplay with odd rhythms and tense jazz energy as these guys show what good all round players they truly are. Zappa nuttiness ensues as someone eats an apple for nearly a minute and we get a chance to stretch our legs, walk around, watch people dance, drink a beer and have a thoroughly good time. 'Taps' is jokingly thrown into the mix and Stratos' slightly grating rant before 'Cometa Rossa', a rippin' fusion bit rich with synth and drum fireworks. The deep jam of the title track sweeps us up or allows us to keep wandering, our choice. Either way, it is terrific jazz rock with a feel only attained at a live, open-air event as this. A swirling chimera of electric organ, more weird voices, and Tavolazzi's loyal upright bass takes the lead for awhile. 'L'Internazionale' closes things on a troubled contrast in flavors and socio-political statement.

If Colosseum ll and Von Zamla had a child out of wedlock, it might sound something like this. A fine starter for the rest of the Area catalog.

What I love about this live recording besides the music are the black and white pictures in the liner notes. I can just imagine being there back in the seventies in Italy watching this very entertaining band. There's one picture in particular of a young (teen?) girl being held up, above people's shoulders by several guys. She has this huge triumphant smile on her face with her arm up in the air, while the people around her are all laughing and smiling at this sight. There are five tracks, one each from the previous three albums prior to these concerts and two that aren't on any of their studio records.

"Luglio, Agosto, Settembre (Nero)" is from the "Arbeit Mach Frei" album. It becomes uptempo before a minute. Organ 1 1/2 minutes. It turns chaotic a minute later until it settles right down before 3 1/2 minutes with some reserved vocal melodies, organ and light drums. Here we go again a minute later. "La Mela Di Odessa" is from "Crac!" and is over 11 minutes in length. It's experimental to start with lots of dissonance. Drums come in and take over. Organ,guitar and bass all join in. Great sound ! Applause after 4 minutes as they stop. Then we hear one of the band members eating an apple into the mic while the crowd noise can be heard in the background. He's done in a minute then the music returns with spoken words which are at times theatrical while the band plays on. "Cometa Rossa" is from "Caution Radiation Area". It becomes uptempo. Organ comes in before 1 1/2 minutes as it settles right down. Vocals follow. Guitar and keys join in. It really kicks in at 5 minutes.

"Are(A)zione" is an original track and my favourite coming in at 14 1/2 minutes in length. Love the intro as different sounds come and go. The drumming is fantastic before 3 minutes. Keys join in. This sounds so good ! A calm after 5 minutes then it kicks back in a minute after that with guitar. This is the best part of the whole album for me. Bass 7 1/2 minutes in as it settles again. Demetrios starts to get involved vocally. It calms right down before 11 minutes with bass only then kicks back in. What a song ! "L'Internazionale" is actually AREA's version of the anthom of the "communist party" believe it or not, although i'm sure it never sounded like this before (haha). This is a killer track though. Incredible sound to open before it settles a minute in although the deep bass lines continue. It kicks in again at 2 minutes and the drums are relentless. Organ's turn and then it ends with chaos including some wild guitar.

I do prefer the studio versions of the first three tracks but those last two songs are amazing. Overall an excellent addition to any collection especially for AREA fans. Take a trip back in time.

Great live album... This is a ventilation of magical ideas in a small Area!!!

Yes, my intro sentende is a true truth! And if you listen to in attentive manner this album I think that you are all right with me. Certainly Area are one of the best live bands because the magic of their live album are too better that the magic of their studio album.

In this case 'Are(A)zione' (the title is a game between Area, ventilation and action) is a sort of the best of. The power is cloearly Rock with tons of arrangements, heavy arrangements, also if not invadents. It is sure that the Prog elements are not simple to describe because the Rock part dominates the rest of musical elements. But the particular voice of Demetrio Stratos and the particular melodic/ writing structure of the songs is typical of Prog. And the communist ideology is present in all of the songs of this album (and not for this in this live is present the Rock version of the communist hymn 'L'Internazionale'). If you listen to 'Luglio, Agosto, Settembre' (eng: 'July, August, September') you listen to a great Rock song with heavy atmospheres but in 'La Mela Di Odessa' (eng: 'Odessa's Apple') (P.s.: the story narrated in this story is true) you see a good Rock Jazz song with a long improvvisation (an apple is eaten live).

The true power of Area is not in the ideology narrated in the song but it is a strange magic that is not describable in words. This magic abducts but you're unable to feel; you perceive this magic but you do not understand this magic! The music, in fact, is not particular or complex but is the particular magic that it gives off that makes the difference.

Today Area is a myth. Also for me!

Review Nº 39

This is my third review of an Area's album. Chronologically, this is their fourth album which was released later in the same year as their third studio album "Crac!" released in 1975. But this time, we have a live album. As I wrote before, in general I prefer studio albums instead of live albums, in the most of the cases. However, with Area I don't know if that it's true. What happens with Area is that they're essentially a great live group. I know that, because I had the lucky to see a live concert of the band in "Festa do Avante" in Lisbon in 1976. If you want to know more about that live concert, I suggest you to read, in this site, my review about their second live album "Parigi-Lisbona" released in 1996.

Area is really a very special progressive rock group. Their music is an uncompromising blend of jazz rock/fusion, Italian ethnic folk and free experimentation music with some electronic musical effects. Lyrically, they have real political philosophies supported by left-wing lyrics. All of this made of them a truly unique presence in the Italian rock scene during those times. Fronting the band's music, we have the unique, spectacular and inimitable voice of their singer Demetrio Stratos. The Demetrio's voice, embellished with his own operatic avant-garde vocal techniques with yodels and growls, is completely unique in the world. Taking all this things together, and joining the fact that the group has played at many festivals organized by the Communist Parties in several countries all over the world, and doing justice to the band's name "Area ? International POPular Group", the final result was a very unique live band.

But by the way, about their political leanings, communists, I'm one of the persons who think that their music is so incredible and great that I don't care about their political preferences. In general I don't care about that, and those kind of things don't put me off of enjoy their music. For instance, on the other side of the coin, the Museo Rosenbach were usually accused of being fascists, because of the bust of Mussolini in the collage cover artwork of their debut studio album "Zarathustra" released in 1973, and that the lyrics of the album were inspired by the Nietzsche's superman. But that never stopped me of love the album and to think that it's one of the great gems of the progressive Italian rock.

"Are(a)zione" is their debut live album and was released in 1975. The live musical pieces recorded on the album were taken from live recordings performed in "Parco Lambro" in Milan, "Festa Dell'Unitá" in Naples, "Festa Della Gioventù" in Rimini, "Teatro Comunale" in Regio Emilia and in other concerts held in Italy.

The album takes one song from each of their three previous studio albums, and they seemed to be chosen to give a brief outline of the musical career of the group. The rest of the album is adding with almost complete free improvisation music, so essential and important to the taste and the ideas of the band.

So, "Are(a)zione" has five tracks. The first track "Luglio, Agosto, Settembre (Nero)" is a live version of an original song recorded on their debut studio album "Arbeit Macht Frei" released in 1973. The second track "La Mela Di Odessa" is a live version of an original song recorded on their third studio album "Crac!" released in 1975. The third track "Cometa Rossa" is a live version of an original song recorded on their second studio album "Caution Radiation Area" released in 1974. The fourth track "Are(a)zione" is an astonishing track with free improvisation of a harmonic invention by the group. This is a completely a new theme, which wasn't ever recorded on any of the studio albums released by the band, previously. The fifth track "L'Internazionale" is a vanguard free associative of a free experimental version of the band, of the communist hymn, "The International". It was recorded for the first time as a band's single, in 1974, and it became the classic theme that closed almost all the live concerts performed by the group.

Conclusion: "Are(a)zione" is a great live album from a great live band. It's probably the best live album released by the group. In this moment, when I'm writing this review, I only have three live albums from the band but I only know two of them, "Are(a)zione" and "Parigi-Lisbona". The other live album "Live in Torino 1977", I just bought it now, and sincerely, I haven't had time to listen to it, yet. On "Are(a)zione" the live versions of the songs are much closer to the studio versions, while on "Parigi-Lisbona" the live versions of the songs have more free improvisations. By the other hand, "Are(a)zione" has a better sound and is much better produced. In contrast to a number of Area live recordings that suffer from significant deficiencies of the sound, "Are(a)zione" is an excellent album. This is certainly a very good live album and it's perhaps the perfect choice for anyone to start with Area. In a certain way, it tells us, in a short way, the Area's story better than the band's studio albums, or even better than the compilations of them. So, "Are(a)zione" is what you mainly need from the band. It's simply one of the greatest live albums of the Italian progressive scene.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

AREA was one of Italy's leading progressive rock bands of the 70s led by the unworldly vocalist Demetrio Stratos who singly handedly pushed this band far beyond the limits of the most adventurous progressive rock bands of the day. With his unique vocal gymnastics that scaled up and down octaves with uncanny precision and approached the human vocal limit of 7000 Hz, Stratos was the icing on an already eclectic cake where each musician excelled at his respective instrument and together this band cranked out some of the weirdest albums of the 70s with their innovative fusion of jazz, rock, Middle Eastern folk and a proclivity for the unexpected. The band was a huge hit with the youth primarily due to their Socialist leaning lyrical content but as the decades since have elapsed, this band has gone down in history as one of the most unique and technically skilled of the entire era.

After three studio albums, AREA followed up 'Crac!' which was released in early 1975 with their first live released titled ARE(A)ZIONE which emerged at the tail end of the year. The term ARE(A)ZIONE translates into English as 'ventiliation' or 'airing' and that seems appropriate since the band were good at 'ventilating' their political inclinations as well as their penchant for the over-the-top eccentricities. This live release was recorded during their 1975 tour and includes performances from the Festa del Proletariato Giovanalle in Milan, the Festa dell'Unit' in Naples, the Festa della Giovent' in Rimini and a press concert at Il Teatro Comunale in Reggio Emilia. The album is divided up into two parts. Side One contained one track from each album that preceded. 'Luglio, agosto, settembre (nero)' from 'Arbeit Macht Frei,' 'La Mela di Odessa' from 'Crac!' and 'Cometa Rossa,' the most 'normal' opening track from 'Caution Radiation Area.' Side Two contained two completely new tracks unreleased on any studio album.

ARE(A)ZIONE displayed a band that had a stable lineup for several years and the payoff is in full presentation on these live performances. Like any great musical act, AREA didn't just perform their studio tracks in a predictable manner but included lengthy improvisations that excelled at allowing the musicians and Stratos to show exactly why they were indeed a much lauded band of the era. While live albums rarely get my attention, when a band exudes a creative brilliance such as AREA does on ARE(A)ZIONE, i find such albums to be equally as important as the studio albums that surround. After the first side presents a basic summary of the band's ventures through their first three albums with a track from each, on the second side the band unleashed a 15 minute avant- garde jam for the title track. While a completely new instrumental that found Stratos wordless vocalizations as merely a supplemental instrument, the track did preview the basic drum patterns of 'Giro, Giro, Tondo' which would appear on the following album 'Maledetti (Maudits).' The final shorter piece 'L'internazionale' was their take on the Socialist anthem and was released as a single.

Live albums definitely show a band's true nature. There have been many bands that sound spectacular in the studio but don't have the chops to pull off their musical adventures in a live setting. The great thing about ARE(A)ZIONE is that it undoubtedly proves how brilliant and versatile AREA were as performers and musicians. This is not a perfect album. While the material presented is as good as you could possibly hope for, the sound production is definitely lacking but in all honesty, live settings rarely are designed to create such albums and a less than perfect series of things isn't my concern. I'm more interested in the feeling of a band in their prime where they deliver their all and the audience interaction. In that department ARE(A)ZIONE delivers all the goods effortlessly. If you are a true AREA fan, you will eventually get to this one since it is as every bit as essential as the five studio albums with Stratos. All that magic that made AREA so great is fully present on this one and despite the lackluster sound quality is well worth the experience. Should've been a double album! I'm left wanting MORE!