CONCERTO ALL'ELFO

Demetrio Stratos is well known as the front man of the fiery Italian prog group Area. Outside of Area he released a series of solo albums. I picked this album up a couple of days ago on one of my search and destroy missions in Rome looking for RPI gems. I had recently really got the bug for Area and found this album and immediately scarfed it up. I was hoping to find a another incendiary mixing of jazz, rock, electronic, and mediterranean music. Whoa.. was I surprised when I put this in.

This review is a warning...yet still a recommendation.

As I found out later after an interesting first listen hahahha, and as is noted in Stratos' bio. He was student of Fluxus and John Cage. His solo albums are very avant and are explorations into the use of the human voice as an instrument. Be warned.. again... THIS IS NOT EASY LISTENING. But it a funny way.. this ties into RPI quite well. As I noted this morning in a thread, I am a non-speaker of Italian, so an overall portion of the albums is lost upon me. The literal meaning of what the group is trying to say. What that in fact has done has prepared me for an album like this. The voice in Italian prog for became not a vehicle for literal meaning but rather a instrument in itself. Full of emotion and expression like any instrument. That is exactly what Stratos was intending to explore.

To review this album track by track is sort of pointless. Before reviewing this I read some reviews of his solo album on other sites.. I was curious just how you would review something like this. Most reviews, while entertaining in their lofty language, really say little about the music. This is an album that to me is beyond a standard review, it is indeed like trying to 'review' a painting. What you get out of this will be highly personal. There are no instruments to rave over the quality.. no way to contrast the dynamics between the way the instruments play off of each other. This is just an experience between you and Stratos. If you feel like taking a walk down the Fluxus side of life. I strongly recommend you check this out. It intriqued me to check out other of his albums, which as some of you who know my musical tastes.. should probably say more about this album that any song by song analysis could.

Giving the album three stars..and down the road may adjust that to reflect what I think of his other albums. Which I will be checking out. For serious students of 'art' and avant music only.

Michael (aka micky)

This is minimal art, experimental and unlistenable. So why is it so highly rated? It's because it's a journey through the possibilities of the voice. Demetrio sings a long note and you can hear all the harmonics. I don't think any other human being has ever been able to do the same with his throat.

It's essential to understand that this is the live recording of a performance of minimal art. Each single note is an adventure. As he says in the introduction, you have to listen to the sounds produced by his throat and decompose them in two or three different parts.

Which pleasure can you receive from an album like this? You have to give up to the idea of listening to music. There are only sounds. This is not an exhibition of vocal virtuosism, even if Demetrio Stratos was a virtuose. It is not music in the common meaning of it, but it's incredible how it can capture one's attention. It's a psychedelic mantra.

I was surprised myself to be able to listen to about 18 minutes (including the italian explanation of what he's about to do) without having the temptation to quit and put on some Prog-metal to compensate...

More than RPI, I suggest this album to psychedelia or zeuhl fans. It's neither psychedelia or zeuhl, but you need a particular openness of mind to start listening to it.

Progressing with the tracks, the journey becomes even more attractive. In Flautologia his voice sounds like a flute, sometimes an arab trumpet or an ocarine.

O Tzitzeras O mitzeras is a story made of 21 words (I think it's Greek), repeated very quickly. The effect is weird. It's a sort of mantra. An allucination....

"Tema Popolare" is a sort of blues made of vocalisms. Probably what most close to the concept of music that can be found here, or this may be just an impression because at this point if you are still listening to this performance, you are probably addicted to what Demetrio is doing.

"Canto dei Pastori" (of Epiro, Greece) He says that when the shepherds of Epiro (Albania) sing this kind of sounds, the sheep make a circle and sleep....I don't know if it's true, but if an enchanter can hypnotize a cobra, why not?

The last short track, "Cowboys and Indians" is just a vocal excersize invented for the theathre by a soprano.

How can this be rated? Is it a masterpiece of progressive music? It's progressive but it's not music. Is an excellent addiction to prog collections? Yes, but not for "any". Neo-prog fans would ask me the money back. Fans only? It's minimal art. You can like it or not, but it's what it is.

It's an album so different that it should have a different kind of rating: instead of stars, fishes, gasoline pumps or anything else. I give it 4 stars but with this warning. I'm giving stars because there are no fishes.