VIBRAZIONI LIQUIDE

"Vibrazioni liquide" (Liquid vibrations), Malaavia's second album, is mainly the brainchild of Pas Scarpato, bassist, guitarist, vocalist, composer, lyricist and only founder member in the present line up of the band that now features also Joe La Viola (flute, sax, oboe, samples), Helèna Biagioni (vocals), Jacov Leone (drums), Sebastiano Mazzoleni (keyboards) and Donato Zoppo (recitative vocals). With the help of some guests musicians, in 2008 they recorded this concept album full of spirituality, inviting you to search for higher levels of knowledge and wisdom. "Vibrations shake and make crumble the walls inside you... You have to be liquid... You can find the truth only inside you!". The result, in my opinion, is definitively better than Malaavia's debut album. The music has a strong Mediterranean flavour and it could remind of bands like Abash or Radiodervish but you can feel also the love of the band for classic prog bands like Le Orme, BMS and PFM...

The opener "Deus dementat?" is a beautiful instrumental where acoustic "ethnic" elements are blended with a powerful electric guitar and it could remind of some works of Al Di Meola... It's a perfect introduction for the excellent second track "Lakmidi" that begins with a Middle Eastern melody. The interaction of Pas Scarpato, Sophya Baccini and Helèna Biagioni vocals is perfect and the "musical fabric" extremely rich (there's even a didgeridoo!). Lyrics are about the mysterious people of Lakhmidis, their cruel rites and prayers... "They pass by like killing wolves shadows, silently / What a traffic of camels, Bedouins, women, slaves / And they don't talk / And they don't laugh... Every now and again they stop and pray when the night is falling... ".

Next track, "Listen To The Voices", is like a delicate, bittersweet, multiethnic and melodic prayer... "Voices spreading in the air of the evening / Voices that you can here from here / They sing the sad litany of a prayer... Shemà shemà Israel / Listen To the voices today...". The vocals in the dialect of Naples by Gianni Lamagna (Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare) give additional value to this invocation for freedom.

The long "Vagando" (Wandering) features a darker atmosphere with vintage keyboards and melancholic vocals that come out like "wondering in the shadows" and lead to the next track "La rosa" (The rose) on the notes of a solitary sax... After a short instrumental intro the dreamy vocals of Helèna Biagioni soar bringing hope and light... "New eyes for the invisible / New ears for the inaudible / New senses for the what you can't gather... The rose of the desert leads you to the laws of light".

"Il cedro" (The Cedar) is a beautiful acoustic ballad featuring lyrics taken from the Bible (Ezekiel 17: 22,24)... "I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it; I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it; it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it; they will find shelter in the shade of its branches. All the trees of the field will know that I the Lord bring down the tall tree and make the low tree grow tall. I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish".

"Elevazione (recitativo)" (Elevation) is another acoustic track featuring a beautiful melodic part of oboe and spoken words full of hope... "One day you will slowly see what is the sky and touch it with your hands... Open your arms to the infinite"... On the sound of a bell then comes "Salmo di Lode Universale", an hymn in Latin taken from the Christian tradition and musically inspired by Monteverdi.

The last track is an excellent long suite in five parts, "Stati superiori (suite in 5 movimenti)", where the music tries to describe a kind of spiritual path leading from "Crisis" to "Sleep", from the "Spirit Awakening" to "Beatitude" through a new beginning... "The time is coming / Open the doors of your night / Show the light to your shadows..."

On the whole, an excellent album that is really worth listen to!

Malaavia is continuing their journey around Italy, Northern Africa and the Middle East with this, their second album.

As on their debut album, previously reviewed by myself some weeks ago, their sound is lush, full of intricate details and a pastoral soundscape. The female vocals are excellent and so is the male vocals. The use of instruments are pretty intelligent and sophisticated. It will take too much space to list them here, but the band deserve huge credits for getting this spot on.

The music is both pastoral and pretty passionate at the same time. I also detects a lot of Spanish passion in this music here in addition to influences listed over. The music is in other words great. I have two gripes with this album and that is the inclusion of some English vocals. Only some lines, but they sticks out like sore thumbs on an otherwise great album. My only other gripe is the lack of some truly great songs.

But the result is still good enough to make this a great album. I believe the resident Rock Progressivo Italiano team may find this album so great that they will float off into deep space.

Malaavi has cemented their position as one of the best new Rock Progressivo Italiano bands with this album. I am eagerly awaiting their third album as they announced in our interview with them.

In the meantime; get this album.

4 stars