NEWS FROM NOWHERE

Same year and same label as ''Erewhon'', but older material was what the next Notturno Concertante ''News from nowhere'' contained.Propably Mellow Records believed much in the band and this CD included reworkings of older songs, covers, material from the band's early demos and live pieces.Raffaele Villanova and Lucio Lazzaruolo appear throughout the 13 tracks and they are reasonable supported by various musicians, each one linked to the period of recordings.

Most tracks sound a bit more Neo Proggy than the later albums of the band, which is pretty ok, as with talk about archival material recorded mainly during the 85'-87' period.Stylistically the old cuts follow the standard lines established by Notturno Concertante's more renowed works, this is rather soft Neo/Symphonic Prog with strong MARILLION and GENESIS overtones, sung in English and based on melodic, careful arrangements with smooth keyboard passages, mellow piano lines and the electric guitars adding some tension and drama via Villanova's interesting solos.But again the elaborate classical guitar of Lucio Lazzaruolo is constanly present after the middle for a more pastoral enviroment, while the vocals are decent but far from extraordinary.Recording quality ranges from poor to just acceptable, pitty because the tracks from the demo tapes show a band with potential, trying to be a bit pompous and bombastic at moments with the pronounced keyboard flashes.With two covers of ''The web'' and the interlude from ''Grendel' the band somewhat admits the strong MARILLION influence on their music, with the second piece sounding more personal due to Lazzaruolo's performance on classical guitar.

Not the starting point if you want to explore Notturno Concertante's discography, but this is a good archival effort by the band and Mellow Records, which has some chances to be appreciated by fans of the 80's and relaxed Symphonic Rock...2.5 stars.