DENTRO

For those who love heavy symphonic Italian prog you will be amazed. I do not know why but these guys are left off the "best-of" Italian prog lists far too often. LA BOTTEGA DELL'ARTE blend the symphonic touches of LOCANDA DELLE FATE with the most beautiful of songs. "Dentro" weights very heavily on keyboards which there is no shortage of here.... piano, mellotron, clavinet, moog, odissey, hammond etc.... This is one of those bands that once you hear, you will not be able to get out of your head. Vocals are exceptional and handled by several members who can all really sing (lots of great harmonies).... very classical voices with the big classical symphonic sound. Like so many of the classic Italian bands they have dual keyboardists, a guitarist, bassist and percussionist all of the highest quality. "Dentro" is one of those cd's that every one love and never gets too heavy to lose some fine folk. Get this CD!!!

When I listen to this record somehow I get the impression I would listen to Albano e Romina Power or similar stuff. I listened already to many bands in Italian Prog including more mellow ones like Locanda Delle Fate but those ones did not sound that much pop-ish, cheesy and sob stuff like as this record here. For me it rather sounds like any standard Italian pop album, maybe very nice if one likes stuff like that but for sure this has neither to do anything with Prog nor with Rock in general. So I'd like to warn everyone who is in favour of bands like PFM, Le Orme, Quella Vecchia Locanda, Locanda Delle Fate, Banco and so on to stay away of this record, maybe the other outputs of the band are different, I never listened to any other.

In 1976 La Bottega Dell'Arte presented their new single ''Amore nei ricordi'' and the following year ''Che dolce lei'' was just a small taste of their upcoming second studio album.This was to be entitled ''Dentro'', recorded in January/February 1977 at the Quattro 1 Studio in Roma and marked the second full-length product of the band for EMI.

No surprise, the band moves even further from their early progressive roots, as there was hardly any room for serious Prog releases around the time, and basically it could be described as a Symphonic Pop album, combining the early Classical-drenched color of La Bottega Dell'Arte's style with the accesible vein of Italian Pop music.The songwriting however remains top notch with some incredible Italian-flavored melodies, amazing vocals by Fernando Ciucci and deep orchestrations with atmospheric keyboards.Guitars and bass are still among the basic instruments, but the band has chosen to use them as supporting instruments, gving full space to the soft piano lines and the orchestral keyboards of Romano Musumarra and Piero Calabrese.The rare organ echoes still burst something from the romantic Italian Prog of the first half of the 70's, but be warned that the majority of the contained pieces follow a very ballad-like style with low tempos, melodious textures and sweet polyphonic choruses.The Classical-influenced Moog synth performance in the short ''Incontro'' and the symphonic-oriented and definitely rockier tracks of ''Musicante'' and ''L'ultima storia'' still hold similarities with the music of BANCO DEL MUTUO SOCCORSO and are nice examples of soft Italian Prog.

''Dentro'' was possibly the best commercial success of La Bottega Dell'Arte.The contract of the band with EMI expired with the 79' album ''L'avventura'', which showed the quintet entering the lines of melodic Italian Pop for good.Singer Fernando Ciucci left the band in 1981 and the rest of the line-up released another Pop-oriented album, ''Forza 4'' in 1984 on Nuovo Sound Records, before disbanding the next year.Musumarra and Massimo Calabrese worked later as producers, while Piero Calabrese opened his own recording studio.

The last effort by La Bottega Dell'Arte with minor progressive interest.The second side contains some beautiful tracks of soft Italian Sympho Rock, the first is full of delicate, poppy material, which is nevertheless well-crafted.Recommended in general, unless you totally dislike any accesible content in your listening experiences.