DELLA STESSA SOSTANZA DEI SOGNI

The third full-length album release from these creative artists from Palermo reveal a band that continues to grow and experiment though their sound and style while remaining as refreshingly quirky, humorous, and Canterburian as ever. The songs are far more complex, far more avant on some layers, while, gratefully, maintaining the light, even humorous approach to rendering music. I even feel somewhere in my gut that there has been a slight return to the loose, enjoyable spirit that was so prominent and prevalent throughout their 2013 debut, Limiti all'eguaglianza della parte con il tutto, (one of my top five favorite albums of all-time).

1. "La Cabala" (4:00) smooth with typically catchy HR melodies (9.5/10)

2. "Faccio una pazzia" (2:49) more odd, humorous, and avant than before. Quirky vocals similar to those explored by AltrOck stable mates HUMBLE GRUMBLE on their early release, Flanders Fields. I love the thick fretless bass contrasted by the sharp, staccato, odd-tempo hits of the horns and rhythm section. Funky sax solo by Dave Newhouse at the end. (8.5/10)

3. "Bianco supremo" (03:32) a pretty, bucolic song with melodies and sound renderings that harken back to the idyllic summer musics of the late 1960s. How many instruments can one clearly weave into one song? (9/10)

4. "Non sogno più" (02:44) This one has the feel of a late-1960s Latin jazz pop song. Fun, engaging, danceable, and gorgeous. (9/10)

5. "Mentre dormi" (04:16) opens like a Ben Watt/Tracey Thorn song before becoming all HR. Great shift at 0:45. I love the woodwinds and mandolin in the mid-section. Another great shift just before the three-minute mark leads into the electric guitar solo in an awesome reed-based outro. A top three song for me. (9.5/10)

6. "Rimedi ancestrali" (03:39) an odd-tempoed piano-based song with aged electro-pop sounds (the return of the Casio VL-TONE Vl-1?!!) performing some of the song's base fabric. I love Dario D'Alessandro's vocals on this one. Another top three song. (9.5/10)

7. "Se la mente mentisse" (04:16) a fun pop song with lead vocals from Alessandra Oria Bollino. The second part, instrumental/post vocal, sounds so much like a 70s Canterbury song. Then we return to the poppy vocal section while Alessandra scats the main melody with "la-la-las" in place of the words. Great flute work here from Dario La Cicero. Just pure fun?makes me so proud to be a human being (despite our inanities)! I cannot decide between this song and the album opener for my third top three song. (9.5/10)

8. "Il nome di Dio" (02:34) a quirky jazzy song with odd multi-voiced vocals over the top (and below). Great jazz rhythms and horn work after the 1:00 mark. I like the multi-layered synth work in that solo in the second minute. The song bounces back and forth from quirk vocal to jazz section one more cycle while ending with a nice little Casiotone solo. (8.5/10)

9. "Denti cadenti" (04:41) presents a very different recording soundscape with tons of reverb on multiple tracks (not just the voices). Harpsichord and other older-sounding instruments. Even a Hammond and Mellotron to go with piano and other more-"classic/common" prog instruments. (9/10)

10. "Dopamine" (03:49) another song that uses instruments and sounds sounding like they're straight out of the 1970s Canterbury Scene bands' repertoires. Great raunchy electric guitar work over the jazzy organ-led foundation. (9/10)

11. "Preludio e distrazioni" (02:09) is a slow, sentimental song with piano and multiple layers of woodwinds. Pretty first minute, shifts, then more gorgeous, ending with acoustic classical and electric guitar duet. (9/10)

12. "La casa dei sogni" (02:54) fun, horn-based, carnivalesque song with lead vocals by female singer, Sara Zerilli. Starts out slow but then picks up at 0:37 becoming more bouncy and upbeat. This could almost be a Stereolab song. (8.5/10)

Five stars; a masterpiece of progressive rock music in the Canterbury style. Not as amazing or ground-breaking as their debut, but I do like this one better than their sophomore release--which left me kind of flat.

"Della Stessa Sostenza Dei Sogni" ("About the same essence of dreams") is the third studio full-length album of the band from sunny Palermo, playing music deeply rooted in stylistics and "in spirit" in Canterbury scene. If Hatfield and the North and other similar groups were created by the Italians and sang in Italian, then perhaps they would sound like Homunculus Res. Also it is worth mentioning the group with whom people compared, compare and probably will compare Sicilians - Picchio dal Pozzo. This Italian ensemble released two studio albums in the second half of the 70s / at the turn of the 80's (and again at the beginning of zero), apparently inspired by the "classic" Canterbury bands, but sounded more jazzy, a little slower and much more "more seriously" than the heroes of this review. The leader of Homunculus Res - singing composer and multi-instrumentalist Dario d'Alessandro - was able to attract a large number of musicians to the studio work. These include not only the regular members of the group - all of them, together with the leader, five - but also approximately 15 guests, performing vocal parts and playing various instruments, from guitars and keys to numerous wind instruments. There is also a "guest composer". He is the leader of the group Brezhnev Fun Club Rocco Lomonaco, dragged (in varying degrees) in creation of two works on the album. Homunculus Res, like the legendary representatives of the Canterbury scene, embody the compositional ideas built on jazz harmonies and complex/changing measures in very short songs with almost pop tunes. All tracks last less than 5 minutes, and the musicians managed to "lay" 12 such tracks in the "format" lasting about 42 minutes. Among them, it is difficult to mark the highlights (for me at the moment it is "Bianco Supreme"), but everything in general leaves a pleasant impression by its 'laconicism' and relaxedness. Comparisons of some critics and listeners with Henry Cow and Magma are not clear to me: the creativity of Homunculus Res is absolutely not gloomy or "stressful". Complicatedness does not "stick out on the surface". At the same time, a rich and varied sound, coupled with frequent changes in musical events, can strongly entice lovers of the "complex prog". "Della Stessa Sostenza Dei Sogni" is one of the best releases of the AltrOck Productions label for the last few years.

p.s. Many times I re-listened to this album and came to the conclusion that it is (almost) essential opus.