STRANI COLORI

In the early Nineties I bought the debut-LP "Wood of tales", a pleasant blend of folk and prog with echoes from Jethro Tull. Their next album was more symphonic with strong hints from early Marillion featuring sensitive guitar soli and lush keyboards. The Italian vocals gave the music a special flavor. After this album my attention faded away for this band but a few years ago I got an interesting Malibran promo CD entitled "Strani colori" (running time 75 minutes). You can divide this compilation into three parts. First 4 songs from their latest period, you can conclude that Malibran has turned into a band with an own identity, their music is very melodic, warm and alternating but also more polished. Then a few covers like "Bourreé" (Bach/Ian Anderson) from 2000 and "Rhayader goes to town" (Latimer/Bardens) from 1997. The renditions sound good but I always wonder who's waiting for these covers. The cover "Cause we've ended as lovers" (Jeff Beck) from 1997 contains fiery and powerful guitarwork but it's a mission impossible to copy the sound of the underrated ex-Yardbird's guitarist. The final part includes 6 compelling songs from 1989-1994: beautiful soli en duets on guitar, a dynamic rhythm-section, wonderful flute - and saxophone play and tasteful keyboards. The music on these songs has again echoes from Jethro Tull and Marillion. This band has delivered a pleasant progrock CD, not very original but if you like early Marillion and you are up to Italian vocals this is a CD to check out.

The new millenium officially found Malibran in a transitional period with Torrisi and Cutuli out of the band.Still they had a contract with Mellow Records and, instead of a regular studio album, the undisputed leader of the group Giuseppe Scaravilli returned with a compilation of tracks, covering the history of Malibran and containing rare live recordings, unreleased material and a few covers.This compilation was released in 2003 under the title ''Strani colori''.

This is a very interesting CD actually with a great photo gallery, covering Malibran's journey through the ages, but also musically the album stands quite strong.Most of the unreleased tracks are either solo performances by Scaravilli or products of the new reduced line-up and range from melancholic Italian Symphonic Rock with smooth guitars, flutes and keyboards to acoustic textures with a folky edge, the quality is very nice and the compositions are really decent, though not the best among Malibran's discography.For those not aware of the sound, imagine HOSTSONATEN and FINISTERRE both on stage.Some of the well-known Malibran's tracks like an instrumental version of ''The wood of tales'' or ''La Stagione Del Re'' along with unknown material have been captured live from early-90's and it is always a good thing to listen to Malibran's delicate and dramatic sound in a live performance, not to say that the compositions are great.The album contains also some cover songs like ''Rhayader'' by Camel, '' Cause We've Ended As Lovers'' by Jeff Beck or even ''Bouree'' by Ian Anderson in an effort by Scaravilli to add a slight Malibran flavor in these without any amazing result, as most of them are kept as they were.

Nevertheless this is an interesting Malibran collection, which contains enough material to make also a dedicated fan of the band purchase it.An album full of Italian romance and tradition and a nice addition for fans of Italian Prog, Symphonic Rock or Folk Rock.