QUADRI DI UN'ESPOSIZIONE

HI GUYS, WE ARE IN 2008.

I mentioned in my review of their first release (from .1974) that the band reunited and produced a second album almost thirty five years later. With the original line-up!

There were several reunions like this one before, and even if a few led to some interesting work, the majority was rather flat. I would say that this one is in the middle of the road (but on the lower side though).

The band sounds awkward during the opening of this album and vocals are frankly below average. The second of these Promenade sounds as a church song in the first half and doesn't really thrill me. It turns out as an old ELP track later on.

It seems as if the band didn't realize that we are into the CD era and that more time is available by now when you release an album. Murple released an extremely short album (thirty-four minutes) and each song (ten in total) is rather short as well. Now, considering the relative weakness of this work, it was maybe a good idea to keep it short.

Intrumental parts are the best ones (Tuileries, Bydlo) but highlights are really scarce (if only there are). The popish Il Ballo Dei Pulcini is what I would have liked the band to avoid. The mix of some classical theme with these beats are quite a useless exercise.

I would have expected a much better album from these people who released a great recording back then. Most of the music featured here sounds passionless; as if it were only business as usual for the band although that they didn't produced any album between 74 and 2008. They should have been more enthusiastic, dynamic, full of creativity and emotion.

Instead, they produced some uninspired music like Promenade & Limoges. This album sounds as a sub-sub-par ELP at times. And I still wait a moment of glory in here. And talking about glory, I was not expecting another church piece under the form of Catacombae. Press next, unfortunately.

Murple released an excellent album with Io Sono and even if this work is not bad, they should have cared less with this release. They would have remained an excellent reference in the genre. I am afraid that it won't the case with this one.

I am found of genuine Italian symphonic music. This album just doesn't fulfil my prerequisites. Two stars.

Murple was one of the many "one-shot bands" of Italian prog scene of the early seventies. After the release of their very good debut album "Io sono Murple" in 1974, they disappeared... until 2007, when three of the original members, Per Carlo Zanco (vocal, piano, keyboards), Duilio Sorrenti (drums, percussion) and Mario Garbarino (bass) reformed the band and, with the help of some guest musician like Sabina Gagliardi (vocals) and Edoardo Massimi (guitar), recorded a brand new album that was released by the independent label Btf in 2008. The album comes out with a good packaging and an interesting booklet where you can find the explanation of the "conceptual work"...

In 1874 took place in St. Petersburg an exhibition dedicated to the work of the Russian painter Victor Alexandrovich Hartmann. Modest Mussorgsky, who was a friend of the painter, composed his piano suite "Pictures at an Exhibition" on the emotional wave that was provoked by the paintings... Well, Murple's work is not a rock interpretation of Mussorgsky music (like EL&P's), but an original work inspired by the same paintings. On the booklet you can find the images of the paintings with a short commentary, so you can match music and images and have a "promenade" through the tracks of the album. "Quadri di un'esposizione" is a good work, although not outstanding. Sometimes vintage and modern sounds are mixed together a little bit clumsily, but the music flows away smoothly enough, track after track, during its less than 34 minutes length...

The first painting, "Promenade & Gnomus", represents a wicked dwarf wondering in a forest and a sound of spacey keyboards introduces a beautiful short symphonic track... "In the deepest dark of your wood / The meeting with that hidden being / Twisted limps spread fear...". The second scene "Promenade & il vecchio castello" is set in Italy where a troubadour sing his song before the walls of an old medieval castle in a sad landscape... The dreamy and baroque atmosphere is enriched by female vocals and by a good instrumental break in "Seventies style"... The third scene "Tuileries" is settled in Paris where some happy children play in a garden while the music is a short and joyful instrumental led by classical guitar and piano... The fourth painting, "Bydlo", represents an heavy Polish chariot towed by oxen and here the music curiously swings from vintage sounds to definitely more "synthetic atmospheres"...

The fifth painting, "Il ballo dei pulcini", represents some dancers disguised as chicks coming out from the eggs, while the music reminds me slightly of some works of Rondò Veneziano and Lucio Battisti. Next paintings "Samuel Goldenberg & Schmuyle" represent the meeting of two antithetic men and the music is built upon a "dialog" between piano and synthesizers. "Promenade & Limoges" represents a noisy scene in the market square of Limoges and here pop sounds are intertwined with a short drum solo and a "vintage organ flavour"... The eight scene, "Catacombae", depicts a visit to the catacombs of Paris and the music features a church choir and a good gothic atmosphere... The ninth painting represents "Baba Yaga", a bizarre witch, and the music inspired by this image in my opinion is by far the weakest track on the album, definitively too "poppish" (some melodic lines reminds me of a song of Zucchero, "Solo seduto su una panchina del porto..."). Tha last painting, "La grande porta di Kiev & Promenade", represents a project for a gate in city of Kiev while the music reminds me of Le Orme's "Verità nascoste" and features strings on a marching beat and a delicate piano outro...

On the whole, although non essential, this album should be interesting for Italianprog lovers...

While working on a second album, Murple became aware of the fact that their label BASF wanted an album per year by the band, an exhausting asking that led to instability between the members and the final demise of the group.Most of them remained involved in the music industry as teachers, musicians or producers in the following years.As with many obscure groups, Murple came again on surface through the various reissues of their sole album and the interviews following these releases.Eventually three of the four members, Piercarlo Zanco, Mario Garbarino and Duilio Sorrenti reunited in 2007 and decided to work on a second Murple work after 33 years.This was recorded at the Grop Studio in Roma, helped by Sabrina Gagliardi on vocals and Edoardo Massimi on guitar, released in 2008 on BTF under the title ''Quadri di un'esposizione'' (''Pictures at an exhibition'').

Seems like it hasn't past a year from ''Io sono Murple'' while listening to the album.Murple are in a very good shape, up-to-date with the current technologies around Prog Rock, but overall having a very nostalgic feeling regarding their music, which is pretty romantic, sensitive but also fairly symphonic with lush, well-executed arrangements.While the tracks are not particularly long (as the whole album is less than 34 minutes long), there are plenty of changes and different moods in each, starting from retro-inspired acoustic movements and emotional, lyrical textures and reaching the territories of keyboard-based Italian Prog with some good synth and organ acrobatics and a few impressive orchestral preludes.Lots of instrumental variations with dual keyboards recall more modern bands such as TAPROBAN and LA TORRE DELL'ALCHIMISTA.The atmosphere is trully great as a whole, somewhat lowered by an average production, and the group has given huge space to its instrumental skills than to its vocal delivery.The result is a beautiful Italian Prog album, typical example of a creation by veterans of the scene, with melodic and atmospheric soundscapes.

A nice comeback of a talented group.Do not get much closer to Classic-styled Italian Prog than this, although do not expect furious interplays or hard riffs.Expect though some delicate and attractive keyboard-driven musicianship of a melodic, symphonic nature.Warmly recommended.