LIVE

Now we have the chance to listen to this nice Italian band on stage, it is always cool to know both sides of a band, I mean, live and in studio, the sound will not be the same, sometimes it sounds better on stage, others on studio, so in a way we can compare and make some decisions.

Ritratto di un Mattino release in 2005 a live album and a demo, this time I am reviewing the first which is actually a very short live concert where we can enjoy some of their representative songs, along with one cover that let us know their roots.

This live album features 4 songs (that could be 6) and a total time of 27 minutes, opening with their classic and favorite "Il Cimitiero delle Fate" which is an excellent symphonic-eclectic song that shares a dark atmosphere at times produced by those bass notes, the vocals are very good and I have to say that the guitars and keyboards play a wonderful role here, this is a very strong and complete song which sounds excellent on stage.

Next we have "a) La Stranza Vuota / b) Oltre le Stelle" which are two different songs actually but shorted to one that lasts 8 minutes. The sound is very good, there are some moods and rhythm changes, the bass lines are always great and the keyboard as leader or as just background does a great job.

They wanted to play a cover of one of their inspirations, and now we have "Celebration", yeah that original song from PFM now performed byt Ritratto di un Mattino, they do it very good actually, the thing I don't understand is why they didn't sing it in Italian (E'Festa).

This live album finishes with another two on one song, "a) Canto Dispari and b) Perché, another 8 minutes of excellent music from their debut album, the music here is great, challenging with amazing instrumental passages, I like the way the keyboard changes from being the leader as a supporter, the mood created is also cool, sometimes dark and sometimes warm, this was a nice way of ending this short live album.

After this, I would attend to a Ritratto di un Mattino concert, they did it well and I enjoyed listening to this, what a pity is lasted less than 30 minutes; anyway my final grade will be 3 stars, a nice way to get into this band.

Enjoy it!