A LIVE

This release captures the live show of Picchio Dal Pozzo along with Yugen at the 2008 Altr0ck festival. The concert features 5 songs form their first album, the single, Uccellin Del Bosco, from the Abbiamo period, one from Camere and one from Pic_Nic. The closing track is a re-discovered lost track from the Abbiamo album that a fan had on cassette and passed it to the band.

I've already disclosed my high opinion of Yugen in the reviews for their albums and I am also a fan of Picchio Dal Pozzo, having three of their four releases, so it was exciting to hear about a concert they'd be playing together, the music of Picchio Dal Pozzo. These two groups don't sound alike, but both represent an experimental musical spirit, an ambitious and forward thinking approach. And so having them unite on stage, old and new guard, is definitely an event to anticipate.

First of all the sound is great; full, rich and clear. One can discern the instruments playing and the small details. Also, even though the music played has a wide dynamic range, this does not affect the qualities of the recording and both the high and low ends are heard quite well (though the bass distortion in "Il Presidente" is sometimes on the edge). Second, they don't just play the old tunes; they refresh them, expand, prolong and bring new life into them. It's like hearing these songs for the first time again, I get as excited as then. And so if one (such as I do frequently) asks "why would I get this live show if I can hear the original songs on the album?", then I'd tell them because the band doesn't simply play these songs without thought and just spews them out. They practiced with Yugen and came up with different versions of the songs; not that they completely changed them, but they've certainly altered them in terms of length and structure as well as in sound and layering. But most importantly is the passion and dedication that come out of the musicians playing. Obviously this is subjective, but the feeling I get from listening is that they are thrilled to play this music, have fun doing it and give their fullest to create this great sounding concert.

If you're a fan of the band, I highly recommend this release; it's like re-discovering the band. If you're new to the band and don't know them well or at all, this is a good as any entry point (though I always prefer getting studio albums in chronological order). In any case, this is an accomplished performance that's deserving of praise.

Well I have to agree with Torodd on the 4.5 star rating here.This is PICCIO DAL POZZO's first live album and we have three of the original members taking part along with the band YUGEN. So yes this is a special recording to say the least. I actually bought this and YUGEN's latest studio album at the same time and while they are both great records I do prefer this one. Most of the tracks here come off of their debut with one each off of their other three studio albums."Lindbergh" the final track was from the "Abbiamo" sessions but not included on the album.The sound quality here is pretty amazing as well.

"Merta" opens with acoustic sounds that slowly build until it kicks in to great affect at 3 1/2 minutes.Too much ! Sax around 5 1/2 minutes along with some prominant bass. "Cocomelastico" is fairly laid back as sounds slowly come and go. A change after 2 minutes as it sounds like there's a party going on in the background as piano, drums and bass play on.The opening soundscape returns later to end it. "Off" opens with piano melodies as other pastoral sounds come and go including clarinet.Vocal melodies before 2 minutes when the piano stops and it becomes atmospheric. Piano is back 3 1/2 minutes in when the vocals stop. "Presidente" opens with horns, piano and vocals. It picks up before 1 1/2 minutes as the drums join in.Vocals stop and piano and a heavier sound takes over.Vocals are back after 3 minutes. It settles after 6 1/2 minutes. A drum show after 8 minutes then we get some insanity to end it.

"Adriatico" opens with the sounds of chickens then guitar sounds and word samples take over.Things get rolling around 2 minutes.Vocal expressions come and go then they stay as it becomes emotional when they slow down then stop 8 1/2 minutes in. Moving stuff. "La Bolla" opens with samples then this soundscape comes in reminding me of NUCLEUS for some reason. I like it. Lots of atmosphere and it's fairly slow moving. It turns dissonant and intense after 4 1/2 minutes. A calm before 7 minutes then that NUCLEUS vibe returns. "Uccellin Del Bosco" is where the band is introduced as a beat with piano and horns coming and going provide the backdrop.Vocals after 2 minutes then it turns heavy. "Napier" is mellow with horns to start then the tempo picks up and other sounds join in.Vocals before 4 minutes as it settles. It picks back up some before we get a pastoral ending. "Lindbergh" opens with keyboards and other sounds.Vocals before a minute start to lead with piano. Some abrasive sounds before 3 minutes come and go. Horns 4 1/2 minutes as it turns dreamy to the end. Nice.

My kind of music and one of the highlights of 2010.

Italian ensemble PICCHIO DAL POZZO (PDP hereinafter) can trace its roots back to the early 70's. The main members started working together in 1973 and didn't actually choose a band name until an album's worth of material had been recorded in 1976 and their label at the time needed a band name to publish it under. Since then PDP has released a further four productions, of which "A_Live" from 2010 is the most recent.

Those who have a general appreciation for avant-garde progressive rock that doesn't adhere to the aggressive, in?your-face approach, but instead opts to explore features of a gentler and more subtle nature should find this live CD by these Italian veterans to be a real treat: well-performed and well-captured live footage, featuring a rich myriad of sounds and details, delivered by the nine-man-strong ensemble on stage. A general appreciation of jazz-inspired efforts will be essential to derive full enjoyment from this production, which might limit the target audience slightly. Overall, this is a very good live album from two sophisticated avant-garde bands collaborating to showcase works by one of them in the best manner possible.

Well, 70's group reunion have become rather common in the 00's, and this proghead has seen some spectacularly good concerts and resulting albums, and unfortunately a lot of rather deceiving (to stay polite) pure-exploitation or retirement-fundraising projects. OK, maybe in the latter case, the involved parties enjoyed themselves, but I'm rather sure that a big part of the audience probably did nearly as much and most tried to make the best of it. I was a bit surprised back then to hear the PDP had reformed after about twenty years of inactivity, despite the excellent posthumous album from Cuneiform, which no doubt had revived memories from the band members. Was this reunion credible, especially that it was greatly achieved with the help of a much more modern group Yugen. I guess I should've explored PdP's latest Picnic studio release, but never got around to it. Despite the latter group's excellent musical aptitudes, this looked like a revival project and I hadn't tried to really investigate it, before laying my eyes on it. Anyway, with a rather uninviting (and ugly) electronic artwork and title, it took me a while (the full length of the RIO fest of '10 in Carmeaux) to risk buying it deafly (I couldn't say blindly in this case) directly from the AltRock stand.

Given my weariness of reunion projects, my main criteria was the presence of four tracks from their marvelous debut album and one from their less-accessible Abiamo album, and one from the Camere Cuneiform release, while the rest of the track list was unknown to me. And a paying gamble it was, because the track selection is simply excellent and so is the sound. Indeed, the Meria, Cocomelastico, Bolla and Napier tracks are simply as superb as their studio version, sticking fairly well to the original as well with the Yugen member bringing some brilliant support, but it doesn't affect the gentle Canterburyan ambiances of the tracks, except for maybe Cocomelastico, which seems a little more energetic and Napier's more eclectic moments. Where Yugen's contributions are better felt are in the Abbiamo album track Uccellin or Il Presidente or their latest Adriatico track that opens on chicken shack noises before echoing away, until a slightly Soft-Crimson-esque ambiance with some wild winds and a challenging vocal passage (courtesy of Area's Stratos frontman) in its finale, they all have a RIO feel and can be classified as Avant-prog.

I can't see from which album Off comes off though, but it's sonically closer to the atmospheric debut than the complexier Abbiamo, or the Camere release. As for the Lindbergh bonus track, they pretend it's from a cassette direct-transcript and dates from the Abbiamo sessions, and it would be an excellent mastering job then in terms of tape hiss but it takes away a bit from the Abbiamo sound, which might not be a bad thing, IMHO. I've seen some live footage of three tracks of that AltRock gig since, and I must say that the magic does kind of work on video too. Actually, to be honest I'd prefer having the full 60- mins set on DVD, rather than on CD, but two tracks wouldn't be on it (outside the Lindbregh bonus), since they come from a previous festival. Maybe one day.