CONCERTO ZERO - LIVE 1972/2003

A bittersweet live release.

As some of you may know, RPI is one of my favorite progressive rock genres, so there are a lot of bands from this country which I love. One of those bands is surely Campo di Marte and their one and only studio album released back in 1973, a great example of how good prog rock records Italy has given to the world. But well, after so many days without listening to them, I incidentally found at y new job a guy who likes progressive rock, so of course we have talked about it and even shared some CDs and DVDs. He kindly introduced me to this Campo di Marte release, a two-CD live album in which we can find a concert from their early years (1972) and one from a reformation in this new millennium (2003).

Overall, I could say this album gave me very good moments, I mean, the musicians (both lineups) are great, they know what to do and one cannot simply judge that. What left me with a bittersweet flavor was basically the quality sound of the first CD which honestly is really poor, horrible, so despite I wanted to enjoy the music I could not do it because in moments it was difficult to understand the music, nothing was clean so the experience has been totally negative. So I believe it was a nice effort to rescue those old tapes and put it into a CD, but I think it was a waste of time and something unnecessary.

The positive side comes of course with CD 2, because so many years have passed, the production is way better so is the listening experience. However, the sound could have been even better and cleaner, I mean, I have listened to a lot of live records and most of them has a better quality than this one. But well, what we can enjoy here is the performance of that 1973 album with some new musicians and a more powerful sound, with great keyboards and guitar solos. Of course, Enrico Rosa's voice and playing was as good as in the old times, I cannot deny it.

Honestly, I would not recommend this live bootleg, only if you are a collector and want to increase your number of acquisitions. My final grade will be two stars.

However... enjoy it!

"Concerto Zero" is a double album by Campo di Marte that was released in 2003 on the independent label Vinyl Magic - Btf with a beautiful packaging and extended liner notes about the history of the band. Soon after 1974 Campo di Marte split up, guitarist Enrico Rosa, main composer and lyricist of the band, left Italy and relocated in Denmark. It wasn't until 2003 that Campo di Marte came to life again for some concerts in Tuscany and for the recording of this live album with a new line up featuring Enrico Rosa (acoustic and electric guitar, vocals), Eva Rosa (recorders, WX5 wind synth), Mauro Sarti (drums), Maurilio Rossi (bass - from Goad) and Alexandr Matin Sass (piano, organ, keyboards).

The first CD contains four tracks taken from a 1972 concert recorded at a venue in Florence, The Space Electronic. According to the liner notes, it was conceived as a demo recording and it's nothing but a document of the early days of the band, before the release of their eponymous album. Four tracks for little more than half an hour music where you can hear in nuce from the original line up many ideas that will be developed on the debut album. Listening to "Prologo parte 2 (Settimo Tempo)", "Alba (Secondo Tempo)", "Epilogo (Quarto Tempo)" and "Prologo parte 1 (Quinto Tempo - Sesto Tempo)" could be interesting for fans of the band but the sound quality is really awful and I fear that all the efforts to recover the music from the original source (an old test pressing LP) were almost pointless...

The second CD was recorded "live in studio" in 2003, a good way to warm up for the concerts of the thirtieth anniversary of the band... Of course, the sound quality is definitely better. "Primo - Settimo Tempo", a medley from the eponymous album, is a great opener where it can be seen that the magic is not gone even after the long hiatus. Enrico Rosa here shows to be still alive and kicking and the new line up is up to the task... The following "Back In Time" is a dreamy instrumental track with a medieval flavour that could recall The John Renbourn Group. It gives way to "Bluesy Rocky", where the rhythm rises and the band mix delicate jazzy passages and harder parts with gusto, then it's the turn of "Italian Irish", a calm acoustic ballad turning into a kind of tarantella that reminds me slightly of BMS (in particular of "Non mi rompete" finale).

After three interesting new tracks the old repertoire comes back for the new arrangements of "Secondo Tempo" and "Terzo - Quarto Tempo" with another short new track, "Rock Barock", that ends the set with a burst of positive energy. A live recording, considered a bonus track, "Outro: July The 12th 2003" closes the second CD.

On the whole, a good appetizer that unfortunately did not lead to the release of a brand new studio album featuring only new original prog stuff from Campo di Marte. But you never know, Enrico Rosa is still active and maybe, if someone asks him, for the fiftieth anniversary of the band...