IN OGNI LUOGO IN OGNI TEMPO

In true progressive rock fashion, this album cover is a colorful depiction of someone's vivid imagination, in a Salvador Dali science fiction like style. The Italian band that calls itself PERIFERIA DEL MONDO, which means "Periphery of the World," is one of the world's best-kept secrets. Their advanced and complex sounds come compiled into one impressive amalgam of rock and jazz music.

This stunning LP comes housed in gatefold sleeves with lyrics (a combination of Italian and English) and colored photos of the group on an enclosed sheet; in addition to that, you get a bonus 45. The liner notes found on the inner sleeves of the album are in Italian. If you really are interested in a translation, you could go to the Alta Vista translation site, although it would be very time consuming to type everything in manually. I do not think it is worth spending the time to do that and I prefer to just listen and enjoy the music. Their music sounds brilliantly recorded and arranged throughout this LP, thus it is so enjoyable that you can understand it in your own way even if you do not know Italian. There is not that much singing to distract you from the most important part of this experience, the music. This band is an outstanding group of musicians that puts a refreshing spin on things with their tight and crisp prog-rock compositions.

I went online to see what kind of attention they were getting and it looks as though they are recognized for their accomplishments and have a quite a following. This does not come as a surprise to me at all as they certainly sound as if they are accomplished musicians. Everyone that listens to music of any kind will tell you that it speaks the universal language of entertainment. PERIFERIA DEL MONDO is one of the better Italian progressive rock bands that I have heard, and there are many, so it remains a difficult task to separate your work from everyone else that is doing the same thing. I think that they successfully accomplish their mission in making you aware of how special they are on this album.

[Banco vocalist Francesco Di Giacoma and guitarist Rodolfo Maltese guest on the first track, "L'Infedele," as well as helping out during the mixing of the album. -ed.]

Rating: 3.5/5

It's such a good debut album of PDF (from Rome), regarded as followers of the jazz-fusion/progressive scene in Italy (think of Banco del Mutuo Soccorso and Ezra Winston for instance, in some circumstances only, but above all Arti e Mestieri from Northern Italy.), a bit symbolizing the re-birth of the progressive movement, along with their pretty album cover picture (from a famous painting by Eugene Barman, a Russian artist) which is worth checking out at least!

Of course it's their gift to the old Italian jazz progressive genre, which sometimes is far away from the Romantic movements, being often in the vein of another jazz rock ensemble like Perigeo, but you can't forget all the other styles, making this band a versatile ensemble (well actually let me think of an experimental project such as that one-for example- by "A Triggering Myth", an American Duo, and soon I lose interest for PDF, but it's only a question of personal tastes...). Anyway, coming to the present issue, the allegoric meanings regarding the artwork of such cover pictures of the seventies, in this case are used-actually- with the purpose to express their protest against the media, which still nowadays relegate the underground progressive scene into the margin. Otherwise sometimes also a remarkable band like Il Balletto di Bronzo was relegated on the fringe of the music market, above all when They chose a controversial cover picture portraying the bust of a famous dictator on a black background.at that time much "politically uncorrected" (even though their intention was absolutely diverse and clean too!!). Instead, talking about this debut album, the presence of Rodolfo Maltese and Francesco di Giacomo in "L'Infedele", supporting the Italian sextet in a excellent manner as usual, is important and quite exciting as well!! Therefore if you regard of the introduction by Area in the informative notes, the real masters of progressive jazz, "In Ogni Luogo." is also advisable for the followers of this particular "wide-ranging" music genre, a bit referred to the famous "creature" by Demetrio Stratos.

Interesting work!!

PERIFERIA DEL MONDO are another jazz rock outfit coming from Italy,who were founded in Rome by mid-90's.The band managed to debut in 2000 with the eponymous album ''Periferia del mondo'' and,despite categorized as jazz rock,this album offers a blend of musical styles like jazz,funk,symphonic and psychedelic rock.

The start of the album is excellent.''L'infedele'' features an amazing AREA-related intro and outro with beautiful clarinet,heavy guitars and nice keyboards,while the middle section is dominated by the expressive vocals of Francesco DiGiacomo.Not surprisingly this section is similar to the best works of BANCO DEL MUTUO SOCCROSO.Despite the amazing start,the next songs do not offer the same level of high expectations.''Ladro'' is an average funky/jazz track comparable to NIACIN,while the next track ''Leave your daily'' is an interesting one with a funky synth start and a beautiful symphonic ending section.''I bless the night'' is an amateur dull ballad with english lyrics but with heavy italian accent,not my cup of tea.''Meltemi'' is a strange track.Despite some vocals and a jazz rock arrangement in the starting section,the track soon delivers some kind of spacey/psychedelic music for about 5 min with loops and keyboard effects and the jazz face of the band returns at the end again.''In ogni luogo''... comes next and its a great one.Alternating between heavy guitar moments and acoustic/vocal dominated ones with some addition of good sax,this track shows the talent of the band.In ''Brand-Y'' the funky face of the band returns but soon the track delivers only some drum solos by Tony Zito,so at the end the interest for the track is limited to zero.The 12-min. ''The ghost'' is also sung in english (I prefer the italian language for the Italians) and delivers the more symphonic/eclectic face of the band with average results.Some nice piano and acoustic guitar,very good sax,beautiful background keyboards are what you will meet in this one, but unfortunately the sound of the heavy electric guitar spoils the good arrangement as it sounds a bit out of the whole atmosphere...

PERIFERIA DEL MONDO are a band with talent and good potential for the future.My personal recommendations would be a more specific style of playing and the language of the lyrics to be limited in italia.For now,this is a decent 3 star album,easily recommendable to those who like a variety of rock styles in a single album,maybe with a heavier jazz dose....

3.5 stars. PERIFERIA DEL MONDO is the project of BANCO's woodwind player Allesandro Popotto, he also is the vocalist here. We actually get a couple of BANCO members helping out on the first track as well. Man this album is all over the place when it comes to styles. In my opinion there are three great tracks on here while the other five are ok to pretty good. Vocals are in English and Italian.

"L'infedele" is one of those great tracks with BANCO's legendary Francesco Di Giacomo on vocals and Rudolfo Maltese on guitar. It opens with what sounds like news samples before the music kicks in sounding so much like AREA. Nice bass too. A calm before 2 1/2 minutes with acoustic guitar. Flute joins in then organ. Female vocal melodies before 4 minutes. It's building. Francesco comes in singing before 5 minutes. Nice. The song ends with that strong AREA flavour. "Ladro" is jazzy with piano and vocals standing out. The guitar is prominant too. Drums and bass lead after 2 minutes. Vocals and that earlier soundscape return. "Leave Your Daily" kicks in quickly. Fast paced vocals join in. It's ok. "I Bless The Night" opens with melancholic acoustic guitar. Keys join in followed by reserved vocals. A fuller sound before 3 minutes. It turns melancholic again as contrasts continue. Not a bad ballad. "Meltemi" is one of those excellent tunes. Organ, sax and drums open the proceedings in a dramatic way. Sax then leads as the tempo picks up. Nice bass too. Vocals join in. Intricate guitar 2 minutes in. It turns kind of spacey then the guitar and chunky bass come in. Sax too.Vocals are back 9 minutes in.

"In Ogni Luogo In Ogni Tempo" is the other top three. This one gets pretty heavy as the mellow sections and heavy are contrasted throughout. "Brand-Y" has to be a reference to BRAND X no ? A jazzy affair with horns,keyboards, bass and drums standing out. Some guitar too. Not a fan of the 3 minute drum solo though. No vocals. "The Ghosts In The Shell" is a good way to end it. Faint sounds to start as reserved vocals and string synths come in. The tempo picks up then it gets heavier. It settles a minute later as contrasts continue. It ends with a thunder storm and sax.

It's a shame this one isn't rated higher, and my 3.5 stars isn't going to change that unfortunately. A talented band I just think they could have done better here.