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HARMONY OF THE SPHERES

Finisterre

Rock Progressivo Italiano


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Finisterre Harmony Of The Spheres album cover
2.49 | 18 ratings | 3 reviews | 11% 5 stars

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Boxset/Compilation, released in 2002

Songs / Tracks Listing

Disc 1 (76:35)
1. Al Piedi Della Grande Montagna (Finisterre) (6:35)
2. The Fall (Finisterre) (7:48)
3. Harlequin (Finisterre; Genesis Tribute) (3:12)
4. Refugees (Finisterre; Van der Graaf Tribute) (5:53)
5. Nimrodel (Finisterre; Camel Tribute) (9:37)
6. Alta Loma (Finisterre LIVE) (8:25)
7. Vorrei Incontrarti (Höstsonaten; prev. unreleased) (5:40)
8. Sea Song (Höstsonaten; Tribute to Canterbury Scene) (4:25)
9. Asia (Finisterre DEMO) (5:45)
10. Cantoantico (Finisterre DEMO) (11:17)
11. I-II-III-IV (Boris Valle Solo) (7:58)

Disc 2 (77:22)
1. SYN (Finisterre LIVE) (15:57)
2. Dal Chaos (Finisterre LIVE) (4:32)
3. Isis (Finisterre LIVE) (8:35)
4. The Garden (Höstsonaten; prev. unreleased) (13:56)
5. Morning (Höstsonaten; prev. unreleased) (10:00)
6. Seascape (Höstsonaten; prev. unreleased) (4:51)
7. Tecnicolor 2100 (Quadraphonic (Zuffanti Solo Projekt)) (19:31)

Total Time: 153:57

Line-up / Musicians

- Stefano Marelli / guitars, vocals
- Boris Valle / keyboards
- Fabio Zuffanti / bass, vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass pedals

Guest musicians:
- Davide Laricchia / drums
- Marco Cavani / drums
- Andrea Orlando / drums
- Francesca Biagini / flute
- Marco Moro / flute
- Sergio Grazia / flute, guitar, vocals
- Edmondo Romano / recorder, saxophone, percussion
- Stefano Cabrera / cello
- Osvaldo Giordano / keyboards
- Alessandro Chiesa / guitars
- Agostino Macor / keyboards
- Luca Scherani / keyboards
- Nicola Bottino / guitars
- Claudio Castellini / choirs
- Gianluca Faccio / acoustic guitars
- Fausto Sidri / recorder

Releases information

Note: An anthology of rare, unreleased, and Live from FINISTERRE, HOSTSONATEN, QUADRAPHONIC AND BORIS VALLE with songs from 1993 to 1999.

CD Mellow Records #MMP 422 A/B

Thanks to ProgLucky for the addition
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FINISTERRE Harmony Of The Spheres ratings distribution


2.49
(18 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(11%)
11%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(22%)
22%
Good, but non-essential (33%)
33%
Collectors/fans only (22%)
22%
Poor. Only for completionists (11%)
11%

FINISTERRE Harmony Of The Spheres reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Sean Trane
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Prog Folk
2 stars As Finisterre wound up its career, there was odd & ends , bits & pieces lying a bit everywhere and they decided to gather everything into a goodbye pack. There are covers from different Italian tribute albums for Camel , VDGG , Genesis and Canterbusy (Wyatt's Sea Song in this case) but also some live tapes from different era especially SYN from a french festival , some demos from their debut . Also too many Hotsonnaten stuff that are a bit out of scope and a long uninteresting piece to close off the second disc. the utility to own this double compilation is not real unless you are an unconditional fan. Most of the live tracks come from their debut album , so if you own that one , chances are that you will not want to dish out the full double disc price. I also thought that the presentation was cheap and slightly sloppy and had this been a single disc (by eliminating all non-Finisterre stuff) , this would have gained much better ratings.

Oh yeah, in case you are wondering the covers of Gen, Cam & Graaf are nothing to write home about either. Only the Wyatt song fares better. For unconditional fans.

Review by ZowieZiggy
PROG REVIEWER
2 stars This double album is a kaleidoscope of songs from different sources.

Some cover ones : "Harlequin" form "Genesis", "Refugees" from "VDGG" and "Nimrodel" from "Camel".

While the first one is alright (but let's be honest, it is not really the best "Genesis" song), "Refugees" is completely messed up. Vocals totally ruined this sublime VDGG song. It is one of my top five song from this great band and this cover just sounds awful. I have cried so many times when I was hearing this song (really). Because it is one of the most emotional one that I have heard in my loooooooooong musical life. When I hear this version, I am also crying. But because they screwed it up. What have they done to "my" song ?

The best cover is "Nimrodel". Really a pleasant trip back in the earlier "Camel" catalogue.

Some "Finisterre" live numbers as well (four, of which three from their debut album).

When I first listened to "Alta Loma" (an unrealeased song), I was just transported into my very teenage years. This song is a fantastic trip into "Caravanserai" from "Santana". The guitar featured here fully reminds me this great effort (and believe me, I have been living with this fabulous album for some thirty four years now). This track is the true highlight of this double CD set. If ever you are a "Santana" fan, do listen to this jewel. Please.

"SYN" was one of their best number featured on their debut album. It is very well played but some more of their beautiful fluting would have been welcome. But guitar work is so pleasant, so melodious that they are forgiven. This is a truely symphonic song which should please any proghead (and not necessarily fans from the Italian genre since it is fully instrumental). Another highlight here.

"...Dal Chaos...". Here is my comment of the studio album version : "The instrumental "...Dal Caos..." deserves its title. Fully chaotic, improvised music : Crimson in all the glory...". Do you get the picture ? Nothing special to mention about "Isis". It sounds more improv oriented in this live version and therefore does not please me as much as the studio version.

Some demo songs as well (a must, I guess...). Both from their debut album.

"Asia" is a very good instrumental and this version for "Cantoantico" (my fave one from "Finisterre" is fabulous. A fantastic and complex song. A great combination of Eastern influences, Crimson, light and fully Italian prog (beautiful flute). This is just a wonderful piece of music. Full of passion. Grandiose, really.

A big chunk of this release is dedicated to "Höstsonaten", another Fabio's project. Actually, this album might be as well be a "Höstsonaten" one since there will be more unreleased songs from this band than "Finisterre" ones. I personally preferred the former project.

The best example is "Vorrei Incontrarti". Fully symphonic, melodic, subtle. Some marvelous flute touches and a superb acoustic guitar background support. Vocals are the best ones you can get from ...any of these two bands. Another highlight. Altough I like "Höst" very much, a song as "The Garden" is truely useless. A repetitive electronic theme for about forteen minutes. Rather boring. Should have been skipped.

On the good side, a song like "Morning" is brilliant and would have deserved more than to sit on this type of compilation. Another highlight. But most of these "unrealeased" songs were left-overs and, as such, does not compare with the studio work (except "Alta Loma" of course).

There will even be two unreleased "Finisterre" songs ! "The Fall" is by far the best one and can also be consider as a highlight. The long (tweny minutes) "Tecniclor 2100" is a Fabio solo project. It is extremely dull and repetitive. Extremely boooooring.

This is a work difficult to rate. It holds too many different sources to be taken into account as one and only band effort. This compilation work might appeal both fans of "Finisterre" as well as "Höstsonaten". But it should also have been better presented. I would have preferred two single albums for each respective bands (and getting rid of "Tecnicolor").

Two stars for this extremely long release (over two hours and a half) ! Two stars.

Review by apps79
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
3 stars As Zuffanti steadily moved on to procuce new projects over and over, is was more than apparent that Finisterre was not his main priority anymore.In 2000 the live of the band at Progday 97' was released in two versions, as ''Storybook'' in Europe by Moonjune Records and simply entitled ''Live at Progday 1997'' by Proglodite for the US market.The decline of the band was confirmed in 2001, when Finisterre officially took a break so the band members could focus on their various emerging projects.However in 2002 an interesting double-CD compilation was released on Mellow Records.

This is more than a simple compilation, as ''Harmony of the spheres'' serves a variety of different roles, containing live Finisterre material, unreleased tracks of both Hostsonaten and Finisterre, demo versions of already known tracks, covers of songs by Camel, Genesis and Van Der Graaf Generator as well as personal arrangements by Finisterre's keyboardist Boris Valle and Fabio Zuffanti (under the project Quadraphonic), ending up in a sum of tracks clocking at over 2.5 hours!The live material of Finisterre consists of three tracks from the band's debut in more improvised versions but keeping all the grandeur and deep atmosphere of the compositions, great Italian Prog with plenty of symphonic and Jazz elements.The unreleased tracks of the band are interesting as well, nice and atmospheric Italian Prog with evident psychedelic influences and a tendency towards atmospheric passages.Hostsonaten's bonus material goes from hypnotic Post-Rock to full-blown Italian Symphonic Rock with organ and mellotron in evidence and again holds plenty of interest.

The demo versions of the Finisterre's tracks from the self-titled debut do not differ much from the studio versions.The sound of course is very raw and the production is rather rough, but all the intensity of the music and the great instrumental parts are present.Mr. Zuffanti has also chosen three Classic Prog tracks to be covered by his band, both Genesis' ''Harlequin'' and Camel's ''Nimrodel'' carry the same beautiful arrangements but the surprise comes with Van Der Graaf Generator's ''Refugees'', where Peter Hammill's voice has been now replaced by an operatic female singer and the track is driven exclusively by a string section, ending up to be a very positive whole new experience.

Boris Valle's solo material is much related to Hostsonaten's music.A hypnotic, ethereal and dreamy mix of Ambient music, Folk and Post-Rock with great flute and trombones throughout.Unfortunately I cannot type the same for Zuffanti's Quadraphonic effort.A 20-min. repetitive listening of Electronics and Ambient with mechanical programmed drums and nervous loops, which sounds a bit interesting, but fails to impress included in such a release, not to add that is way too overstretched.

To summarize, ''Harmony of the spheres'' is a good to great - and very different -compilation of tracks not only for Finisterre newbies but also for those deep into both Finisterre and Hostonaten releases.The unreleased material, the powerful energetic live cuts as well as the good cover tracks are likely to please all fans of diverse and flexible prog sounds.Strongly recommended, it is certain you will find plenty to like among these 150 minutes of artistic music...3.5 stars.

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