CHANGES

Pre-Zenit/Shakary Swiss group, formed sometime in the 80's around the Ticino area with Luigi Pedruzzi on drums, Andrea De Carli on vocals, Gianni Zanella on guitar/synthesizers and Moreno Antognini on bass.This line-up recorded the rare nowadays vinyl album ''Images to remember'' in 1990, after which De Carli and Antognini left the band.Pedruzzi and Zanella introduced Paolo ''Scandy'' Scandella on vocals/bass/keyboars and prepared a second album under the title ''The growing number''.Drum parts were recorded at the fall of 93' at Flying Studios in Gravellona Toce, the rest of the album was recorded around the same time at Rehearsal Studios in Giubiasco.In two tracks the trio was helped on keyboards by Ivo Bernasconi (later with Zenit) and Philip Hubert of Clepsydra fame.

''The growing number'' sounds exactly as expected by a pre-SHAKARY/ZENIT band, that has not fully matured but revealed some excellent, talented musicians.The first album of CHANGES is said to follow a SAGA-like direction and ''The growing number'' continues in the same vein of easy-listening AOR/Prog, containing also some very bombastic keyboards as met in the future in the albums of SHAKARY.The aim of the band was to produce some catchy choruses and decent melodies via a compact songwriting, pleasant grooves and clean vocals and they did a very nice job.The longer tracks sound a bit more elaborate with a mood for a sound upgrade through the use of symphonic keyboards and some changes between fast and laid-back tunes, while even the singing becomes more flexible.There is an 80's flavor apparent throughout the album, especially on some thin synthesizer solos, but the listener will be rewarded with well-crafted compositions with a few dramatic instrumental parts, like the magnificent guitar work on ''A chance to win'' or ''Human nature''.The short pieces are closer to Melodic Rock/AOR with a few Arena Rock elements akin to early MYSTERY, passing from sharp guitar solos and atmospheric synthesizers to emotional vocals and memorable choruses.

The sequel of Changes is more or less known.Pedruzzi became a long-time member of Zenit, while Scandy was the leader of Shakary, not to mention his involvement with Clepsydra lyricalwise.

Decent work of AOR-friendly Neo Prog, filled with efficient guitar textures and some great, symphonic keys.Recommended.

Well here I am writing a review on my own cd. Does it make sense? Well, i think it does if the review is honest. Actually my goal is, as it should always be on this site, simply this one: let you know what's on this record. After 16 years from the release of this one, i cannot be accused of trying to sell my own records! So, what's on " the growing number" ? First of all is a concept album based on the novel "Logan's run" from which not only a big Hollywood production was born, but also a british sequel and even comic books. I loved the book and since I had to write lirycs for song already existing I decided to tell this story about a world where life was possible only untill the age of 21... Hte songs were already composed, so what i did was take a song and figure out which part of the story could be told on the music. So the track list was originated by the story. But what about the music? Well, 3 people with different interests in music and influences from 3 bands: saga, rush, asia. In what percentage? I'd say 50% saga, 30% asia (mainly for vocal lines) and 20% rush for song structures. How does it sound? Odd...at least. The songs are way too complicated to sound commercial, but far too simple to be 70's prog. It was recorded, mixed and mastered far too fast and low budget. So it sounds a little bit too pretentious today. But of one thing I'm sure: it is prog! It's all about melting musical experiences together, sounding strange and interesting, trying to put all we loved about 70's music in a four minutes song of the eighties. Did we succed? I don't know, but I'm proud of the songs, the melodies, the arrangements, the performaces on this record. I don't like the mixing and the mastering, they don't give this recordings the right dimension it deserved. Last but not least the vocals: i'm not mother tongue, that's evident, and even some grammatical errors are there to signify our boldness of the time. I learned a lot doing this record, and I think it shows on the next thing i did, Shakary's Alya...but that's another story.