LE ORME

This is the best way to get into their music, if you didn't tried them yet. I must admit, this was my first contact with Le Orme. I have heard of them, I have read reviews, and some people describe them as an italian ELP. Well, I love italian prog -I know, I love almost every kind of prog, but- and Emerson, Lake and Palmer are my all time favorites, so I decided to try this package. I thought that it couldn't be bad at all. But goddamn, this is awesome! It starts with the four first songs from L'infinito (2004), very creative songs, and the keyboards are very impressive. The use of the citar helps to create a different atmosphere, in a good way. So we have the full "A Side" performance from Uomo Di Pezza (1972), and hell, the show is getting better and better. Finishing with Cemento Armato (Collage, 1971), Aldo Tagliapietra briefly introduces the second half of the show, Felona E Sorona, the album from 1973, played entirely. I just can't full describe this, it's a masterpiece. The first song puts you into the mood for the album, without mistakes. The drummer is very prog, and I like his basketball jersey. Maybe the best live performance I ever seen. This DVD is actually my favorite into my collection.

What a disappointment. After an amazing four-album run between 1971 and 1974, Le Orme adds a guitarist and travels to California for the recording of their next album. The result was Smogmagica, a radical departure for the band and a failure in terms of consistency and lasting appeal. There are a few flashes of brilliance here and there, but they are so fleeting I can't get to three stars. The album is also terribly front-loaded; the first two songs are the best on Smogmagica and everything else pales in comparison. I hate to say the best thing about Smogmagica is its length...the short album doesn't outstay it's welcome. All Le Orme fans will want to acquire this at some point but the typical prog fan and even most RPI collectors will find Smogmagica largely non-essential.

Some would argue that Orme had lost their way by 1974 on Contrappunti; I personally love that album, and don't see Smogmagica as a logical extension of it. If only judging a book by its cover, you immediately know something is different here just from looking at the splendid Paul Whitehead sleeve. Unfortunately the contents don't quite live up to these expectations, and within lies second-rate rock music. Don't be misled by the excellent "Los Angeles" - it's all downhill from here, though the canonical "Amico di Ieri" has become a Le Orme staple over the years and deservedly so. The only other highlight is the listenable "Immensa Distesa." I can't figure out what "Ora o Mai Pui" is supposed to be...it sounds like the Beach Boys playing theme music for a TV sitcom. The intentionally trippy "Laserium Floyd" is an obvious ode to its namesake; "Primi Passi" and "L'Uomo del Pianino" are poorly-executed commercial attempts; "Amanti di Citta'" and "Laurel Canyon" are decent but nothing extraordinary. 2.5 stars is generous for this lackluster Le Orme release.

Venerdi is not nearly as bad as it's made out to be. True, the 80s production sounds dated by today's standards, but at the heart of the album is core Le Orme songwriting and memorable melody. Aldo Tagliapietra's voice sounds as pure and welcoming as it did ten years prior when the band recorded their acclaimed Felona e Sorona. Knowing what to expect when you go in and accepting it for what it is will garner a limited appreciation for Venerdi: This is not a prog album per se, but a prog band adapting to and embracing the electronic sounds of the day with success. I would argue Le Orme succeed on a level equal to Genesis' output of the same period, but failed to reinvent themselves as King Crimson did during the 1980s. The result is a satisfactory offering that was regrettably ignored and led to an 8-year hiatus for the group.

The lead-off track "Biancaneve" was used as the title for the Replay Music CD issue in 1995. For the purposes of this review, I will refer to the Self label's 2009 reissue, which faithfully recreates the original LP cover art and adds two bonus tracks. "Biancaneve" may alarm the Le Orme faithful, especially following the baroque-inspired Florian and Piccola Rapsodia Dell'Ape. The tone is decidedly commercial, although it does allude to the previous two albums by way of a Marimba intro, and steel drum accents throughout. The interesting "Arianna" does a great job of blending world music with electronic flourishes and the quintessential Le Orme romanticism. "Cechero" is the first moment that may cause you to think "what have I gotten myself into?" and scorn your listening choice. "La Notte" will either renew faith in the band's new direction or cause further derision.

"Venerdi" is the album's centerpiece and a capable instrumental. Remove the gated drum sound and digital synths and you're left with a vintage Le Orme composition that would not sound out of place on Contrappunti. "Marinai" loses the processed drums in favor of organic textures, and is reminiscent of 1977's Storia O Leggenda. "Storie Che Non Tornano" however is a byproduct of the era, and feels obsolete. "Rubacuori" tries to echo the standard Le Orme ballad formula, and does so with mixed results. "La Sorte" may be the most embarrassing track here, and is obvious filler material. "Com'era Bello" completes the original running order, and effectively summarizes the album's sonority, for better or worse. The two bonus tracks add limited value to an album that is ultimately for Le Orme loyalists only.

Felona e Sorona from 1973 is considered the peak of Le Orme most creative period - first part of the '70. If previous album was a great one, this album tops it, is even more complicated, the arrangements are very well performed and the musicianship is top notch, but in same time very romantic in aproach, like on most italian prog bands. Some killer instrumental parts on opening track Sospesi nell'incredibile nearly 9 min of pure beauty, incredible organ passages, very reminescent in some parts with Genesis (Nursery cryme or Foxtrot era) but combined with Le Orme finest song writting and dexterity on instruments. Another highlight and probably my fav track from the album and one of their best from first period is L'equilibrio, impressive musicianship here, the ekyboards, bass lines, the druming is more then excellent, top notch piece that rivals with best from Genesis , Yes or other big names from this field. The multy keyboards layers, differse organ and mellotron parts with symphonic twists combined with great voice of Also Tagliapetra make from this album a treasure in prog world and together with previous album two of the best italian prog rock albums ever made. 4 stars easy and recommended.

Le Orme is one of the finest and most influencial italian prog band in last 40 years.With their third album from 1972 named Uomo di pezza, the band manage to take the listners by storm, with this album they become world wide known and a respected band across the years. Combining symphonic elements with blistering keyboards - to me the most intresting and solid parts of the album together with the beautiful , warm voice of Aldo tagliapetra. Also the overall atmosphere has a romantic feel, typical for italian bands. Some killer instrumental passages here like on opening track or on La porrta chiusa, ElP meets Genesis with a italian romantic atmosphere. Definetly to me a very solid album together with their next one who is even little better. 4 stars easy, one of the most intresting italian prog rock albums from early '70 and a very nice art work.

A major shift and an exceptional, unique work

After eight studio albums in the rock and progressive rock realms, Le Orme made a major shift in style on their ninth album. However, rather than taking the predictable route so many prog bands tried in the late 70s Le Orme instead took a huge gamble. They released an album of classically inspired music, a marriage of chamber music, occasional folk touches, and their own experimental imaginations. The result proved successful on a critical level and no doubt on a personal level as the band managed a work of art in this difficult period which is loved by many to this day.

I think this album works so well because they have managed to avoid the many pitfalls that could trip up something like this. The songs are very melodic and yet not sappy or sweet. They sound quite ambitious, definitely progressive in the longer tracks, and yet never did it feel forced or contrived. Last, they managed to do something completely different from what they had done before, to turn their previous sounds on their ear, and yet still manage a final work that sounds thoroughly Orme. Relaxing acoustic guitars lead the way, yet this is no simple "unplugged" set whereby popular band X simply strums away to their hits. This has the same quest for creative worth as any of their better-known works. Atop the guitars are lively and restless strings, a violin lovers delight! Ditto with the piano, beautiful playing abounds. The percussion element is unique, trading basic drumming for hand percussion integral to the actual song, not just background beat-keeping. Finally, when Aldo does sing his voice is wonderfully complimentary to the album, bringing some warmth and familiarity to music that could initially be jarring to old fans of Le Orme.

The album is bookended by the two most progressive works, with prettier and simpler (yet still fine) tracks in between. The dramatic themes of the opening title track "Florian" are so interesting- here you are listening to this subtle chamber-style piece, yet in your head you can definitely "hear" the 1972 Orme playing this in full classic prog-rock mode, with the huge keys and loud rhythm section, and thing is, it works just as well here. There is naturally more beauty in this presentation and the power/impact, while subtle, clearly remains there for those paying attention. "Jaffe" is beautiful beyond words, with Aldo's voice and delicate strings punctuated by harpsichord providing that well considered richness of tapestry that would put the album over the top. "Fine di un Viaggio" has a bit more of a folk feel with the mandolin and sticks out a bit, the weakest track but still OK. The album closes with the other truly progressive monster, a perfect bookend to the opener "Florian." Like the opener it could easily be modified into a fully bombastic rock piece with electric guitars and banks of keys, but is instead the alter ego, refined, restrained, yet detailed as hell and fully engaging listening. These two pieces are ghosts of progressive rock epics.

So without question, dive right into Florian and give it some weeks and months to assimilate. It is a very rewarding album and not just for RPI fans, I think frankly anyone could enjoy this album. Involving and rich like a superb Cabernet, Florian is an excellent album. Very nearly a masterpiece, this album will tangle with their two early giants for the title of "my favorite Orme album." Just set aside your expectations and be prepared for a very different listening experience. Play this one only when you in the mood to kick back, relax, and give it your attention.

Standing somewhere between plain, boring and underwhelming

For a very long time, since the inception of progressive rock itself, Italy has been a powerhouse of that genre of rock on continental Europe, giving birth to a considerable number of well-regarded bands on these circles. Le Orme is one of such bands. Starting as a psychedelic/baroque rock band in the late 1960's and evolving to a power trio formation in the vein of Emerson, Lake and Palmer on the turn of the decade, the band experienced some moderate success during their early days.

As a lover of progressive rock music, I, of course, go in search of good music wherever it's from and, with the due time, Felona and Sorona reached my hands as I was shuffling through a second-hand shop. It is quite an old CD, by the way, being manufactured in Italy back in the late 1980's, but it is still in great shape overall. In spite of all that, I approached this album with some caution because I had no idea what was waiting for me and, even so, I was left disappointed. Actually, the only thing that did impressed me about this album is the fact that it is the best rated release by Le Orme, one of the best of the genre reserved for the (most part) symphonic bands from Italy and among the 100 top rated album of Prog Archives.

Since the introduction is finished, let's get to the good (or should I say bad?) part: the music.

First of all, Le Orme's formation, despite being exactly the same as other power trios such as the mentioned ELP, Triumvirat and Trace (and somewhat also related with Finch), the Italian band's music has no relation, nothing at all to do with mentioned bands because, for one, their music has no energy at all, it is impressively stagnant, having very little progress and innovation at all; for two, which is related with the former reason, they take no risks with their instruments: with so many possibilities and "what if"s, they manage to keep it at the most basic form of progressive rock composition; for three, if they don't make an effort to innovate how they use their instruments, everything will (as it does throughout the album) get immensely boring because that formation (rhythm, bass line and melodic line), albeit being dome with other instruments, has existed since the inception of the most basic forms of music, so nothing will sound quite new,

Second of all, the vocalist's voice is quite plain, average and indistinguishable from the voice of every other Italian singer. There is not anything redeeming about his singing abilities; he does not sing out of tune or anything in the like, but there is nothing quite positive about how he sings as well: it's just simple, unoriginal, it simply can't stand out from the crowd. Coupled with the equally underwhelming music, everything becomes one mass of uninteresting sound.

Third of all, the compositions are also far from being anything close to entertaining. Every songs seems like a collage (pun intended) of different melodic lines with close to no transition at all. their music sounds quite disjointed at many times, specially in the only song (besides All'Inuori del Tempo) they were able to write that clocks over 3 minutes. The opener, actually, is the hardest song to sit through exactly because of that reason, only individual melodic lines sound coherent within themselves, but they have no relation among themselves. The other songs do suffer from this problem, but in a lesser degree because, after all, just how can you make a 3 minute song as disjointed?

Moreover, the individual parts of each song, with very few exceptions, are not inspired as well. You can see their next move (within each part of each song, because you can never know what will come next since there is nothing between, there's no transition of musical ideas) even before they play it. Before this album, I imagined that one could only feel that one album lasts less than what it does (because it is so good you don't want it to end), but Felona e Sorona was able to prove that even an album with barely half-an-hour in length seemed longer than the QUADRUPLE ALBUMS about Dante's Inferno released by Musea. Truly an outstanding feature that few can do, even more in the progressive rock circles, where music is supposed to be interesting and innovative.

With all that considered, I must say that not everything is lost. Eventually a glimpse of a redeeming moment appears. However, a split second later they change the melody completely, with no transition, allow me to make myself clear, and then everything goes back to sounding bland. It really strikes me as unbelievable how can they drown their interesting ideas in oceans of musically uninteresting ideas; interesting content is indeed few and far between.

Rating and Final Thoughts

The Italian prog scene never struck me as being quite special and even though it has some very powerful and notable exceptions, such as Premiata Forneria Marconi, Quella Vecchia Locanda, Locanda delle Fate, among others, most of the scene has nothing interesting to present at all. In my search for good progressive rock, however, I always tend to make concessions, try new bands, give an album many spins in order to cement my opinions about it, anyway, I try and evaluate it the best I possibly can.

Having listening to this piece for a little more than two years, I don't believe my views on Felona e Sorona will change any time soon, so I believe it is time to put it out. It is all around a truly bad release. The only memorable thing about it for me is how terrible it sounds, how difficult it is to listen to it. For all that, 1 star is the most appropriate rating for it.

This album was my introduction to RPI. I don't even know where I stumbled upon it, but I can say very sincerely that it has become one of my favorite albums in the repeated listens since. What I like about Le Orme, and this album in particular, is that the music feels very structured and restrained. I am almost reminded of Pink Floyd when I listen to it, not by how it sounds, but by the attitude I hear in the music. Felona e Sorona doesn't get too out there, it is orchestrated and precise, never doing more than it needs to in a song. Whereas other RPI albums shine because of their dynamic, jazzy, exciting sound, the true beauty in FeS lies in how unified the album feels. For fans of a less-is-more approach to songmaking, FeS is an essential album to add to your collection.

''Elementi'' was followed by a great tour in South America by Le Orme, visiting Brazil, Mexico and Argentina.In 2002 another tour followed, this time Le Orme played in the biggest Italian cities.2004 sees the Italian prog masters' return to discography with ''L'infinito'', another excellent cover by Paul Whitehead, but the band decided to self-profuce and distribute the album on its own forces.

''L'infinito'' marks one of the most emotional-sounding albums ever composed by Le Orme, partly because Tagliapietra delivered some of his most melodic guitar solos and due to Bassato's 4 years-experience with the band, resulting to some solid atmospheric piano lines.This 17th official studio album by the Italian veterans is split between three particular styles.Some tracks flirt dangerously with Neo Prog, consisting of very melodic guitar solos, emotional vocals and flashy synthesizers, always performed under a very Le Orme-like atmospheric way.Some others are fully orchestrated with dual keyboard attacks, mainly organs and synthesizers, reminding of the band's mid-70's days, and ranging from grandiose passages to light piano interludes.The later part of the album though sees a return to their late- 70's roots, when Le Orme had a huge Ethnic influence in their style, with extended use of acoustic guitars, violins and sitars by the mastermind of the group Aldo Tagliapietra in a very artistic way and always accompanied keyboard parts and a smooth rhythm section, who's voice remains so young and fresh until today.

Another strong, confident, fresh and solid release by a band, who never actually lost the momentum of creating imaginative music.Not the very best album by Le Orme, but definitely a work that many modern bands still struggling to produce.Strongly recommended...3.5 stars.

This is the only album I've heard from this band, and therefore I can't judge it against their output, but it is easily the best known internationally, helped by the fact that it was released also with English lyrics penned by Peter Hammill. Dealing with two doomed planets, it attempted to be a concept album (a fashion at the time) but it's debatable how well it succeeds to be a coherent and unified piece of art. I get the emotion of the music but not the narrative level as I don't speak Italian. (But I believe it could be possible to sense the story better than this without understanding lyrics, with the power of music alone.) The tracks remain more or less separate instead of flowing seamlessly. The running time of 33½ minutes is sadly short (not rare with RPI!) but the music has truly deserved the classic status. Probably this would be among Top Ten of the most classic RPI albums - I mean this both objectively and subjectively.

Often Le Orme (meaning 'footprint') is described as Italy's ELP, due to being a keyboard trio featuring a singing guitar/bass player. This doesn't give credit to their genuinely Italian nature. For instance Triumvirat is Germany's ELP as much as anything can be without being a mere clone. Le Orme has an aura that couldn't be anything else than Rock Progressivo Italiano. Besides Tony Pagliuca is not at all the same kind of an eccentric keyboard virtuoso as Keith Emerson. This is a compliment, mind you. The sound is for the most part very loaded with keyboards but in a different way than ELP's. Also Aldo Tagliapietra is far from Greg Lake. He's more or less typical RPI vocalist (now forget the operatic tenor of Banco!), comparable to PFM.

The long and gorgeous opening track is followed by the sharp and bright song 'Felona' which gives the leading role to acoustic guitar. The rest of the album is mostly rather sad and dark-toned in a fine way. Even for a non-speaker of Italian the deep emotion is strong on this album. Michi Dei Rossi's drums are perhaps too buried in the mix; he's a sophisticated percussionist. So, solid four stars from me! Not five because it could be better in many levels (concept unity, production, length, even compositions that are a bit uneven against such shortness). By the way, great cover painting. I have a book "A Romance of the Equator - Best Fantasy Stories by Brian W. Aldiss" with almost similar picture.