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ART FLEURY

RIO/Avant-Prog • Italy


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Art Fleury picture
Art Fleury biography
Italian group ART FLEURY, born in Northern Italy, Brescia has been a grave oversight from the Italian Avant scene, lost amidst the fertile artistic works of the time. It was not until the unearthing (re-issue) of their first album 'I luoghi del Potere' by experiment label Die Schachtel that the young group received wider spread recognition. Starting in their teens ('76) they opened for quirky Jazz-fusion legends Area at the Parco Lambro Festival in Milan. From here the band joined the Cooperativa L'Orchestra - a Milan based musical collective of experimental artist - to shortly change their name to Art Fleury.

Between these beginnings and the releasing of their first album ('80) Art Fleury played and toured alongside RIO greats Henry Cow. This influence is stamped on their unique take on Rock in Opposition. Beside Henry Cow influences can be heard from Franco Battiato's experimental works, Faust and Nurse With Wound. Their sound straddles a dynamic juxtaposition of RIO-esque brass fragments and a mélange of tape-loops and radio frequencies, resulting in a cacophony of sounds that find themselves in surprisingly harmonic territory.

"Superficially (or intentionally) ascribed to the "progressive" genre, "i luoghi del potere" (originally conceived as the soundtrack of an imaginary movie), is in fact a very personal and radical experience, through which music becomes once again the vehicle for the re-appropriation of our personal sphere, and at the same time a chance to rethink the way we listen to music, out of any pre-ordered cultural, social or political context. in other words, out of the "places of power" which are still alive and active." *

Their second album 'The Last Album' ('81) while retaining their experimental attitudes takes a more song-orientated formate giving a definite nod towards the growing new wave scene. The album was produced at Sunrise Studios recording home to other such acts as: Cassiber, Art Bear and Univers Zero.

Concluding their second album the band veered away from their RIO roots, now encompassing a new wave sound.

Recommended to fans of Faust's concrete side and deconstructed rock.


* Excerpt taken from http://www.die-schachtel.com/editions/ds14.htm

Bio compiled from information on Die Schachtel label.




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ART FLEURY discography


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ART FLEURY top albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

3.19 | 17 ratings
I Luoghi del Potere
1980
3.00 | 8 ratings
The Last Album
1981
3.33 | 3 ratings
New Performer
1983

ART FLEURY Live Albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

ART FLEURY Videos (DVD, Blu-ray, VHS etc)

ART FLEURY Boxset & Compilations (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

ART FLEURY Official Singles, EPs, Fan Club & Promo (CD, EP/LP, MC, Digital Media Download)

3.25 | 4 ratings
L'Overdose
1980
2.00 | 2 ratings
Hard Fashion Girls
1981
4.00 | 1 ratings
U.K. Is Dead
1981
5.00 | 1 ratings
New Performer
1983

ART FLEURY Reviews


Showing last 10 reviews only
 I Luoghi del Potere  by ART FLEURY  album cover Studio Album, 1980
3.19 | 17 ratings

BUY
I Luoghi del Potere
Art Fleury RIO/Avant-Prog

Review by Guldbamsen
Special Collaborator Retired Admin

3 stars Astronaut radio one-on-one

Careful now! Coming out the RIO back-door, Art Fleury were one of those obscure little bands that started out as mere teens in the late 70s. These mad Italians actually toured with both Henry Cow and Italian madhatters Area back in the day, although this was before they got to record their first album. It was first in 1980 that this record saw the light of day, and whether they used all of their time begging for some studio time during punk and discos heyday - or just honed their skills and magical sorcery for the great big showdown - I honestly don't know.

What I do know is that you need to approach this album with care. As a matter of fact, if you shy away from music that just feels a tiny bit out of place, dissonant, quirky or detuned - then run away as fast as you can - real quick now!! Art Fleury are a strange band. They play an abnormally bizarre kind of RIO with musical jig saw pieces that don't necessarily fit together - dress them up in all kinds of electronic buzzing and eclectic sound bits - and whoops out comes this weird and totally unique sonic monster. It's bizarre, circus-like, occasionally rocking but not the way you think and at times wonderfully ambient and soaring.

Talking about this music is like reading David Hume to a 5 year old with a serious hearing deficit. I feel like a closed door - or some kind of awkward oyster who's battling its shut jaws - trying to express how much love its got for a bucket of the Atlantic Ocean. Arhh nuts - well anyway here goes nothing: To this humble listener it feels like musical montages created by crooked and bend pieces of sound - be that musical bits, radio broadcasts, field recordings, tape-loops, toy store gadgetry or a violent storm with thunder and lightning. In a strangely inharmonious meeting this album reflects on the RIO past of old with a monstrous way of cutting up music in uneven segments. Much of the time I've spent listening to this beast, I've felt like the only person on the planet who's managed to tap into the secret radio broadcast coming out of Saturn's rings. A bunch of Italian schizophrenic musicians/astronauts/radio-hosts out there in the emptiness of space have obviously been mixing the music backwards and in the wrong order - whilst their in house jam band is playing offbeat organ bits along with the star-struck space DJ who's bashing the radio percussion tap tap tapping away on the knobs and buttons like a disorientated beat-boxer.

Sometimes I get slow moving burial cortege music where the organ moans away like a rolling staircase of sadness. In the periphery of this I get wafting titbits of zooming radio segments, tape-loops and bizarre percussive splashes. It's like musical porridge - you know that sticky icky substance only conveyed in sound and sonic matter, but then out of the blue you hit a piece of chilli - or a piece of salt liquorice. Zing!

What I am trying to convey here is that you'd better be prepared for some genuine avant-garde music, before you decide to plunge into this bowl of porridge. This is the deep end folks and only for trained swimmers, but if you happen to adore the music of Henry Cow, John Cage and the experimentalism of Area's Maledetti, then you should definitely get your diving suit out. This is the bee's teeth and if you haven't yet gone a bit mental from all this prog rock, then I challenge you to sit through this one without thinking bizarre and strange thoughts about polar bears on stilts and just how many bananas it takes to kill a gibbon monkey.

 The Last Album  by ART FLEURY  album cover Studio Album, 1981
3.00 | 8 ratings

BUY
The Last Album
Art Fleury RIO/Avant-Prog

Review by Apsalar

3 stars Art Fleruy's second album takes a step away from the cacophony of tape-loops and radio frequencies of 'I Luoghi del Potere' following a more straight forward song-orientated formate. They still grasp at the experimental nature of their first album, but compact these ideas into New Wave influenced tunes. For this listener it was a bit o' a disappointment after a love glazed affair with their first album, to watch this radical band side way into straight forward New Wave - clearly featured on their '83 album 'New Performer'. While the first album gives hints towards Nurse With Wound, 'The Last Album' finds closer quarters with the industrial chaps Cabaret Voltaire. Overall the album is a little patchy in what I deem to be solid material, tracks like 'Nonsense October Tango' show the more progressive side of the album. Overall Side B is the more more interesting of the two deteriorating into tasteful deconstructions, while flaunting the innocence of Aksak Maboul's first backed up by the rhythmic entities of post-punk. Side A finds experimental tendencies libidinously coupling with poppy ostentation's which feel at times a little disposable (depending on what sort of mood I'm in).

For those who enjoyed their first certainly check this one out. For avant people unfamiliar with the band dive straight into their first. But for those fringe avant listener this could be an alluring starting point, offering a more sedated outlook on the bands musical endeavors. A good rounded album.

Thanks to black velvet for the artist addition.

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