IL BALLETTO DI BRONZO

There are several Italian bands whose music is truly appreciated by prog rock lovers, and most of them come from the 70's, an era of creativity and experimentation. Of course, Il Balletto di Bronzo belong to that bunch of legendary bands who gifted us with a memorable album, which is why we remember them. However, and despite our love for those old releases (YS is my number one Italian album ever, by the way) , it is great to see these bands moving forward and release new albums, no matter the years or line-up changes they've had.

Now in this 2023 the band returned with 'Lemures', an album in which mastermind Gianni Leone managed to gather the talent of bassist Ivano Salvatori and drummer Riccardo Spilli in order to give the fans a positive experience. So don't judge before listening, because it is worth the try.

The album opens with 'Incubo e Succubo', which sounds like a soundtrack of a sci-fi film with some explosions and spacey textures, later the three musicians begin to build up a structure, with a heavy sound which has a kind of apocalyptical sound, in fact, if I had listened to this track without knowing the artist, I would have guessed they were Goblin. 'Oceani sconosciuti' continues with the tension delivered in the opener, however, here Leone's vocals appear for the first time and yeah, they are so unique and a signature of Il Balleto di Bronzo. Of course as expected, keyboard work is great and is what leads this record, creating a vast amount of textures and nuances. Gianni's voice is so powerful and theatrical, and I really thank he decided to sing in Italian once again.

'L'emofago' brings so much power and energy, you can tell it by the drumming and of course, by the emotional vocals. If you ask me to label it, I would say this track shares some hard rock roots with prog rock and even some spacey nuances. There is a great Hammond solo in the final minute. 'Napoli Soterranea' shares a spacey and sinister keyboard sound since the very first seconds, then it becomes quite proggy, and we can notice it by the time signature and the diversity of changes it has, also by the vocal game of Leone, who doesn't actually say a word, but his voice itself says a lot of things. Addictive bass lines, fast drums and loony keys and vocals, and even a Crimsonian feeling in the final minute. Strange but wonderful, and with this one, the "short" tracks of the album finish.

Now be prepared for the "long" ones, starting with 'L'ombra degli Dei' whose first two minutes might be slow, however, necessary. Then it changes, drums and strings appear and create a rhythm that is greatly accompanied by dark keyboards as background, creating once again a dark feeling which later becomes chaotic. Spilli's work here is quite impressive, by the way. Then we have 'Labyrinthus' which is an extraordinary prog rock song, one of the best of the album. First it has bombastic keyboards and a funeral march like drums, then vocals enter creating some tension but also putting a literary scenario, I mean, one can imagine several things, fictional passages while listening to it.

'Certezze fragili'is a pretty nice mid-tempo track, not as explosive as some others, at least for the first minutes, but equally interesting. I like the interplay between bass, drums and keyboards, very symphonic and creative. 'Deliquio Viola' has a majestic sound, strong; after an introductory minute, vocals enter in a theatrical way, so we can perceive like a tragedy act is happening, where Leone's sorrow is spread while the music keep sharing a sinister atmosphere. Great track.

The album closes with 'Il Vento Poi', and yeah, it actually sounds like a closer, like a farewell song. It is good, a bit softer than the previous ones, but with the intact RPI sound in its essence. I am really happy with this album, decades have passed since that legendary 'YS' and it is great to see how Gianni Leone and co. have delivered a great work full of quality. Of course, you should not compare this album with its ancestors, so it is better if you listen and enjoy it as it is, one new release.

As with many other bands in the early Seventies RPI scene, Il Balletto Di Bronzo burned very brightly for a short while before disappearing, leaving behind two albums ? the second of which is still highly regarded today, 'Ys'. Two of the founders finally delivered another album only 46 years on from the debut, using the name Il Balletto di Bronzo di Lino Ajello & Marco Cecioni to differentiate this band away from the version of Il Balletto di Bronzo being led by Gianni Leone who had appeared on the debut but came into his own on 'Ys', providing both lead vocals and keyboards. He also appeared on a couple of tracks on that album as well but come 2023 and we find him leading his own trio as he is accompanied here by Ivano Salvatori (bass) and Riccardo Spilli (drums).

If someone had given me this album and asked me where it had come from and what label had released it, I am sure I would have got both answers correct as this is traditional RPI being given a new twist and is solid Black Widow all the way. I am not sure how long I have known Massimo, but certainly well over 25 years, and he continues to drive the label to be at the forefront of releasing great Italian music and this is no exception. This never sounds like a modern album, but instead is packed full of the layering of keyboards and styles one comes to expect with RPI, and there are plenty of nods to Emerson within this while also looking more closely to home and the likes of Goblin. Leone has a great voice and is also a very accomplished keyboard player who is not afraid to take classic Mellotron and Hammonds and then mix it up with sounds which are more recent to create an album packed full of depth. At just under an hour in length he has given himself plenty of time to show off all his skills, and there are times when it sounds as if he was performing in the studio, as opposed to just recording with the introduction to "Napoli Sotterranea" being very much a case in point.

This is an album which sounds aged and matured, containing plenty of depths and hidden secrets which only come to light when given repeated plays. Sheer class from beginning to end, let us hope that Leone delivers us another album soon and that this is not the last we have heard from Il Balletto Di Bronzo.

Renowned as one of Italy's most innovative prog rock bands of the 1970s IL BALLETTO DI BRONZO may have started out as a pseudo-prog hard psych 60s hangover band when it hit the scene in 1970 with its debut release "Sirio 2222" but what the band delivered two years later with its groundbreaking sophomore album "Ys" is still sending shock waves into the ears of anyone who hears the band's masterful magnum opus for the first time.

This Naples based band pretty much dropped its groundbreaking bomb on the musical world and then disappeared like a stealth foo fighter of World War II. The aftermath some 50 years later still finds "Ys" to be not only one of the most innovative and daring prog rock albums that emerged from Italy in the wild unhinged 1970s but still remains one of the absolute pinnacles of creative prog from anywhere in the world of any time.

While the band would release a few sporadic singles in the 70s and 80s and an archival release in 1990, few would have predicted any true resurrection of the band especially after prog's popularity waned in the late 1970s however with the resurgence of the prog scene in the 1990s many bands once thought extinct slowly but surely emerged from the past and reinventing themselves in the modern world. IL BALLETTO DI BRONZO wasn't one of them at least until Lino Ajello and Marco Cecioni reformed the band in 2013 only this time dropping the IL (Italian masculine definite article meaning THE).

In 2016 the clumsy sounding "Cuma 2016 d.C" under the moniker IL BALLETTO DI BRONZO DI LINO AJELLO & MARCO CERCIONI was a complete dud with hardly anyone noticing that it came and went all the while rabid new fans of prog were discovering the band's masterpiece "Ys." It would have been safe to assume that this band was forever gone but never say never in the prog world as the new BALLETTO DI BRONZO has emerged once again in 2023 with a bonafide new studio album titled LEMURES.

One can immediately put aside any past glories on the level of "Ys" as this is solely the solo project of lead vocalist / keyboardist Gianni Leone with the assistance of two other musicians in the form of Ivano Salvatori (bass) and Riccardo Spilli (drums). LEMURES is a modern day album with a time length to match. Rather than sticking to a classic time run of around 40 minutes, LEMURES slinks in just past the 58-minute mark with nine tracks in all. While the album sounds like it's definitely connected to the 1970s rendition of IL BALLETTO DI BRONZO, this new album, unlike many Italian contemporaries, really takes liberties in experimenting and playing with modern recording techniques not available during the days of "Ys. The result is a somewhat retro sounding 70s Italian prog sound matched by modern reckless abandon.

Unlike some singers of the golden years of prog, Leone's vocal style has held up surprisingly well with that same distinct array of stylistic approaches displayed on "Ys." Unlike "Ys" there is a sparsely arrangement in instrumentation with seemingly no guitars to be heard. Instead the music is based around beefy bass grooves and wild, even frenetic keyboard performances. The helter skelter schitzo approach does bring "Ys" to mind at many moments but the keyboards are a bit more diverse and crazed than even on that album. For a 70s artist to retain such a passion to add his own weirdness stamp to the music is actually quite nice as many of the old Italian prog bands making a comeback revert to the safe traditionalisms.

In many ways LEMURES reminds of Goblin as the seductive and dark keyboard grooves and ambience evoke the horror soundtracks of that band so in many ways it sounds like the perfect marriage between albums like "Ys" and "Suspiria" along with the occasional bouts of normalcy that would bring PFM, Banco and other operatic bands of the golden era to mind. What really makes this album register high in the prog world is the brash boldness to incorporate deviant time signatures wherever and whenever the mood hits. Normally a characteristic forever lost in youth but Leone has nurtured his inner angst well.

I rarely expect to find a classic band releasing excellent material but "Ys" has long been a personal favorite (like many others) and i felt it obligatory to at least hear this album and i have to admit that i'm pleasantly surprised by its dedication to prog excesses, the kind that made "Ys" so ridiculously amazing. Sure it's not up to par with band's heyday but for an album that has been released 51 years after its peak, it's quite a treat to hear how Leone's approach still stands out from the crowd so many decades later. The entire album is appealing with a diverse array of clever arrangements, keyboard freak-outs and time signature attacks. A surprisingly comeback indeed.

Attached to the excellent book of the same name by Gianmaria Consiglio published in 2009 by Eclysse, Salerno (available only in Italian, 190 pages containing the history of the band, a deep musicological analysis of the album "Ys" and many black and white pictures), the CD "Il Balletto di Bronzo e l'idea del delirio organizzato" contains some post seventies live recordings and unreleased studio tracks of Il Balletto di Bronzo and Gianni Leone and can be considered an interesting document of the rebirth of the band after the split up of the seventies.

"Intro" features just background keyboard sounds and the voice of Gianni Leone resuming the history of the band, part of the reasons of the 1973 split up and how the idea of reforming the band was born... Then it's the moment of "Technoage", recorded during a concert in Tokyo on the 14th of September 2002, followed by an excerpt from "Deliquio viola" and the first part of "Napoli sotteranea", taken from the DVD "Live In Rome 2008", while the second part of "Napoli sotterranea" comes from a concert at the Villaggio Globale, Rome recorded on the 19th of November 2002.

Next comes a good (although fragmented) synthesis of the whole suite of "Ys". "Introduzione" and "Secondo incontro" are excerpts from a Gianni Leone solo performance recoded at the Centrale del Tennis, Rome on the 29th of July 2003, "Primo incontro" is taken from the concert in Tokyo on the 14th of September 2002 and "Terzo incontro ed Epilogo" comes from a concert at the Alpheus, Rome on the 29th of November 2001.

Then "Nè ieri, né domani" comes from a live recording in Mexico City on the 9th of March 2003; ""Strano appuntamento" is an unreleased studio recording from 1987 while the last two tracks "Un'eccitazione nuova" and "Discoclub" are unreleased tracks taken from some 1985 studio sessions. To be honest, the unreleased pieces from the eighties are rather weak and closer to disco music than prog but the rest of the CD is worth listening to.

On the whole, along with the book this a good document of the band's history and a precious item, highly recommended to fans and Italian prog collectors.

In 2013, more than forty years after the release of Il Balletto di Bronzo's debut album "Sirio 2222" two members of the original line up met again and started to work on a new project, just for the pleasure of playing music and develop new ideas, under the name Il Balletto di Bronzo di Lino Ajello & Marco Cecioni to differentiate it from the new incarnation of the band led by Gianni Leone and focused on Ys' heritage and Gianni Leone's solo works. Anyway, for this new project the aim of the musicians was not to play prog but songs in the hippie, psychedelic vein of "Sirio 2222" although with an updated sound and taste...

The new album was released in 2016 on the independent label Suoni dal Sud - No Music No Life. It's entitled "Cuma 2016 DC" and for the recording sessions Marco Cecioni (vocals, guitar) and Lino Ajello (lead guitar) gathered around them younger musicians and old friends such as Alessandro Stellano (bass, guitar, vocals), Francesco Del Prete (drums), Alfonso Mocerino (drums), Alessandro Crescenzo (keyboards), Adriana Salomone (backing vocals), Gianni Leone (vocals, keyboards) and Tony Guido (keyboards).

The art cover and the drawings in the booklet by Marco Cecioni try to reflect the content of the album, a good mix of art pop and psychedelia, hard rock and melody. The track list unfold without fillers, the songwriting is good, some pieces are powerful and straightforward (like "Bivio acido") some others more leaning to Italian canzone d'autore where artists such as Max Gazzé (in "Una meta" or "Figlio dei fiori") or Zucchero (in "Big Mama") could come to mind. I particularly enjoyed "Ordine disordine" that mixes hard rock and Mediterranean flavours, the dreamy "Pirati" and the new version of "Neve calda" from Sirio 2222... Also interesting "Vorrei essere un Deejay (Eivissa)", a reflection about the new dancing habits of the youth and their sense of freedom. But, of course, if you are looking for another Ys I fear you will be highly disappointed.

On the whole, a good album but far from essential in a prog collection. Recommended only to fans and collectors!

Once you get past the big three in Italian prog (PFM, le Orme and Banco), there are some lesser known gems that are some of the most important albums in not only RPI, but all of prog -Museo Rosenbach, Osanna and Balletto di Bronzo being the best examples. This album is certainly one of the most important and rewarding releases in that category.

Balletto di Bronzo's only release with Gianni Leone is a masterwork that is essential for anyone exploring RPI, but also is an album that should reside in every serious prog rock collection. A quick warning, this isn't the usual pastoral flute and acoustic guitar driven typical romantic and symphonic journey that many Italian bands usually get labeled and lumped together with. This is a frantic and colossal work that is a masterpiece of the prog era. Influences dart in and out-Tarkus era ELP, Van der Graaf Generator of the Pawn Hearts era, some King Crimson-but this album is clearly greater than the sum of its influences.

The album is constructed as a suite, and after some Italian horror-esque female vocals set the mood, we are off. Slightly out of tune swirling moogs frantically push the initial theme of the 15 minute Introduzione. Fans of A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers will enjoy the moods created-more complex and even more unsettling than the VDGG comparison. Electric guitar and mellotron create slow counterpoints to subsequent flurries of piano and organ (Leone, the lead vocalist, is also a keyboardist that can give Keith Emerson a run for his money on piano, organ and synthesizer) along with some twisted guitar effects that bounce several times back and forth in a dance of madness reminiscent of some of the more potent moments on Osanna's masterpiece Palepoli. The pace continues recklessly with piano contrapuntal duels with drums and organ while the guitarist Lino Anjello tears things apart on top of it all. A harpsichord motif is the denouemont of an amazing side of actively unsettling prog. It is but a brief respite until we flip and....

Side two begins with some startling declamations from Leone shouting until the furious pace is instantly picked up. Chaos straight from the more disturbing sections of In the Court of the Crimson King set the tone immediately. A brisk walking jazz bassline brings the intensity back a hair, but the stabs of organ/drum combined with a crawling fuzz guitar keep things from getting too settled. Soon, we are back on the roller coaster-some strangled moog and vocals alternate with Tarkus-esque flurries of action that exceed anything ELP was able to ever pull off. Without blinking, we are thrust into the closing piece, Epilogo. More classically oriented than most of the rest of the album, Leone's vocals strain while odd rhythms lurch underneath. Finally the accelerated pace of the album abates for a bit of tinkling piano over slow bass and quiet electric guitar jazz improvs as Leone's audibly takes several breaths, accentuating the pace of what has come before us already. The guitar then starts a slow march with extremely unsettling over the top tremolo while piano scales randomly up and down and the female vocals inject some of the Goblin styled horror we began with. The tempo slows to a crawl and we head towards more silence than music remisniscent of the quiet interlude in the Court of the Crimson King before a near Philip Glass exposition of keyboard, vocal and bass arpeggios bring the whole suite to a delirious and joyous end, with unsettling voices leaving us with an ending that makes you want more, now. One of the few albums in the history of rock that I physically felt upset when it was over. (Perhaps Close to the Edge gave me a similar feeling when I first encountered that album over four decades ago.)

Overall, themes dart in and out, but it is hard to think of this work as consisting of songs so much as it is a whole and singular work, one that takes a person on a well thought out roller coaster ride from the drop of the needle on side one to the final vocal flourishes that leave the story seemingly unfinished for the listener. A mighty achievement and a blockbuster of Italian prog. Absolutely essential listening.

Perhaps some will be put off by Leone's anguished and passionate vocals in a tenor range...this album is not for everyone. Other than Leone's clear skills on keyboards, this isn't an album where 'virtuoso' gets bandied about, and one can point to impressive soloing--instead it is a quartet that plays as a unit where personal attention is subsumed by a group effort of staggering import.

I found the non gatefold Italian reissue from 1974 that is produced from the original stampers, and it is pristine in sound quality. Vinyl fans should seek this out as the first 1972 Italian pressing is hitting some astronomical prices.

Five stars

This album is considered by many as one of the best in RPI genre. Released in 1972 by second line-up of Il Balletto di Bronzo, introduced Gianni Leone in keyboard section and vocal and Vito Manzari in bass.

There are 5 tracks (with one or two bonus tracks, depend on the version of release), all of them have strong progressive elements with a blend of jazz (extensive use of snare drums and cymbals, and dynamic bassline). The complexity of the tracks is challenging, and may take several spins before one can digest them. Too bad I could not find the English translation of the lyrics (would be more entertaining way to enjoy a concept album). There was an English version of this album, with only 2 tracks (and most reviewers say that it consists of demo version of the song).

Introduzione is the 15-minute first track. Complex time signatures and mood changes. Good guitar work in this part, with elaborated sound effects, mellotron / moog galore, and fast pace drums.

The next three tracks : the first, second and third encounter each lasts between 3 to 5 minutes. Many of good progressive moments in those tracks.

The last track Epilogo lasts 11 minutes. This is my favourite track. Very dark and aggressive composition, showing their high level of musicianship. The high-pitch human voice, vibrating sounds of guitar and keyboards (including dissonant sound of background piano) in the middle of the track is really a thrilling moment (a bit of metal prog atmosphere here).

While I appreciate much this work, I could not find themes or structured flow. To me the band seems like a bit too far in improvising in some tracks. But above all, I admire this work and their level of musicianship, and would agree to see it as one of the best in RPI scene.

Ys is about worshipping and love. Its subject is you, the listener. Diving into it feels like being honoured, as if it was written and performed just for you.

What more can I say? Raw Italian beauty, as only the Italians could make at the time.

Because of the magic, the craftmanship, the outstanding performance - I could rattle on for ages - it deserves nothing less than the full five stars.

It needs some time to fully get into it, but that is not uncommon for any true great piece of progressive musical art. In fact it more or less guarantees large amounts of listening joy seeming to be fresh for ever and never able to start to bore.

Il Balletto Di Bronzo born in the first wave of Italian Prog signing their first work in 1970 (Sirio 2222) and we can say they contribute to the start the road of the Italian Prog together with the bands like New Trolls, The Trip, Le Orme, Gleeman and those who released an album between 1969/1970 and following this sounds transformation and (Sirio 2222) is an album that is affected by this influence of the early 70s with a Progressive contaminated by acid psychedelic and hard/heavy rock with powerful electric guitars, by Lino Ajello channeling the dark, jagged energy of Jimmy Page, Adrian Gurvitz, and Jeff Beck.

Il Balletto Di Bronzo absorbed the influences of (Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix experience, The Yardbirds, Gun) but from there it moved into an inspired and decisive musical space; the overwhelming power of the band and the great melodies and with that "Mediterranean flavor ", what has made many Italian Prog productions unique and different.

Unfortunately the album even if released for RCA was not appreciated by critics in Italy when it was released in those years and still today is considered by Italian music critics to be a not a very important album between (beat - pop rock) it's absolutely a judgment that does not suit this album and totally wrong.

This hasty judgment maybe because it's a totally different record from its predecessor (YS) capitulated by Gianni Leone the new entry on keyboards projecting the group to new sounds, abandoning the hard/heavy rock and bringing the band into more technical and virtuosity avant-garde sounds of the Progressive genre with the album (YS) which came out in 1972.

Two completely different albums from each other but two albums have definitely remained in the history of this musical genre.

Sirio 2222 even if it did not have much consensus in their country the album found a lot of interest and success from fans of the genre around the world in the following years with new reissues of the album and website about the band.

No wonder t's a band like "Nurse With Wound" from a different genre like "industrial/noise/dark ambient/drone" cited Il Balletto di Bronzo and Sirio 2222 as an influence..

Definitely four stars ****

Il Balletto di Bronzo - Ys (1972)

Heavy jazzy basslines, up-tempo drumming, pinchy distorted guitar, loads of keyboard fanaticism and hellish vibes garantue for a lot of excitement - perhaps a bit too much for the avarage Italian prog listener. 'Ys' is among the rare Italian progressive rock records that is both professional and well-recorded.

The album consists of longer tracks in which mostly up-tempo themes are explored, with some symphonic moments the avarage RPI listener will surely enjoy. During the more intense parts Il Balletto di Bronzo sounds like an Italian marriage between early Keith Emerson and Pawn Hearts era Van der Graaf Generator. I expect a majority of listeners will find this album a bit too psychedelic and heavy on the stomach, but I myself can find moments where I can really enjoy such an intense experience. After a few spins the listener finds that there aren't actually that much different part & themes on this album, which makes it easier to digest. I myself like the high pitched Italian vocals with a sweet tone of voice but an almost spooked out performence at times. All instruments in the band are played very well, but the bass-player stands out for me because of the groovy yet melodic lines.

Conclusion. If you like your symphonic prog intense and doomish this is a great pick! Four stars.