CORTE DEI MIRACOLI

How I've said in some reviews, I stay a little sad when I think about how many lost pearls simply had disappeared in the 70's for various motives, but, the case of CORTE DEI MIRACOLI "Dimenzione Onirica" be very sad ! I think sincerely... if this record demo had been less "careless" ... certainly this album, although, cannot be considered a "Masterpiece"... at least had deserved a 4 stars quotation ! The disk is prodigious in virtuosity for all musicians... in spite the guitar player simply don't appears in some tracks... when he play, his melody is very enjoyable. Some influences comes from their countryman LE ORME and CAMPO DI MARTE (in more heavy parts) and "invocations" from Dutch band TRACE.. The best tracks (mainly for audio quality) are: track 1 " Dimensione Onirica part 1", track 3 " Volando Nel Sole ", track 4 "Il Volto Sconosciuto Della Terra", track 6 " Dimensione Onirica (Part 2) " ( including a "brilliant" Drum Solo) and the track 7 "Breve Esistenza". My rate is 4 stars !!!

The early material of Corte Dei Miracoli, as taped on ''Dimensione Onirica'', gave promises for a great future for the band.Unfortunately, just before the recordings of the debut, keyboardist Michele Carlone left the band and was replaced by Riccardo Zegna, an experienced musician in the Jazz field.Eventually the band's self-titled debut saw the light in 1976 on the small Grog Records label.

The style of Corte Dei Miracoli seems linked with the Classical/Symphonic Rock stylings of LE ORME and LATTE E MIELE, featuring dual keyboard attacks and a sound split between romantic melodies and bombastic, complicated exercises.With heavy use of organs and moog synthesizers they manage to come up with a very intense, passionate atmosphere full of jazzy dynamics, complex textures and inventive breaks, that often seem hard to follow.Vocals by Graziano Zippo are warm and sensitive, but the majority of the album is dedicated to the impressive solos, the tight instrumental performances, while there are also some short improvised passages thrown in for good measure.Still the arrangements are pretty tight with solid musicianship and a phenomenal coexistence of the jazzy piano paces with the floating Fusion-esque synths and the big symphonic sound of the Hammond organ.The long ''I due amanti'' is a very good example of dramatic, keyboard-based Italian Symphonic Rock.

Corte Dei Miracoli existed until the summer of 1976, when they disbanded.Alessio Feltri and Gabriele Siri were involved to a second unsuccesful incarnation of Il Giro Strano, which lasted for a couple of years, while Zegna continued in the Jazz field, forming Gialma 3.

Among the goodies of Classic Italian Prog, ''Corte Dei Miracoli'' is an album with a bombastic, obscure and professional sound, ready to please all fans of keyboard-led Symphonic/Progressive Rock.Strongly recommended...3.5 stars.

Being a big fan of their first album, I was happy to find this album in use CD store. I got difficulty to find their first album, so finding a live one from 1974 with 2 unrelease track on it, I tought I made a real bargain in buying this... How wrong could I be! It's the most horrible live recording I have ever eard! Being a big fan of live album and recording, it's not the first bootleg I have eard, and I eard a lot of bootleg recording, some really bad, some ok and other really good, but this one is beyond bad. Avoid at all cost, you've been warn ;)

Despite making it into the top 100 RPI albums (just) here on PA I don't hear the name Corte Dei Miracoli mentioned much. That's a shame as while this eponymous and only album from the band (unless you include the 1992 released Dimenzione Onirica, which was a collection of early demos) is not a classic, it's certainly worthy of investigation to all but those with only a passing interest in the genre.

Corte Dei Miracoli produce a lush symphonic sound with jazz elements thrown in here and there. The music often has a melancholic feel with strong melodies and notable for a dual keyboard line-up with no guitar. The five compositions are to a large extent busy and quite complex, the most obvious reference being Banco, though it has to be said not quite in their league. Nevertheless this is an enjoyable album with a high standard of musicianship and well above average vocal work sung in Italian, naturally, as all great RPI albums with one or two exceptions are.

For those who've exhausted the first division of Italian prog bands and still hungry for more, this 1976 release is one you should get round to sooner or later. As I said earlier, not a classic but still a very good addition to any Italian prog collection. 3 ½ stars.

This is one of those albums that has emotion and complexity all rolled into one. Dual keyboards and an excellent rhythm section. Actually the bass player played with IL GIRO STRANO.The vocals are emotional and romantic and I like them a lot. Then add in guest guitarist Vittorio De Scalzo from NEW TROLLS who is a killer guitarist and you have an RPI classic, although coming in a little late as it was released in 1976.

"...E Verra L'uomo" is my favourite. Love that intro that reminds me of BANCO with the dual keyboards and an all out blitz. So impressive. A calm after 1 1/2 minutes as the vocals come in. Nice. The tempo picks up 3 1/2 minutes in. So good. It settles again as contrasts continue. A moving track. "Verso Il Sole" is led by drums, organ and piano early on. Vocals before a minute. Lots of synths when the vocals stop. Pulsating organ and percussion before 3 minutes as the bass throbs. Piano joins in. Vocals are back after 4 1/2 minutes. A nice jazzy section 6 minutes in to the end.

"Una Storia Fiabesca" opens with keys and organ as light drums join in. Vocals before 2 minutes.The instrumental section after 4 1/2 minutes is great. Vocals are back 6 minutes in then we get more instrumental music a minute later. "Il Rituale Notturno" has these almost orchestral-like strings then the song kicks in before a minute. Keyboards after 2 1/2 minutes as the tempo picks up in this instrumental section. A calm 4 minutes in then it builds. Vocals follow. "I Due Amante" is the over 13 1/2 minute closer.The percussion, drums and synths sound pretty cool to start. Organ is added. Piano 2 minutes in. Vocals 3 1/2 minutes in. Solo piano after 5 1/2 minutes followed by organ and drums. Another killer instrumental section here that ends before 9 minutes.

This is an easy one to recommend to RPI enthusiasts, it has all the ingredients and the final product is fantastico.

Italy wasn't lacking "one and done" classics in prog's 70s heyday, and Corte dei Miracoli is one of the most solid entries in a crowded field. The basis of the music is dual keyboards with almost no guitar. Vocals are also a standout, moreso than most Italian bands. The singer's vocal stylings are very melodic, with some quite soaring, symphonic phrases. The keyboards, however, add a jazzy tinge at times, although never clashing with an overall lush, symphonic feel. The individual tracks are written with confidence and energy and there is no filler. The bubbling keyboard intro followed by a propulsive rhythm and rare guitar break that marks album opener "....E Verra L'Uomo" is still one of my favorites within the whole genre, especially when the atmospheric keyboards and longing vocals kick in.

Another treasure unearthed

Some of the coolest RPI obscure gems were albums that never really happened. Lost recordings from bands like Giro Strana and Paradiso a Basso Prezzo were in various stages of completion before some unseen hand of fate stopped their formal release at the time. Thankfully, the wisest Italian archivists Mauro Moroni and Ciro Perrino have been there to save these treasures from being lost forever to time. They have cleaned up the recordings as much as possible and released them on Mellow Records for the fans of obscure RPI. "Dimensione Onirica" is yet another title to fall under this description. The caveat emptor with these recordings is that they generally have lower quality sound and that is again the case here. And as usual, my personal response is "so what?" When one is an RPI fan with a chance to hear rare and beautiful original recordings from the early '70s, you learn how to appreciate music for music rather than fidelity. Given the choice between a 1973 wild opus with muffled sound or the latest piece of perfect sounding insipid cheese-prog, there's no contest folks. And frankly I don't feel the sound is as bad as advertised. If I can hear the melodies and musicians I am able to enjoy it. If I have trouble hearing the basic melody that's another matter. I can hear everything here just fine, it's simply low fidelity.

Formed in 1973 from the remnants of a band named Tramps, Corte dei Miracoli also featured Alessio Feltri, keyboardist of another wonderful and obscure RPI band called Il Giro Strano. Feltri actually wrote all of the material on Dimensione Onirica and it's a real shame that this material was not properly recorded and released as an official project in 1973. For these were essentially demos that sound partially unfinished and sound like the band was working them out in the studio. And still they are captivating to RPI hounds. Far less polished and fancy-pants than the official CdM release of 1976, this album is for those who like things more heavy-prog spiked with psych and jazzy tidbits here and there. It's all here though, 77-minutes of vintage keyboards, busy bass parts, hard rock guitar leads, Italian vocals, and exuberant drumming all served up in the form of long 7-13 minutes jams. It has a gritty and fairly aggressive live sound. Given that most Italian albums of this period were very short, Dimensione is almost like getting a double album. As the material was never edited and arranged for a specific 35 minute release, there is some lack of focus I suppose. But the intent here is not to enjoy a focused concept album. Here you just throw in the towel and enjoy whatever comes at you, enjoy the many paths they travel. Often it can rock pretty hard with bombastic keyboard explosions of a Banco feel, but other times things can get spacey and mellow with piano or clean guitar, then it can shift to heavy guitar rock with bluesy organ runs. Anything goes! The songs are chalk full of that vintage RPI spirit, dramatic, emotional, somehow both bold and fragile. Some truly great potential here and even if we'll never know what could have been, the creative stirrings are nonetheless fascinating to me.

I love these kinds of "underground" RPI albums and thus the rating is as easy one for me. I recommend fans of jamming and less-reserved Italian rock investigate this assuming you can deal with lower quality sound. But if you are a sound purist to any degree, don't even bother. For me, I'll enjoy this album more often than the "real" CdM album.

Excellent release from this italian band from the 70´s that I had never heard about it until recently. I am amazed by the number of obscure good bands from that country (and also from Japan) that did not go past hte first album (well, in this case until the 90´s when there was the release fo some unissued material from Mellow records). Nevertheless, I was very surprised by the quality of the CD: the songwriting is very good, the playing is superb and the singer, although not really outstanding, is fine anyway,

The production is only average, but the group´s perfomance is brilliant, full of power and conviction that eventually overcome all the recording´s flaws. Their sound is very keyboard driven (there are two keyboards players) and a bit more jazzy than most other italian groups of the period, but only slightly. There are no fillers and the the quality of the whole album, composition-wise, is very high. The vocals are all sung in the native language and fit very well into the music.

If you like italian symphonic prog you can not miss this one. I´m glad I found this little known gem. It is only a pity that this group did not go on to have a longer career. Certainly they had everything to succeed. And this CD is proof of that. 4 stars.

From Aldo and Vittorio de Scalzi's Grog Record (I.e. from their Studio G) another Italian gem!

Corte Dei Miracoli (from Savona) is the last (but in improper way) the last incarnation of Il Giro strano and published thei only true album in 1976 (that is strange with this high standard) and this 'Corte Dei Miracoli' (eng: 'Miracles' Court') is a concept album based on Victor Hugo's 'Notre Dame De Paris'.

As album finally result 'Corte Dei Miracoli' is a good album that have the roots is a Rock and not Folk version of Fabrizio De André if you speack about lyrics. I think that, in general, the final result is an album a la De André in Rock field. Certainly the baroque parts are good but is the power that win in this album. The songs have heavy melody and arrangements but the sound is extreme melodic. The complexity of Corte's music is all in the writing style because the arrangements are consequence of writing style. The vocal parts (i.e. lyrics) are not forced in music and this is not normal in all RPI. Certainly Graziano Zippo is not a powerful vocalist but his style is similar to Greg Lake style mixed with a voice a la Peter Gabriel. This fact is perfect with the baroque piano's parts and this fact makes perfect the final result of the compositions.

The records are not perfect (but typical of RPI) and also the sound production and mixing are pasty (also this is typical of RPI) but in this case this defect is a honor: the music is helped from these facts... The musical power, feelings and magic bursting with colors of a color difficult to imagine without a careful listening of the album.

Probably yes, Corte Dei Miracoli, since recorded this album in 1976, manages to transform the flaws of RPI in merits.

If the city of Genoa was (one of) the Chistopher Columbus origin, it certainly missed the rush of early 70's first wave prog bands, but it certainly didn't miss the second batch/wave, with Picchio Dal Pozzo, Celeste (two of my faves) and the over-rated Corte De Miracoli Presenting a dual keyboard attack and no guitar (except on the opening track), CDM is a fairly unbalanced quintet, but this was rather more common in the second part of the 70's. Nevertheless this plays a negative role in the band's sound reinforced with the singer's lack of depth and limited capacities (and I don't like much his voice either ;o))).. Coming with a cosmic fantasy gatefold artwork, the album was released in 76

Starting on an almost-Zeuhlian piece Verra L'Uomo (due in part to the electric piano, but alsothe bass and the rare guitar), but by the time the vocals enter the track, it's all but a distant memory, although the music does return to the genre outside of the sung passages. Actually , it seems rather clear that the singer couldn't cope with the track's mainline so they had to adapt it clumsily.The following Verso Il Sole doesn't suffer this schizophrenic personality and presents an excellent piano and percussion exchange in its middle section, but the track returns to the opening motif. Storia Fiabesca hovers around the same musical realm as what we've just been exposed so far (the Zeuhlian passages not included here).

The flipside opens on the Rituale Notturno, but again the nature of the synth's sounds and the singer's voice are slowly grating my patience away and the grotesque succession of keyboards passages and their collage in the track's middle section is really weak, if not laughable on the Spinal tap genre. Needless to say that the slow passage just after is a complete cliché as well and it finishes in a completely ridiculous manner. Good riddance and arrivaderci!! The closing "epic" is a better level, even if you'll find grosso modo the same flaws than on the rest of the album. Not that much more credible and by the time the track comes to its hilarious and tacky breakdown, we're really glad the album's over. No doubt we'll be waiting another millennium before giving this album another shot.

CDM was clearly a second wave and second class traveller, one that would've never been groundbreaking and a mediocre genre-consolidator. As a matter of fact and despite some good passages, I'd be tempted to cite CDM's sole historical album as the exact type of band that actually helped the punks and the dub music press drive a nail into prog's coffin, but the nails belonged to CDM and just happened to sit by the coffin along with an abandoned hammer next to it.