Le Orme

Area and Demtrio Stratos are gods to me...

But anyway, I do like Le Orme. They were the second ones from Italy I heard (the first ones where Osanna).

Always enjoy they're early style, Collage, Uomo di Pezza and Felona & Sorona are great albums to me.

my favorite of the big RPI bands by far.  I think their brand of prog mioght be a bit less complex or at least more overtly melodic, because I feel like I "get" le Orme.  Don't ignore their late 1970s albums like "Verita Nascoste" and :Storuia o Leggenda", and their trio of fine albums in the late 1990s and 2000s - Il Fiume, Elementi and L'Infinito all capture the early spirit with modernized production.  

La porta chiusa is awesome. Area sound like jazz or fusion to me. Not really melodic like prog

Oh, yes, Area is more closely to Jazz and other stuff. Nothing related to Le Orme. But I love their song and atitude.

Love Le Orme. Fave RPI band for me.
Smogmagica is one of the weakest, Collage, Uomo, Felona, Contrappunti, Live (though has a murky sound), and even Florian and Piccola are exquisite. The last few albums from them are highly enjoyable as well.
For what it's worth, I even like Venerdi !!

Le Orme is a really interesting band, from a very melodic and accessible style of symphonic prog (Collage, Uomo di pezza, Felona e Sorona, Contrappunti) they turned to a beautiful folk-pop which can be heard on Florian and Piccola rapsodia dell'ape. I read about "Piccola rapsodia" having been less successful, but I like it more than its predecessor. I also like the melancholic soft rock they played on Verità nascoste. It's not prog but it's very charming, particularly because of Tagliapietra's enchanting vocals. Like Tom Ozric I think that Smogmagica may be their weakest album. I don't remember it too well, to be honest.

I can strongly recommend their newer albums, especially the strong symphoprog concept album Elementi. Tagliapietra's solo albums "Nella pietra e nel vento" and "L'angelo rinchiuso" are also worth listening to, they're not really complex but their melancholic and nostalgic mood makes them very enjoyable for Le Orme fans.

Genesis fans will probably like the fact that artist Paul Whitehead, who did the artwork for Trespass, Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot and VdGG's H to He and Pawn Hearts, also designed the cover art for Le Orme's Smogmagica, Elementi and L'infinito, as well as Tagliapietra's Nella pietra e nel vento and L'angelo rinchiuso.


Edited by Skalla-Grim - July 08 2015 at 04:55

Contrappunti is probably in my top 20 of all time favorite albums, but I also like Uomo Di Pezza and Felona E Sorona.

I'll be honest, I haven't heard much 70's italian prog, except a little PFM.  I gather it's pretty good, based on everybody's comments I see here.  Is the singing in English or Italian?  It would hamper my ability to enjoy it some if it was sung and lyrics in Italian, as I don't speak or read it.

Le Orme is awesome!

presdoug wrote: Big Kid Josie wrote: I'll be honest, I haven't heard much 70's italian prog, except a little PFM.  I gather it's pretty good, based on everybody's comments I see here.  Is the singing in English or Italian?  It would hamper my ability to enjoy it some if it was sung and lyrics in Italian, as I don't speak or read it. But I could enjoy the vocals just as sounds along with the music---I've had to do that with Yes songs before! In a lot of cases, Italian is sung.Though I don't know Italian, I can appreciate hearing it sung by these Italian bands. It is a very romantic sounding language when sung!

I can second that. Though I understand only a few words now and then, Italian sounds most beautiful to me when sung. After all it is a question of personal taste, but it can also be fascinating if you don't understand the lyrics and listen to the voice as if it was one of the instruments.

Acqua Fragile is an Italian prog band who used to have English vocals, also the wonderful album Papillon by Latte e miele was released in an English version.