Era Di Acquario

This is my new suggestion. This is the page of www.italianprog.com:

Artist

ERA DI ACQUARIO

Michele Seffer (vocals, guitar, bass)
Angelo Giordano (flute, sax, vocals)
Pippo Cataldo (drums, percussion, vocals)

A trio from Palermo, one of the few important bands to come from Sicily, Era di Acquario only released an album that, despite the title Antologia was not a compilation of already issued tracks.

The album can be disappointing for the prog fans as it's mainly based on acoustic guitar and flute creating soft atmospheres like in the dreamy instrumental Campagne siciliane. 
The 10 tracks are short (total time is around 29 minutes) and the only exceptions to the band's style are the faster Padre mio and Geraldine, with a rockier sound and New Trolls-like falsetto vocals.

Before the LP the group had issued two singles, the first of which, Geraldine/Arabesque had a rather hard sound with a strong bass to the fore. The group had a three-piece line-up here, with guitar, bass and drums in the same style as many important foreign power trio's, and it included a different musician, Gianni Garofalo (guitar, flute) later replaced by Angelo Giordano.
In the second single, Hold on is an english-sung mainstream rock track, while Campagne siciliane is a sweet ballad built on flute and 12-string guitar, with a style closer to the album's atmospheres.

A very active live band, Era di Acquario had a second album ready to release, with a new four-piece line up, when their first came out, but this never appeared.

Michele Seffer is credited as composer and arranger on some 70's singles by Alcatraz, Hansel & Gretel, I Teppisti dei Sogni and others, but it's unclear whether he was in these bands also as a musician or not.

 

(the trolley icon lets you order the CD from BTF website)

 

 

Antologia is a very rare album, housed in a rather poor rough cardboard black/silver single cover.
The album has never been counterfeited nor issued abroad.

 

 

 

Click on pictures to enlarge

 

 

And this is my review:

ERA DI ACQUARIO: "ANTOLOGIA" (studio album)
LP 1973 RCA Italiana (PSL 10565)
CD of this review: 2003 BMG Ricordi S.p.A. (74321982862)

Line Up:
Michele Seffer: bass, electric guitar, solo voice
Angelo Giordano: flutes, sax, clarino, voice
Pippo Cataldo: drums, tumbas and percussions, voice

Track list:
1. Campane Siciliane (3:37)
2. Padre Mio (2:51)
3. Idda (3:23)
4. Solitudine (2:46)
5. Vento D'Africa (2:25)
6. Monika Aus Wien (2:14)
7. L'Indifferenza (3:27)
8. Fuori al sole (2:04)
9. Geraldine (3:32)
10. Statale 113 (2:54)

PA rating: 5/5  My rating:9/10
Very soft album because based on acoustic guitar and flute. but with "Padre Mio" and "Geraldine" in New trolls more Rock style (but more mainstream also if "Geraldine" is a very plagiarism). "Campagne Siciliane" (perhaps the more famous song by Era Di acquario) is sweet ballad based on 12 string acoustic guitar and flute and in this sense is a Proto new Age song. in contrast "Padre Mio" is a strange New Trolls boogie song and another in contrast "Idda" is an acoustic version of New Trolls but sung in Scicly dialect with Falsetto chorus. Ah, the keyboards are substitutes for a bottleneck electric guitar. Solitudine is another piece in "Campagne Siciliane" style but more boogie style remaining at the same time a sweet Folk song (but the synths... who played the synths?). "Vento D'Africa" is in the same style. As you will have very understood "Antologia" is a sweet game for flute and 12 string acoustic guitar. But if it is true is another true that "Antologia" is an album that it goes listened having in front of the eyes the typical sicialian landscape with its desolation, with an only color that is a village nearly abandoned that with absolute indifference it  passes the days all equal with the bells that play, play and play (see "L'Indifferenza"). In this sense "Antologia" reserves much surprises and an album of absolute value is revealed. And the car runs fast in "Statale 113" (National road 113).

"Antologia" is very interesting semi masterpiece (but forgotten) of Symphonic Folk. More fresh that in 1973 is another album for all of the Progsters. we want to rediscover this absolute gem?

Edited by Mandrakeroot - April 02 2007 at 18:41

I think that Era Di Acquario is a strange band for PA.

Uhm... No. But because the music of Era Di Acquario doesn't demand the keyboards.

Andrea Cortese wrote: Whenever things are clear within the RPI/ISP matter, I'm ready to add the band, Mandy.

See PM for details (send CD via PT)