CONCERTO ALL'ELFO

Demetrio Stratos is well known as the front man of the fiery Italian prog group Area. Outside of Area he released a series of solo albums. I picked this album up a couple of days ago on one of my search and destroy missions in Rome looking for RPI gems. I had recently really got the bug for Area and found this album and immediately scarfed it up. I was hoping to find a another incendiary mixing of jazz, rock, electronic, and mediterranean music. Whoa.. was I surprised when I put this in.

This review is a warning...yet still a recommendation.

As I found out later after an interesting first listen hahahha, and as is noted in Stratos' bio. He was student of Fluxus and John Cage. His solo albums are very avant and are explorations into the use of the human voice as an instrument. Be warned.. again... THIS IS NOT EASY LISTENING. But it a funny way.. this ties into RPI quite well. As I noted this morning in a thread, I am a non-speaker of Italian, so an overall portion of the albums is lost upon me. The literal meaning of what the group is trying to say. What that in fact has done has prepared me for an album like this. The voice in Italian prog for became not a vehicle for literal meaning but rather a instrument in itself. Full of emotion and expression like any instrument. That is exactly what Stratos was intending to explore.

To review this album track by track is sort of pointless. Before reviewing this I read some reviews of his solo album on other sites.. I was curious just how you would review something like this. Most reviews, while entertaining in their lofty language, really say little about the music. This is an album that to me is beyond a standard review, it is indeed like trying to 'review' a painting. What you get out of this will be highly personal. There are no instruments to rave over the quality.. no way to contrast the dynamics between the way the instruments play off of each other. This is just an experience between you and Stratos. If you feel like taking a walk down the Fluxus side of life. I strongly recommend you check this out. It intriqued me to check out other of his albums, which as some of you who know my musical tastes.. should probably say more about this album that any song by song analysis could.

Giving the album three stars..and down the road may adjust that to reflect what I think of his other albums. Which I will be checking out. For serious students of 'art' and avant music only.

Michael (aka micky)