ATLANTIDE

"Atlantide" is the third studio album by The Trip and was released in 1972 on the RCA label with a renewed line up featuring Joe Vescovi (keyboards, vocals), Arvid 'Wegg' Andersen (bass, vocals) and Furio Chirico (drums, percussion) who stepped in after Pino Sinnone departure. Former guitarist Billy Gray left the band for a solo career and wasn't replaced, so the band went on as a trio turning to a keyboard-driven sound that every now and again could recall Emerson, Lake & Palmer. The first result of this new course is a concept album inspired by the myth of Atlantis and dealing with environmental issues where the plot is explained by the subtitles (in Italian) while the English lyrics by Arvid 'Wegg' Andersen add touches of colours to stir your imagination. The beautiful art cover by the Up & Down Studio tries to describe the complex musical content...

The instrumental opener 'Atlantide' (Atlantis) takes you back in time, on the sea, to show you a spectacular sunrise on the continent of Atlantis. It begins softly by a delicate piano intro, then the rhythm rises and the arms of the clock start to go backward, faster and faster. When the rhythm calms down the music conjures up a dreamy, exotic landscape...

Next comes 'Evoluzione' (Evolution) where the music and lyrics describe the first signs of life on the mysterious continent and its advanced civilization where empty minds blindly follow their leader, the chosen one, a ruthless maniac who defies Mother Nature looking for more and more power...

The following 'Leader' with its pulsing rhythm evokes scenes that could recall Fritz Lang's 1927 expressionist science-fiction drama film "Metropolis". The Atlantis people believe in their leader and in his promises for a better life in a future where Energy rules... Then the instrumental 'Energia' (Energy) depicts the moment when Energy, the source of an unlimited, uncontrollable power, falls in the hand of the leader and his madness explodes... All men will be slaves!

'Ora X' (X-Hour) opens the second side of the LP giving voice to the madness of the leader who wants to be king forever ruling all over the world... But the thunder is approaching and Energy breaks through blowing the leader and his followers up.

The melancholic 'Analisi' (Analysis) is a kind of elegy and in the meantime a caustic warning for the future. The illusion to harness Mother Nature crumbles as men who do not use its vital powers in the correct way are swept away by its force. A whole continent has been destroyed by greed because foolish crowds didn't fight to be alive and free but chose to follow the empty promises of an unscrupulous, merciless leader...

Then a dark marching beat solemnly leads the way to the last two instrumental tracks, 'Distruzione' (Destruction) that depicts anarchy and cataclysm and features a great drum solo, and the short 'Il vuoto' (The void) that closes the album describing the last moments of Atlantis, erased from the maps and submerged by the sea. Mother Nature's triumph is merciless and ineluctable... Beware!

On the whole, an excellent album whose dystopic concept in a time of climate changes and environmental challenges is still actual and fresh.