FONDERIA

FONDERIA are a four piece band out of Italy who play a Jazz flavoured style of Prog that is quite diverse and eclectic. The keyboardist adds Fender Rhodes, minimoog, clavinet, Hammond, piano and theremin. We get trumpet and some flugelhorn and the horn player adds double bass. Most bass sounds are from the keyboardist. The drummer adds electronics as does the guitarist who also adds flute and zither. Yes a talented band who have no hesitations about thinking outside the box. They've done soundtracks, TV shows and on and on. This debut from 2002 certainly caught the attention of the music world in Italy and eventually around the globe. We get ten tracks over 71 minutes, at least my edition is with that hidden track to end it making the closer over 13 minutes instead of over 7 1/2 minutes. I like the samples these guys add and two musicians take care of that.

My top three includes that second track "Dubbio II" with that spacey start with those guitar expressions before the song starts to move as electric piano and cymbals join in followed by beats and synths. It's kind of cool the way this plays out. A more determined sound 3 minutes in as the trumpet arrives. The guitar is lighting it up 4 minutes in. So good then it starts to relax some after 5 minutes with trumpet.

I like the acoustic guitar in "Deep Blue" along with how trippy it is. "Piazza Vittorio" has dissonant trumpet and energetic percussion as the drums join in. Kind of an ethnic vibe here too. I really like this one. "Dubarcord" is somewhat haunting to start with plenty of atmosphere and it's dark. Heavy beats then it brightens some with a nice melody before slipping back into melancholy with trumpet.

"Afa II" opens with the sound of traffic and more before a double bass line takes over with jazzy drumming. My second top three is "Ora Legale" with the electronics to start as it builds with picked guitar and trumpet. A repeated drum pattern and this is chill out music that I'm right into. "Dante, At Last" reminds me of GY!BE's song called "Blaise Bailey Finnegan III" where Blaise spouts off while the music builds overwhelming his voice eventually and the same with this song as we get a sample of what sounds like a classic movie with this rich lady reading Spanish then the music turns creepy before overwhelming her voice. Kind of cool.

The short "Aniene" is quite uplifting while the closer "Statico" is my absolute favourite. Nothing jazzy about this one and we get clavinet and theremin to boot. I just love the sound of the guitar 2 minutes in and how dark it is with depth. More of this please!

Anyway a diverse album by a very talented foursome. A solid 4 stars.