IL RISVEGLIO

Italian quartet from Gorizia with a brief late-90's appearance, featuring Gabriele Benfetto on vocals/guitar, Sergio Contin on lead vocals/bass, Claudio Farnetti on flute/drums and Pierluigi Piccoli on piano/keyboards.They were signed by Mellow Records and released their sole album ''Il Risveglio'' in 1998.

The album follows the tradition of 70's Italian Prog as performed by modern bands such as DIVAE, LOTHLORIEN, NUOVA ERA or GERMINALE, even the album's length does not surpass the 40-minutes mark.Short and semi-long tracks with an evident symphonic vibe, based mainly on keyboards as well as guitars.There are some good attempts by the band to blend soft and more vocal-based moments with intense keyboard-driven instrumentals and the result is pretty satisfying.Especially the keyboard passages are very nice with swirling organs, flashy synthesizers and grandiose church organ parts.The guitars create either soft grooves or melodic solos when appearing and the vocals are decent but a bit less passionate than most of the bands regarding the style.In general the arrangements are sufficient and the performance of the band is fine.The later tracks have a stronger Medieval/Folk feeling, characterized by Picolli's harpsichord, Farnetti's flutes and Benfetto's acoustic tunes.

There are no further signs of a sophomore release by Cooperativa del Latte or any information about the members' traces after this album.''Il Risveglio'' remains a hidden gem of 90's Italian Prog with a strong vintage attitude, likely to please any fan of Classic Prog, Symphonic Rock and of course Italian Prog.Recommended.