1984 - L'ULTIMO UOMO D'EUROPA

'1984: L'Ultimo Uomo d'Europa' is the debut album of the Italian progressive rock band 'La Fabbrica dell'Assoluto'. It reached its final form when initially Daniele Fuligni (keyboards) in 2012 and then Claudio Cassio (vocals) in 2013 joined to 'Effetto Progressivo' band, where Marco Piloni (bass guitar), Michele Ricciardi (drums) and Daniele Sopranzi (electric guitar) have been militated since 2007.

We are in front of a real progressive rock album, in all its aspects: the cover (a wonderful Cesare Modesto painting, 'La libert' di scelta'), the lyrics and, last but not least, the music.

Why the lyrics? Because this is a concept album; inspired to the novel 1984 by George Orwell. It tells about the drama that a man, which is Winston, is living in a future world, dominated by war and tyranny. Lyrics and the emotional interpretation of Claudio Cassio create both a perfect fusion with the music, evocating and sharing with the listener all Winston feelings: fear, rage, hope, taking awareness and will of change reality, love, desperation, pain, resignation.

And now the music. When you'll listen this album for the first time, it will directly throw you back to the seventies, thanks also to some original instrumentation (all the keyboards). But no, this is a 2015 album and it's an exemplar instance of Progressive Rock! An extremely varying work: many rhythm changes (leaded mostly by Daniele Sopranzi guitar), psychedelic pieces ('Bispensiero') and melodic ones ('Giulia', 'La canzone del castagno'), hard guitar ('Chi controlla il passato controlla il presenta, Chi controlla il presente controlla il futuro', first part of 'Processo di omologazione') ; there is even the presence of a marching band, the Montopoli Marching Band (final track 'Amava il grande fratello').

Music is dominated by the presence of Daniele Fuligni keyboards: Hammond Organ M102, Leslie 145, Minimoog Model D, Binson Echorec 2, Davoli TD LIED 160, Davolisint, Logan String Melody I, Piano. Thanks to that amount of keyboards we can listen rich and wonderful sonorities, this is probably the most prog aspect of the album.

Two things that are often underestimated: the brilliant support of Marco Piloni bass and Michele Ricciardi drums. I cannot miss to mention the warm atmosphere that contrabass creates during the guitar solo in 'Processo di omologazione'.

So, finally, we can compare the band to many others bands and artists like ELP, Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, Balletto Di Bronzo, Gilmour (in the guitar solo mentioned before), Il Rovescio della Medaglia and so on. But the point is just one: they have done an incredible work and developed their own sound, they are 'La Fabbrica Dell'Assoluto' !