CAMERE ZIMMER ROOMS

Chronologically, this is their second "album" recorded live in the studio, a year after their debut album's release, and never released until the turn of the century. From the Cuneiform booklet, it is unclear whether these sessions were meant to be released at the time, but it is clear that this release is not only overdue, but it is shameful it took so long. After their superb debut album, PDP suffered a Karaghiosoff's departure (although he appears as a guest here) and he was replaced by two sax/wind players (Lugo and Romani) and the group had enlisted a full time drummer Di Marco. So as a sextet, PDP had more musical possibilities, but in terms of continuity, this "session" sounds slightly more inclined to their Abbiamo second album (rec in 80) than their terrific and fascinating debut, but looking at it closely, it is well in the middle of the two extremes the historical landmark releases.

Although this is a recent release, I got introduced to the band through this album as it was the only one I could find for years, but I can tell you that it certainly piqued my curiosity even more to find the other two, which is now the case after Drake's remastering of the second album last year. Cuneiform went to the trouble of printing the lyrics and found archives photographs (one of which served for the artwork montage), which again shows how fine a label they are, when it comes to the care they take when they unearth such buried gems.

Only four tracks on this album (OK, I'll give you 4.5 tracks ;-), but they extended "monster tracks", two of them past the 13 min-mark. Overall, one of the striking differences is the amount of singing compared with the reasonably quiet debut album, this one being quite chatty. Musically still, we are veering away from the super Canterburyan sounds of the debut and into a more standard jazz-rock/fusion, even if the Kent roots are still present and you can hear the future RIO of their second official album coming two years later.

The first three tracks (OK! 3.5 ;-) come from one session in the 77/78 winter and make a solid entity, which was obviously the basis for a new album. Stuck somewhere in between Hatfield, Perigeo (rather than Nucleus) and a conservative (as in non-show-off) Weather Report, they (the three tracks) are very much accessible even if the 13-min La Citta (the city) is definitely oogling towards RIO. The last tidbit is a return of the theme of the second track, most likely taken from an alternate take of the said track, and plastered at the end to give an album feeling. The fourth track Pinguini come from a much later session and was probably a leftover of their second album's sessions, since they are chronologically very close. But this track would've probably sounded rather odd on Abbiamo and it seems that it would've fit on this compilation much better as this is much less obtuse as that second offering.

This compilation album is just as worthy as the two historical releases and IMHO, it is much better than their second Abbiamo album, which is a little too inaccessible, partly due to the Italian lyrics, which of course complicates a bit un necesserarily the life of the international proghead.