QUADRI DI UN'ESPOSIZIONE

Murple was one of the many "one-shot bands" of Italian prog scene of the early seventies. After the release of their very good debut album "Io sono Murple" in 1974, they disappeared... until 2007, when three of the original members, Per Carlo Zanco (vocal, piano, keyboards), Duilio Sorrenti (drums, percussion) and Mario Garbarino (bass) reformed the band and, with the help of some guest musician like Sabina Gagliardi (vocals) and Edoardo Massimi (guitar), recorded a brand new album that was released by the independent label Btf in 2008. The album comes out with a good packaging and an interesting booklet where you can find the explanation of the "conceptual work"...

In 1874 took place in St. Petersburg an exhibition dedicated to the work of the Russian painter Victor Alexandrovich Hartmann. Modest Mussorgsky, who was a friend of the painter, composed his piano suite "Pictures at an Exhibition" on the emotional wave that was provoked by the paintings... Well, Murple's work is not a rock interpretation of Mussorgsky music (like EL&P's), but an original work inspired by the same paintings. On the booklet you can find the images of the paintings with a short commentary, so you can match music and images and have a "promenade" through the tracks of the album. "Quadri di un'esposizione" is a good work, although not outstanding. Sometimes vintage and modern sounds are mixed together a little bit clumsily, but the music flows away smoothly enough, track after track, during its less than 34 minutes length...

The first painting, "Promenade & Gnomus", represents a wicked dwarf wondering in a forest and a sound of spacey keyboards introduces a beautiful short symphonic track... "In the deepest dark of your wood / The meeting with that hidden being / Twisted limps spread fear...". The second scene "Promenade & il vecchio castello" is set in Italy where a troubadour sing his song before the walls of an old medieval castle in a sad landscape... The dreamy and baroque atmosphere is enriched by female vocals and by a good instrumental break in "Seventies style"... The third scene "Tuileries" is settled in Paris where some happy children play in a garden while the music is a short and joyful instrumental led by classical guitar and piano... The fourth painting, "Bydlo", represents an heavy Polish chariot towed by oxen and here the music curiously swings from vintage sounds to definitely more "synthetic atmospheres"...

The fifth painting, "Il ballo dei pulcini", represents some dancers disguised as chicks coming out from the eggs, while the music reminds me slightly of some works of Rondò Veneziano and Lucio Battisti. Next paintings "Samuel Goldenberg & Schmuyle" represent the meeting of two antithetic men and the music is built upon a "dialog" between piano and synthesizers. "Promenade & Limoges" represents a noisy scene in the market square of Limoges and here pop sounds are intertwined with a short drum solo and a "vintage organ flavour"... The eight scene, "Catacombae", depicts a visit to the catacombs of Paris and the music features a church choir and a good gothic atmosphere... The ninth painting represents "Baba Yaga", a bizarre witch, and the music inspired by this image in my opinion is by far the weakest track on the album, definitively too "poppish" (some melodic lines reminds me of a song of Zucchero, "Solo seduto su una panchina del porto..."). Tha last painting, "La grande porta di Kiev & Promenade", represents a project for a gate in city of Kiev while the music reminds me of Le Orme's "Verità nascoste" and features strings on a marching beat and a delicate piano outro...

On the whole, although non essential, this album should be interesting for Italianprog lovers...