...CANTA FABRIZIO DE ANDRE

The name of this Rock Progressivo Italiano band is "Gan Eden-Il Giardino delle Delizie". Gan Eden is Hebrew for Garden of Eden and Il Giardino delle Delizie is Italian for The Garden of Delights. The band was founded in 2004 by Angelo Santo Lombardi who is a keyboardist for the band who utilizes several artists for backup on his different albums. His 5th album is called ". . . Canta Fabrizio de Andre" where Lombardi plays all the instruments except for guest Gabriele Paganoni who plays additional acoustic and electric guitars, bass, drums and effects.

The music here is a nice mix of Italian folk prog utilizing mostly acoustic guitars with frequent keyboards. The music isn't really heavy in the prog department, but there are places where there are tricky meters in certain songs, the proggiest of which are "Creuza de Ma" and "Nei Miandri dell'Alba". The vocals are all in Italian and are quite pleasant sounding, supported many times with background singers and possibly even a small chorus of singers.

The individual tracks tend to be inspired by folk dance styles and a few lean towards a ballad style like "La Guerra di Piero", which is led mostly by piano, or towards a pastoral sound as in "Giordie", which also features a female vocalist and a lovely orchestration of acoustic instruments.

The music is nice and mostly pastoral, the vocals don't really change much as far as timbre is concerned, but Lombardi doesn't stretch beyond his capabilities and the songs are interesting enough to help carry the variety in style. But, he isn't a bad singer either and is quite confident in his sound. The occasional female vocals also help add variety. The instruments are pretty much mostly acoustic with the only track with discernable electric guitar riffs is the final track. So, this is a good album for those who like their music on the folk side, pastoral in sound with occasional hints of progressiveness.