SEI LACRIME D'AMBRA

Among the new prog bands frm Italy, Notabene is one of the busiest ones - only two years after their debut album, their sophomore effort "Sei Lacrime d'Ambra" graced the market, and it didn't take too long before it started eventually gathering positive feedback from fans and reviewers. The heritage from the hard rock trend of clasic Italian symphonic rock makes this band related to Nuova Era, Chiave di Volta and Ubi Maior, but you can also notice traces from Genesis' old-school melodic sense, also traces of contemporary symphonic prog's dynamics, plus some jazzy tricks settled in for good effect. The fact that half of the album's tracks last 11 to 17 minutes indicates a strong confidence of Notabene for their creative juices: indeed, the compositional creativity is more accomplished here than in the promising debut album. The album kicks off with the first part of 'La Revolution Bourgeoise', which reveals itself as the central item in thsi tracklist. It bears lots of punch throughout the well-ordaind fluidity than runs the various motif and mood shifts. The organ and lead guitar are in charge of the center stage, while the drummer's endeavors allows the whole sonic structure build up solidly. Following is the first long piece, 'Le Mistificazioni dell'Ombra', whose lyricism may somewhat remind us of Sithonia for the opening motif, but eventually things strongly wander on a powerful display of muscular sonorities, properly augmented with jazz-rock flavors, and this makes the band lean closer to the paragon of Museo Rosenbach. 'Machera di Cera' is built on a clever alternance of acoustic and electric instrumentations, which curiously may remind us of Zuffanti's LMDC [and I seriously doubt that this personal impression has anything to do with the song's title]. Next, the namesake track delivers a precious set of varied themes clearly articulated within a 7 minute framework: the inclusion of mandolin and teh conclusion on a bossanova-like swing give this song a peculiar colorfulness. 'Il Treno di Obuda' is a 16 minute suite that sets the firstsomber moods in the album, which turn out to be more greyish than actually dark. But this is only part of the pictutre, and in fact, the predominant ambiences are staged on an optimistic mood. Once again, the utilization of occasional jazzy arrangements helps to generate a healthy dose of variety to the melodies' development. Manerb'as keyboards seem influenced by Bardens and Banks in distinct moments. The album's last 17 minutes are occupied by the second part of 'La Revolution Bourgeoise', which retakes a couple of motifs from Part 1, and then elaborates a magnificent progressive architecture. The 'Bolero pour un Generation Defunte' section brings martial airs augmented by a mysterious, ethereal vibration, while the last section gets started with a lovely piano passage that graudally sets the foundation for the joyful coda. Notabene is, most of all, a band with clear idea sabout what the essence of prog rock has always been, and from there, it aims at preserving it for our contemporary times. This album entitled "Sei Lacrime d'Ambra" is prooof that their ideas are accurate, and what's more, the band members have enough talent and efficiency to make things really happen in prog music.