MY GRANDMOTHER'S SPACE SUIT

Listening to this album is like purchasing a 16 meters long times 2 meters high painting....... and then installing it in a narrow hallway. It is next to impossible to get a full overview over this painting...... and this album.

This album has most everything from the archives of ProgArchives. From avant-garde, zeuhl, prog metal, symphonic prog, RPI, rock and pop. It is almost like listening to one of these compilation CDs you get when you buy a music magazine. For example Classic Rock Presents Prog. But even their compilation CDs is not that varied as the My Grandmother's Space Suit album by Fonderia. I am almost lost for words.

It is pretty pointless describing the music here any further. Those two thousand words will frustrate both me and the reader. But the basis in this Italian Stew is jazz. That is the only red thread that run through this album. Jazz and the need to explore every possible avenues. Which sometimes leads this album astray and into dead end avenues. The problem for me, as now a pretty frustrated listener, is that whatever Fonderia does, they pulls it off. Every song here is good to great. Sometimes with a narrow margin. Their playful approach to everything they tries out is very refreshing and dare I say it...... progressive ! That's what this album is. A true progressive album, but in the vein of Picchio Dal Pozzo and the bands who once populated the Canterbury Scene. And this is another thing I have noticed; Fonderia is in fact the true children of this scene, either they like it or not.

Quality wise, this album is great with a very long shelf life. This review is based on fourteen listening sessions. Yes, that is 14 times listening to this album. And I am afraid this album require at least fifteen x times before it make any sense. Well, kind of sense. It is an album that grows and ferments over a period of time. In my case, probably forty years or so. Fellow inhabitants of Glenview retirement home; beware. But I guess they would not protest when the brilliant laid back jazz tune Istanbul is blaring through the speakers. This is the best song of this album and it proves that Fonderia is a band which should be followed with great interest in the future.

This is an excellent album which will both puzzle and please those who dares seeking it's company. Seldom has the band name been more appropriate.

4 stars