A MAZE OF MIST AND WAVES

"A Maze Of Mist And Waves" is an EP by Il Fedelissimo Bracco Branco that was self-released in 2023 with a consolidated line up featuring Federico Panighel (keyboards), Stefano Crovato (guitar), Loris Ceccato (bass) and Guido Morossi (drums). After the excellent debut album, "Appunti di navigazione" (2017), the band from Motta di Livenza focused on the composition of a long instrumental suite showcasing all their musicianship and creativity. In my opinion, the result of their efforts is just a tasteful appetizer for their next full length album where I hope that they won't totally drop vocal parts and Italian lyrics...

This long, complex piece is divided into four parts for a total length of more than seventeen minutes and, according to the band, the photograph by Roberto Giorgini chosen for the art cover perfectly represents the emotional landscape they tried to convey with their music... "It is an abyss, an eternal night where immense purple and blue nebulae float in the distance. Sometimes, we think we can glimpse pieces of landscapes, settings whose tortured perspectives disturb the eye and provoke a slight feeling of vertigo. Idyllic towns, strange castles, desolate moors, tormented forests, endless shores, torn mountains, subterranean regions full of mysterious echoes appear. But these visions, as if borrowed from the imagination of a drunkard or a madman, remain rare and fleeting. There is only a big void otherwise, an infinity without law or time offered to all possibilities, a void that is waiting to be crossed, inhabited, shaped by the dreams of the living, their memories, their hauntings and their hopes. Such is Oneira, the Third World, that of dreams and nightmares..." (quote from Pierre Pevel, "Le Paris des merveilles"). Well, Oneira, I think it's exactly the place to where this strange maze of mist and waves elaborated by the band could lead...

The first part, "Exodus", starts softly. The pace is slow, the atmosphere is dreamy. Then electric guitar and piano alternate moments of calm and tension leading progressively to a dramatic storm of sounds. The calm is restored in the second part, "Revelation", where organ chords bring a mystic touch before another emotional explosion and a pulsing ride that leads to the third part, "Contact", and to a spacey passage with a strong sense of expectation. It precedes a calm and solemn section with a romantic piano pattern, then last part, "Synthesis", closes the circle leaving you still wandering in the land of dreams and nightmares and wanting for more...

On the whole, a beautiful piece that is really worth listening to.