FELONA E SORONA

While "Uomo Di Pezza" had solidly displayed Le Orme's progressive credentials, the conceptual "Felona E Sorona", their fourth album, went a step further, reaching the band's creative peak. The fanciful story of two planets, Felona and Sorona, opposing and at the same time complementary, contrasting the prosperity and happiness of one with the gloomy despair and sorrow of the other under the supervision of a superior entity, serves as narrative inspiration for the instrumental deployment of a proposal that metaphorically and without stridency or labyrinthine developments conveys the circular concept of life. The extensive and introductory "Sospesi Nell'Incredibile" masterfully describes the coexistence of both planets in the universe, making use of the cosmic keyboards of Antonio Pagliuca accompanied by the percussion of Michi Dei Rossi with a final solo included and by the melodious and welcoming voice of Aldo Tagliapietra in between; while the festive "Felona" with Tagliapietra's luminous and comfortable acoustic development and the sorrowful "Sorona" with Pagliuca's dramatic and thick keyboards, differentiate the two realities. That troubling disparity is observed in the vaporous melancholy of "La Solitudine Di Chi Protegge Il Mondo" and the reflective "L'Equilibrio", and leads to the discontent of Sorona's inhabitants reflected in the tense "Attesa Inerte", dissipating with the light of hope that the mysterious "Ritratto di un Mattino" brings and that "All' infuori Del Tempo" with Tagliapietra's acoustic guitars and Pagliuca's keyboards transforms into happiness for Sorona just when Felona starts the reverse process. The instrumental and overwhelming "Ritorno al Nulla" with the growing drama that the moog and the rest of the keyboards and percussions bring, closes the work epically.

Although Le Orme kept the trio format similar to the referents E,L&P, "Felona E Sorona", one of the cornerstones of Italian progressive rock, follows a path with more melodic components and less grandiloquent structures than those of the British, shining with its own light, and projecting the band to the Anglo-Saxon market by releasing the English version of the album afterwards.

4.5 stars