DOPO IL BUIO LA LUCE

One of the lesser knowns in the 70s Italian prog scene, SALIS consisted of the two brothers Antonio Salis (bass, vocals) and Francesco Salis (guitar, vocals) who started playing together as Barrittas in the 1960s on the island of Sardinia off the coast of Italy. After a brief stint as Salis 'n' Salis, the brothers finally decided upon SALIS and officially formed their band in 1969. Despite one of the earliest progressive acts to emerge on the Italian scene, SALIS wasn't very prolific having released its debut "Sa Vida Ita Est" in 1971 which featured a psychedelic folk sound with minor progressive elements. It would take another three years for the following "Seduto Sull'alba A Guardare" to emerge and once again the band released a primarily pop flavored album with minor progressive elements.

It would take still another five long years for the band to reinvent itself into the quartet of Francesco Salis (guitar, vocals), Antonio Salis (bass, flute, vocals), Antonio Lotta (keyboards) and Antonio Sardu (drums) with an emphasis on dreamy symphonic jazz rock that offered beautiful but complex acoustic guitar moments, vintage keyboard sounds, classic era Italian prog compositional fortitude and an overall epic sound. While mostly an instrumental a few vocal moments are scattered about and after existing as a simpler pop based band for its entire career, SALIS had finally become a fully indoctrinated progressive rock band. DOPO IL BUIO LA LUCE (After The Darkness There Is Light) came out in 1979 when progressive rock bands in Italy were abandoning all traces of complexity and simplifying their style into catchy pop music.

Undeterred SALIS generated an interesting style of progressive jazz rock with symphonic touches that evades any true comparisons with other artists. A nice mix of keyboard driven melodies with electric guitar lines and off-kilter time signature patterns that evoked the symphonic prog craze of the earlier part of the decade. The album featured eight tracks at just under 42 minutes with most hovering around the 5 to 6 minute range. The lengthy title track at nearly 8 minutes provided the most stellar prog workouts, the most mood shifts, strange motifs and an overall airy breezy vibe. The album as a whole is more on the mellow side although Francesco Salis' guitar workouts can get a bit fiery. Tracks like "Diablo" show great contrast between vocal-driven symphonic prog in the vein of classic PFM or Banco but showcases the band's ability to break into heavier outbursts and then jump right back into the sophisticated vocal-driven symphonic prog again.

Lots of keyboards layered on this one upping the dosage of symphonic possibilities but another unique feature is the interesting guitar style that adds bizarre contrapuntal aspects thus making DOPO IL BUIO LA LUCE sound nothing like the band's previous efforts but also gives it a unique sound that is unlike pretty much any other Italian band that came before. As far as the mellow nature of this perhaps it would appeal most to those who can appreciate the subtleties of Locanda delle Fate's late to the prog game 1977 effort. The track "Inquinamento" showcases some English Canterbury jazz flavors. Overall this is interesting album that stands on its own two feet. Sadly the prog scene had completely vanished by 1979 and as a band SALIS called it quits the following year. While not the cream of the crop of the burgeoning 70s Italian prog scene, DOPO IL BUIO LA LUCE is nevertheless yet another excellent slice of Italian prog that went completely unnoticed.