LE PORTE DEL SILENZIO

A superb album, specially the title song "le porte del silenzio", an eight-part suite about 27 minutes long, sung in italian. I would say that this album is a very well balanced mix of the 70´s italian prog and the 90´s neo-prog, with both very melodic and powerful moments. Highly recommended!

MALIBRAN's second album that has been out of print for over 5 years is now re-issued from the master-tapes by the magnificent Brazilian label Rock Symphony. This is, if possible, an even greater masterpiece than MALIBRAN's debut album "The Wood of Tales" (1990). Here you can find all the elements from the debut: the wonderful flute playing, the majestic keyboards, the nice guitar work and the saxophone, an instrument not often heard in progressive rock. MALIBRAN has a great 70's symphonic sound with reminiscences to other great Italian bands such as IL BALLETTO DI BRONZO, BIGLIETTO PER L'INFERNO, CELESTE, FINISTERRE, I GIGANTI, MARY NEWSLETTER, MAXOPHONE, METAMORFOSI, MUSEO ROSENBACH, PREMIATA FORNERIA MARCONI, IL ROVESCIO DELLA MEDAGLIA and STANDARTE. The title track is a 27 minutes classic masterpiece. This album is perhaps the best Italian album in the 90's along with MARY NEWSLETTER's album "Nuove Lettere" (1996) and STANDARTE's album "Stimmung" (1998). I love Italian symphonic and progressive rock, and Rock Symphony have done a cultural charitable by re-releasing MALIBRAN's two first albums. Thank you for the music! I hope I'll get to hear their latest 1998 release "La Città sul Lago" too. Highly recommended!

I like this CD despite the poor vocals. Guiseppe Scarvilli must have one of the most unique vocal styes in prog rock. You either like it or hate it. I rather like it as it adds to the mystique of this CD. As usual with malibran some great instrumental passages including plenty of contrasts .Gian carlo Cutuli is a good flautist and his contribution on this disc is excellent. The epic last track is particularly worthwhile.

Judging by the opinions and reviews of many collaborators, MALIBRAN is contemplated as one of the best contemporary progressive rock bands from one of the most influent countries of this genre, and speaking for me, I think so too. This Sicilian sextet produces in 1993 their second album "La Porte del Silenzio", which many consider, me included, one of the greatest musical works of the last ten years. The previous circumstances surrounding this album, such as "The Wood of Tales"; were precisely the most propitious to project a brand new reorganization, to reborn not only as a band but as a revealing yet convincing musical process.

From the first moment the album captivates you into an indescribable world, most of all when it takes you through passages of extreme symphonic contents, almost classic I'd say. A special mention deserves this CD's last cut, a 27 minutes suite named after the album, a majestic and solemn piece, a walk through several mood types, all of them intense and versatile. I have always enjoyed pointing out the best track from an album that deserves the mention of a "suite", but if I could, this time, I'd pick them all and review each one of them respectively. thing I won't do in order to get you hooked on this incredible Italian prog production.

Individually each instrument is superbly interpreted, the flute performing by Giancarlo CUTULI, unarguably exquisite, very appealed to the one played by Kollar ATTILA of SOLARIS than the JETHRO TULL's; is not only virtuous, fast, precise, but delicate, fine, varied and jolly as well. The keyboards played by Jerry LITRICO sound off classic in some interludes, mostly the piano, quite spacey sometimes, creating atmospheres propitious for the enlightenment of the flute and the guitar, where this last one has many moments of extreme brilliantness, profoundly sensed, inspired and very provocative due the inconveniences of sounding sort of neo-progressive sometimes, but I'd difficultly label it that. Maybe the virtuosity and sensitiveness displayed in this album are the most convincing combination it's got besides the harmonies, cadencies and rhythms accompanying all the tracks masterfully played in here.

It is imperative to underline that the highlighted weakness of this band is undoubtedly its vocalist; where the quality of his voice lacks of preciseness. This may be the only reason of why I wouldn't consider MALIBRAN as one of the top class bands of the modern era nor the Italian art rock as well.

Still, no matter the flaws this album may contain, I'd dare to say it's one of those productions I could widely recommend practically to any respected lover of good music, independently of its musical preferred genres.

****1/2

The 2nd album by Italian Malibran shows improvement after the already great debut album "The Wood of Tales" and increases their status as one of the best 90's groups. This album has even more varied symphonic sound than their debut mostly due to the fantastic title suite. It also shows what it means if the non-english language groups are singing in their native language or not. I think that in most cases the groups should stick to their native language. In this album the singer & guitarist Giuseppe Scaravilli sings for the first time also in his native language and it shows a huge improvement in his vocal delivery. He sings very good as long as he sticks to Italian language. The flautist Giancarlo Cutuli delivers again some really mesmerizing flute solos. I really like that many Italian bands use flute a lot. In my opinion this band uses the flute even better than any of the 70's Italian masters who must have been an influence for them. It is really impressing that they recorded this album in one week only. They must have worked day and night!

Brief description of tracks:

Livin' Alone: Great over 10-minute song that shows the bands capabilities in every instrument. Nice addition is Cutuli's great sax playing in the first half in addiyion to his always-wonderful flute playing.

I know your Soul: A beautiful track. A significant note is that singer Scaravilli's English vocals have improved a lot since the debut album. He doesn't sound that bad at all in this album's English vocal tracks (the debut album's vocals are bad).

Libero: Similar in style to the two first tracks and as good. Great. Vocals are in Italian.

Nel Labirinto: A short instrumental by the bass player Angelo Messina. It's a nice addition to the album and kind of a prelude for the epic title track.

Le Porte del Silenzio: A 27-minute masterpiece. This track really has everything a symphonic prog lover can wish for. What really strikes me is that the track is so wonderful for the whole 27 minutes. In the middle of the suite there is a dreamy keyboard interlude that divides this suite nicely into two parts. I can't name any track from the nineties that would definitely be better than this suite.

Conclusion: A great improvement from the debut album. Malibran really delivers with this album. This is one of the best symphonic prog albums from the nineties.

First of all I want to remark that, despite of recording in the recent times for the Brazilian Label Rock Symphony, they are from Catania, in the isle of Sicily-Italy,even though- in the period regarding the issue of their debut album- they tried to undersign a long contract for the EMI Records label from Italy and of course they failed, cause they sold a few copies out...well the same experience as for another 90's band with an old 70's sound, Nuova Era, whose destiny was anyway a bit different.I like to point out that Malibran-unlike Nuova Era-are performing a few lives still today and with good results, even though their production from the Studio is a bit weak . But coming back to such "Le Porte del Silenzio, the 70's imprinting is strong and quite obvious, all along the album suite. The presence of the guitars is important-sometimes reminding me of the harmonic solutions by Aufklarung, (another remarkable Italian symphonic ensemble with a mood of "hard rock"), by adding the flute as well as an approach of "classical music", which is very interesting.But the other music features are not so "progressive", in the sense that they are not exploring the language of the new millennium nowadays, nor they produce something really fresh and innovative, unlike for instance Il Trono dei Ricordi...well you know that I prefer another kind of progressive music in the vein of After Crying or Isildurs Bane, but I think of some good music passages for this Italian Band and it's a pity they have not performed some really original tunes, by looking for example for a more personal way of composing suites. Glass Hammer for instance has been able to perform something original in the USA, despite of using some typical symphonic breaks-through !!...Well at the end make your own choice and add an half star at least, because I'm sure that I can't affect the opinion of their several fans!!

Wonderful amazing stuff...!!! Italian Prog rocks !

Stunning instrumental passages all over this album. The 27 minute long titletrack contains great flute, piano-parts and complex rhythms. For me, simply one of the best "Italian Symphonic Prog" CD's of the 90's. This is a must-have for lovers of this genre. A CD you can listen again and again...without boring.

Very impressive work ! Breathtaking 5 Stars...

Seventies music played in the nineties. Who could complain ? Not me, that's for sure.

The band released a great debut album and three years later came "Le Porte del Silenzio". And even if there are little variation in the music played, some changes did appear with this album.

There are more more sax in here, which at times provides some soft jazzy moments like in "Livin' Alone". I also can notice more "Genesis" oriented music (but "Camel" is still present as well lke on their first album "The Wood of Tales"). Guiseppe is doing better on the vocals as well (good news !). And more than anything, some songs will be sung in Italian and that's a major improvement.

The epic track and title song "Le Porte del Silenzio" is the absolute highlight and by far the best song. A jewel of a harmony (but that's what Italian symph is all about, right). Tranquil symphonic music with light piano, sweet fluting, emotional vocals and tutti quanti. This masterpiece raise the level of this album significantly, because I must say that the other songs are lacking some inspiration in comparison with their previous work.

Most of the songs are good like "Libero" but I am missing some of the magic here. And the "Genesis" orientation is fully recognizable during the synth solo of "I Know Your Soul" ("Cinema Show" or "In The Cage"). But don't worry, we'll get brilliant instrumental passages as well as our necessary dosis of emotion.

"Malibran" music is not the most elaborate but at the same time, they attract me more than a band like "Banco" for instance. This music is really accessible and since there are not so many vocal parts (bearing in mind that more than half are sung in English unfortunately) the language barrier should have no effect.

This band would deserve more attention from the progheads out there. Just listen to the magnificent finale of "Le Porte del Silenzio". You'll get all there !

Four stars.

3.5 stars.This album is very much a tale of two halves in my opinion. The first half is good but fails to capture my imagination, i'm not sure why they decided to sing in English on the first two tracks either. Still it's quite enjoyable, especially the flute.The second half is actually the side long title track. They sing in Italian and the highlight is the guitar to end this over 27 minute track.

Things get started with "Livin' Alone" which features some good contrasts and tempo changes. I like the flute and synths to open. Sax before 5 minutes followed by vocals for the first time. Pretty good tune. "I Know Your Soul" has lots of piano, flute and drums early. Vocals a minute in. A change after 2 1/2 minutes and I like the guitar a minute later. It's an ok song. "Libero" is where we hear Italian vocals for the first time. Some excellent soaring guitar before 3 minutes, vocals follow. Some more nice flute then the tempo picks up before 7 minutes with sax to end it. "Nel Labirinto" is a short instrumental with some cool guitar melodies throughout.

"Le Porte Del Silenzio" is the closing title track. A good atmosphere thanks to the synths early. The guitar cries out followed by vocals 2 1/2 minutes in. The guitar is back a minute later. I like the vocals that follow, they have some passion to them. Piano takes over 5 1/2 minutes in then flute joins in. Lots of synths and flute then those vocals return 11 1/2 minutes in.This sounds so good. A calm with keyboards follows. It picks back up then vocals return 18 1/2 minutes in. Guitar leads the way 20 1/2 minutes in. Flute 22 minutes in as it settles. It kicks back in with scorching guitar 23 1/2 minutes in. Vocals a minute later. I like it. More guitar creates an incredible finish.

I really like the title track, it's such a ride ! Overall though 3.5 stars seems right.

After the excellency of ''The wood of tales'',MALIBRAN had to go on to produce another monumental release.The previous album successed many good critics and the band begun performing all around Italy,some of their dates included also the biggest Italian Rock festivals.With lot of time to work on their music, MALIBRAN enter 1993 wih a brand new album,''Le porte del silenzio'', released again on Pegasus Records,re-issued on CD at the end of the 90's by the Brazilian label Rock Symphony.

Nothing has changed,compared to their 1990 debut, regarding both the line-up and music style.Vintage influences and symphonic keyboards along with melodic and sometimes heavier guitar parts travel the listener to 70's Italy and its prog rock romanticism.The band sounds closer than ever to NUOVA ERA with keyboardist Benny Torrisi having an even more energetic role.Unforunately the first two tracks are sung in English and, though the musicianship is fantastic with tons of symph keys, driving flutes, distinctive guitars and complex arrangements but a surprisingly rather dark atmosphere, the magic produced by the Italian lyrics is not there.The follower ''Libero'' has a more simple form than the English tracks,guide by the nice synths,beautiful organ and strong voice of Giussepe Scaravilli,a track which reminds me of NUOVA ERA more than anything.The short instrumental ''Nel labirinto'' is actually bassist's Angelo Messina personal moment,while the album closes with the great epic ''Le porte del silenzio'',clocking at 27 minutes.Though MALIBRAN borrow some lines of the opener at the first moments of the track,soon it transforms into a symphonic opus with numerous magnificent changing moods and tempos.Thrilling and lovely flute work by Giancardo Cutulli, which will leave you wanting for more,Torrissi makes the moog synthesizer outburst plenty of spacey yet melodic lines and his piano work is a tribute to classical music,while even guitarist Jerry Litrico borrows some influences from classical inspiration for his own instrument.Musically the album is a stand out with a lot of space for some instrumental symphonic rock of the best quality,while Scaravilli performs quite well behind the microphone,though vocals were never MALIBRAN's strong point.

Among the best releases of traditional Italian Symphonic Rock,created the time of the return of the Italian Prog scene during the 90's,and definitely essential for any prog collection!