ASTROLABIO

The second album under the Garybaldi name (but the third overall from the group) is maybe their best, but be prepared for a very short track list as only two of them lasting each their own vinyl side. With this album, they only confirm the direction they had taken with the sidelong suite from their debut album. Rumours has it that keyboardist Lio Marchi played on this as a session man - he does not get any writing credits, although he is very present.

Mother Of Lost Causes starts off as a very spacey-sounding exploration, but soon develops superbly what they had promised with the Moretto Da Brescia pinnacle of Nuda. Simply superb double-tracked guitar wailing somehow reminding more of Robin Trower (another Hendrix-ey connection) and very abruptly ended by an almost sonar- echoed repeating key that is reminiscent of a great Argent track. Astounding stuff, you proheads!!! In Italy only Flea (with their Topi O Uomini album) approaches such a complete feast of guitars at the time.

The second track is recorded live and is kick-arse rock'n roll (sometimes sounding a bit like Hendrix's Voodoo Chile played by Trower) and some wild KB-guitars (Purple-like) call and response. This track is not quite as proggy as the previous one, but shows another facet (improvising) of the group. Pity these guys stopped so soon, even if Fossatti will make further records.

Easily their better album, this lengthy solo feast is never over-indulgent or gratuitous heroics and in its genre is a textbook example of its own.

One more unusual but pleasant Italian Progressive album from 70-th. It includes only two compositions ( one on each LP side), so is very short.

First song is dreamy melodic composition musically in traditional RPI style of that time. Only the big difference are in instruments: whenever keyboards presents and plays important role, music in total are guitar driven. In comparence with previous album, guitar sound is softer and warmer, more rounded, far from heavy Hendrix sound. Composition by itself is very nice, one of band's very best.

The second song ( or side B of original LP) is very different. It's another long composition, but recorded live in small studio with small team of listeners. And in fact it's pure Hendrix-oriented psychodelic bluesy song. No prog elements there at all.

In total, the album is short, but leaves it's traces in your head and your heart. Quite unusual guitar-hero oriented music for Italian bands of period. But songs are melodic, sound openly and catch you with their warm melodism.

I quite liked their first two albums (each one rated with three stars), if you would accept that "Gleeman and Garybaldi was a one and only band.

This one starts with a more keyboards approach and deep psychedelic texture. Some sort of very early Floydean impression combined with a definite Italian flavour. Quite well achieved to tell the truth. Poetic (I'm referring to the music, since I don't grab too much of the Italian language), and full of harmony.

The true prog feel has never been as deep than during this epic, and the usual and great "Hendrix" feel enters the scene somewhere at half-time. I have to admit though that this portion is not my fave one: it doesn't reach the ankle of the master for a good while, but then finally "Bambi Fossatti" shines as he did in the previous albums: a good (but not great) guitar moment.

Still, what prevails globally on this epic are the keys. Some excellent (but short) mellotron lines are wonderfully sustaining the fine guitar work during the excellent closing part.

The second and epic track was recorded live and has little to share with its first counterpart. "Sette" is fully "Hendrix" oriented even if during brief moments, keyboards are surging (but this was a standard for the band).

This track is heavy and bluesy and features a lot of guitar maestria of course. Like Hughes mentioned, there are some fine call and response between keys and guitar (while both Led Zep and Purple were doing this on a vocal / guitar base). This live performance holds a lot of improvisations and can definitely be considered as a tribute to the great man. But IMHHO it lacks of truly great moments.

Three stars for this good album.

In my opinion this is a huge improvement over "Nuda" the debut.Those Jimi Hendrix hero worship moments in the vocals and guitar work are not so obvious here, in fact they're all but gone. Bambi Fossatti the guitarist is such an amazing player he really doesn't need to imitate anyone. I really like the fact that this album consists of two over 20 minute suites, it gives Bambi and the band lots of time to stretch out and experiment.

"Madre Di Cose Perdute" opens with the sounds of birds as relaxed guitar sounds come and go.Drums and organ 2 minutes in, reserved vocals 2 1/2 minutes. A change after 7 minutes as it builds quickly and becomes fuller sounding. Nice. The guitar is soloing beautifully as the bass throbs and the drums beat. A calm before 10 minutes with guitar expressions.The beat is back 12 1/2 minutes in as the guitar continues. An earlier theme returns 15 1/2 minutes in and the guitar is fantastico ! The theme ends 19 minutes in as we get some laid back organ with bass to the end.

"Sette?" is actually a live track. We hear it introduced then this excellent bass line comes in with guitar and drums in tow. It kicks in at 1 1/2 minutes.The organ dominates after 2 minutes. It's the guitar's turn before 4 minutes to lead. Vocals before 5 minutes. Love the guitar here. Check out the guitar / organ interplay before 8 minutes. Vocals are back 9 minutes in but he's pretty much speaking the words. His guitar is talking too. It picks up before 12 minutes with singing. A calm a minute later then the guitar starts to solo. Incredible performance here. A change 16 minutes in as the organ takes over. The guitar is back after 18 minutes. A huge applause ends it.

A solid 4 star album.

Garybaldi belonged among the popular Rock bands in early-70's, performing regularly at the most famous Italian open festivals and supporting acts such as Uriah Heep, Van Der Graaf Generator and Santana on their Italian tours.Prior to the recordings of a second album Lio Marchi and Angelo Traverso left Garybaldi, who were reduced to a trio with the addition of Sandro Serra on bass only.However the new album features Marchi as a guest musician on keyboards.For ''Astrolabio'' the band signed a contract with Fonit, which released the album in 1973.

This one contains two sidelong pieces only for a total time of 43 minutes, the opening one was recorded in studio and the second one was taped live.Both are good examples of guitar-oriented Psychedelic/Prog Rock with Fossati's guitar in evidence.Not technically explicit, both long tracks are based on atmospheric soundscapes, intense singing and Fossati's stretched guitar solos with a pretty old-fashioned sound and many moments with a quite loose playing.Some vocal melodies in here have a bit of a poppier tendency similar to 60's stylings, but the majority goes straight into jamming guitar fists, low-tempo groovy lines and some more fiery textures with Fossati's impressive solos in a HENDRIX style.The presence of Lio Marchi is responsible for some of the tunes close to Classic Italian Prog, coloring the sound with beautiful symphonic images or just supporting in the background with his Hammond organ.''Madre di cose perdute'' is propably the best of the two pieces, pretty solid effort with Fossati's displaying a wide variety of moods with both attacking riff scratching and melodic solos and Marchi's work being exetremely balanced.The live-recorded ''Sette?'' is even more guitar-oriented, tending to improvised performances, with ovestretched soloing and a less balanced sound overall.Still some of Fossati's most complex executions appear in this track.

Garybaldi officially folded in 1973, giving rise to a new Fossati project in 1974, Bambibanda e Melodie, which had a more jazzy but still charming style.Garybaldi were brought again out of dust by Fossati in late 80's, releasing two more albums, ''Blokko 45'' and ''La ragione e il torto'', both having a limited interest for Prog fans.An archival release, the 2010 LP ''Note Perdute'', containing some previously unreleased material, seems like a nice document, and in 2011 comes the release of ''Live in Bloom'', an interesting live album.

''Astrolabio'' marks the second and last official album of Garybaldi from the 70's.The opening piece tops up any previous or future piece recorded by the band, while ''Sette?" is rather uneven, abstract and less convincing, still some of Fossati's best guitar lines are included in here.Recommended overall.

The second album by GARYBALDI proved to be a completely different beast than the debut "Nuda" which showcased bandleader and guitarist Bambi Fossatti's extraordinary ability to mimic Jimi Hendrix and crafting prog tracks to build around the rock hero worshipping. ASTROLABIO which appeared in 1973 showcased what happens when band members disagree about which direction to take a band and in the case of GARYBALDI resulted in bassist Angelo Traverso parting ways and being replaced by Sandro Serra and while original keyboardist Lio Marchi still participated on ASTROLABIO but went uncredited and was no longer an "official" member of the band. Despite all the trauma and drama of band disagreements, GARYBALDI was extremely active on the live circuit playing at all the important Italian festivals as well as opening for bigger bands like the Bee Gees, Santana, Uriah Heep and Van Der Graaf Generator.

ASTROLABIO continued the friction between Fossatti who was more interested in the rock side of things and drummer Maurizio Cassinnellli who was more interested in the classical meets pop hooks route. This second album is a temporary truce between the two styles before the band splintered for good thus breaking GARYBALDI up despite a recent score on the Fonit Cetrra label which hosted Osanna, Alusa Fallax, Raccamondata Ricevuta Ritorno, New Trolls and many other key players in the Italian prog scene of the early 70s. ASTROLABIO features two very distinct tracks that have little resemblance to one another but both over 20 minutes long and swallowing up an entire side of the original vinyl LP pressing. While the first side swallower "Madre Di Cose Perdute" features GARYBALDI on full prog mode with less emphasis on Hendrix style heavy psych, the second side "Sette?" was presented as a lengthy in studio band jam which revived Fossatti's Hendrix worship in full regalia.

"Made Di Cose Perdute" starts out unexpectedly with gurgling synthesized noises and abstract guitar harmonics slowly percolating into some sort of form as if an abstract Krautrock sound was slowly morphing into a more bluesy space rock aesthetic of Pink Floyd. After a couple minutes of warming up though the musical style takes form as a more traditional Italian prog act with romantic Italian lyrics in a slow plodding space rock format with a Floydian bass line cradling Fossatti's bluesy guitar licks and a pacifying atmospheric backdrop. There are some haunting backing vocals that sort of emulate moments of "The Dark Side Of The Moon" as well. Had Fossatti traded in his Hendrix worship for England's most famous space rockers? At first it seems so but around the 7-minute mark the style jumps back into a more symphonic style of Italian prog with some bluesy guitar gusto. This is the type of track you keep expecting to evolve into something grand given the 20-minute playing time but it never really takes off into an epic prog journey but rather recycles the same licks and motifs ad nauseam until you are left feeling woefully unsatisfied.

The second track "Sette?" is even less satisfying as it was basically an in studio jam session that featured some friends and family who added some audience participation type sounds but basically this is another Hendrix worship sermon with bluesy heavy psych motifs fortified with Fossatti's guitar wizardry along with moments of contrast which allowed some classical keyboard runs to sneak in as well as other styles trying to cast their light through the dominant stature of Fossatti's overpowering guitar prowess. It's a decent track but sounds more like a series of improvisations that early hard rock 70s bands like Deep Purple would unleash in a live setting to distinguish their live performances from the studio tracks. While fine in a live setting it seemed like a big fumble to include this as half the album. Perhaps a decent bonus tracks on future reissues but as the main album? It doesn't offer enough meat and potatoes to give you that satiated feeling and when coupled with the underwhelming performances of the first track it's clear GARYBALDI was not firing on all pistons at this stage.

For whatever reasons this band which was clearly talented beyond belief and had the chops to craft some of the top notch Italian prog of the era seemed to squander every opportunity with substandard decisions that made lopsided albums. On "Nuda" the opening tracks were way too close to the original Hendrix material with The Experience and although the album was redeemed by a spectacular prog closer on the second side, the album would've been much better had the entire album embarked on the same journey. On ASTROLABIO these faulty fumbles are even more pronounced with a rather middle of the road first side followed by a rather head scratching incongruent second track. It's not a bad album by any means but seems to lack any focus or direction that brings it to the top ranks of Italian prog. It seems the band members were too busy butting heads to focus on coalescing their talents into a vibrant expression of unique Italian prog. I actually prefer the debut album to this one but it is a unique nook of the Italian prog scene that no other band followed. And to be honest i actually like the Gleemen album better than both GARYBALDI albums!

I ran into a fairly expensive beater copy of this first pressing online. I have mixed feelings about this band. While Nuda gets all the acclaim, there is a sophistication on side one of this lp, Madre Di Cose Perdute that rises above anything on their debut. Here, they seem to get all the pieces in place to create a well crafted side long song that hangs together pretty well. The usually over the top guitar of Bambi Fossati combines with the creative drumming of Maurizio Cassinelli that take this places they didn't go in Nuda. Keyboards are tasteful and always add to things. You might not notice this song takes up all of side one at just over 20 minutes as it drifts in and out of themes seamlessly. More of a psych vibe than an explicit prog vibe, but very nice nonetheless. Side two is a completely different animal-the band is live in the studio with a small audience. Here the music is less prog oriented and more akin to a loose Hendrix jam (a guitarist Fossati clearly tries to emulate). Not quite up to the recording standards of side one, this reminds me of the german band Neu! second album where they carefully crafted some excellent stuff, but then the album had to come out immediately and they were stuck trying to fill it out quickly. This jam seems like an outtake rather than something intentionally created for the album. Overall, this album is frustrating-side one is fairly essential and side two is a throwaway sidelong jam. An unusual take on Italian prog that everyone should try, especially guitar fans. 3.5 stars.