CITTA' DI FRONTIERA

When I heard this album by the first time, it sounds like another neo-prog production with nice melodies. I made a review and gave it 3 stars, but after several listenings it really grew on me, and I discovered new textures and lots of very enjoyable moments. Influenced by classic Italian bands (specially PFM), excellent voice (singing in Italian) and plenty of beautiful keyboards and magnificent guitars, I think -right now- that it is much more than an average neo-prog cd and, probably, with the next listenings, the rate will go up.

I was very pleased with the debut CD from Calliope (loaded with vintage keyboards!) so I had high expectations to this second album. Well, some things changed and to my sorrow the Mellotron and Hammond are less dominant. But the compositions sound more elaborated and the music from Calliope features more variation like in "Margherita a Rodi (wonderful ballad with beautiful pianoplay), "Senza pretese" (short acoustic guitar piece), "Windsor" (a spacey intro an then lots of saxophone) and "L'attesa" (folky with soaring keyboards). The unsurpassed Mellotron is only omnipresent in the track "Terra di nessuno" (also featuring a Peter Bardens inspired organ solo). But songs like "La prova" and the splendid final composition "Il ritorno" delivers many pleasant shifting moods and great work on guitar and keyboards. The strong and enthousiastic vocals from Massimo Berruti (what a beautiful Italian names..!) add an extra dimension to the sound of Calliope. If you like melodic, fluent and symphonic rock, this one is yours! FORZA ITALIA!

Familiar 70s style prog from this Italian five-piece, a group that is fine with the notion of taking from ELP, Yes, Camel and most major Italian Symph acts of the period without any sense of shame. And why not-- if you're gonna steal, steal from the best. Other than this shortcoming of originality, Calliope is a very decent band with plenty of energy and a proud sense of the past. Rinaldo Doro's Arp, Moog, Hammond, Leslie and GEM come in good use and he cracks alive with Mario Guadagnin's nasty hard metal guitar. 8-minute 'La Prova' is promising but ultimately too long for its own good, 'Sarajevo' is better and more complex. But the commercial aspect of this band peeks its ugly head out frequently, cheapening otherwise perfectly fine prog. Weepy ballad 'Margherita a Rodi' is no fun, 'Terra di Nessuno' is a confusing pop-fusion amalgam I would - save a few moments - really only want to hear in a Milan nightclub, and a solitary nylon string guitar piece finishes the first half soothingly. So goes this mixed bag, unpredictable but not in a good way. When they're good, they're good. When they're not, they kinda stink. 'Windsor' starts on an exciting triplet and revels in sounds of the past but once again is sabotaged by this group's tendencies toward self-destruction, torn between cheesy symph-metal and thoughtful music. Not recommended to anyone in particular, but not bad.

Good album.

This Citta' di Frontiera, the CALLIOPE's second album, was my first CALLIOPE. As generally said, new Italian progressive rock bands should be sometimes influenced by English progressive rock, and I'm afraid CALLIOPE should be...I think my estimation is a little correct. Well, this phenomenon is not so bad. Their album is constructed by lots of naturally heavy rock songs, and the songs sometimes make their rhythm varied UNNATURALLY. I suppose the unnaturally-varied rhythm was done by them for neo-Italian prog style. But I'm sure it's absolutely okay. Because they seems to be very happy to play the music by CALLIOPE's style and their songs are so hard but so pleasant. The instrumentals and vocal are very lively and even charming. Indeed I cannot recommend this album as a typical masterpiece of Italian progressive rock, but can as a straight rock album. Enjoy it!

3.5 stars. I'm of the opinion that CALLIOPE's best album was their debut and that each proceeding record was not as good as the one before. I know quite a few people who like this one better than the debut but i'm not one of them. On the Gnosis site they suggest this one is more contemporary sounding, more modern if you will. And I agree. I prefer the more vintage sounding debut.

"La Prova" opens hard and fast with organ (then keyboards) and drums standing out. Vocals before a minute then the organ becomes prominant. The guitar before 2 minutes and later at 4 minutes sounds great. Nice bass before 5 1/2 minutes. "Sarajevo" opens with drums and organ then the tempo picks up. Vocals after a minute as it settles some. The organ and drums continue to impress. The tempo continues to shift. I like the instrumental section 5 1/2 minutes in. "Margiherita A Rodi" opens with the guitar and mellotron standing out. Reserved vocals a minute in. It settles 2 1/2 minutes in. The mellotron is back. Guitar before 4 1/2 minutes starts to solo tastefully. Vocals and piano a minute later. Guitar and mellotron end it. Good song.

"Terra Di Nessuno" is not very melodic early on as keyboards and vocals stand out. It settles before 2 1/2 minutes then kicks in again. I like the organ/drum section after 4 1/2 minutes. Vocals eventually join in. "Senza Pretese" is a short acoustic guitar piece. "Windsor" sounds amazing early with all that atmosphere. Guitar then organ join in. The tempo picks up before 1 1/2 minutes with drums leading. It settles with vocals after 3 minutes. Picks back up after 7 minutes followed by a guitar solo. "L'attesa" is mellow to start but it turns powerful with organ and drums. It blends into "Il Ritorno" but it changes to a bombastic soundscape which i'm not fond of. Much better when it settles before 2 1/2 minutes.

So a good album for sure that just fails to captivate me like the debut does.