A.S.T.R.A

A.S.T.R.A biography
A completely obscure one-and-done band from Trieste in northeastern Italy, A.S.T.R.A emerged and vanished in the early Eighties, but this fully instrumental group, boasting two guitarists and two keyboard players, left behind an LP that is one of the rarest Italian progressive rock releases of the decade.

Despite having a very cold and amateur production, their sole album from 1983, `Il Tempo del Tempio' is an energetic and constantly up-tempo instrumental symphonic work, sounding greatly influenced by CAMEL with little touches of PINK FLOYD, but they also head in similar directions to the earliest years of the British Neo-Prog groups like JADIS and PENDRAGON, if only by mere coincidence.

If you don't demand audio perfection and don't mind paying the high prices for the original vinyl, A.S.T.R.A and their album are well worth investigating!

Biography by Michael Hodgson (Aussie-Byrd-Brother), Italian Prog Team, Prog Archives.