ALAN SORRENTI

Alan Sorrenti is an Italian artist from Naples with a young Jean Luc Ponty on violin.

(9.5/10)- Aria (19:49) The Epic title track mixes Sorrenti's ghostly falsetto with a mantic, Satantic Ponty setting fire to cat gut. Vocal gymnastics galore; Sorrenti rocks acoustically on Aria as if he listened to Italian band Area or Tim Buckley. I swear I've never heard its like. Sorrenti hits me like a drug I'm not sure I love...yet. Suddenly a flamenco guitar tangos across the speakers. Nice. Then Sorrenti falsetto vibrato duels with the bands phase shifting...warble.

( 7.5/10) Vorrei Incontrarti (4:58) Singer songwriter ballad. Beautiful and romantic. Mostly accoutic guitar and Sorrenti's falsetto. Somebody whistling as the song fades.

( 9/10) La Mia Mente (7:36) Sorrenti molds his vocals on free form jazz, or else he was the fanclub president for Aria's lead singer- Demetrio Stratos. Except Sorrenti's Aria was released a full year before Area's debut. Experiment everything, especially the transitions. Dissonant trumpet and trombone deliver a perfect final and Sorrenti's most ghostly vocal yet!

( 9/5/10) Fiume Tranquillo (8:01) Finally the cello. However, I'm saddened that Jean Luc Ponty did not participate on every song. 100% Ponty would have made this album a masterpiece. Oh it's so close. Superb tumpet. My god, the vocals are incredible. Bold, tasty, more experimental than most of today's far-out RIO/Avant on-guard, touche!

Must listen for aficionados of high-wire vaulting vocals. For fans of Falsetto funambulists, Neutral Milk Hotel, free form vocal jazz, and Area.

A double face album. Alan Sorrenti was fully in his experimental phase, but the achievement is different on the two sides of the vynil. Side A is made of regular songs. the problem is that they seem to be made of random sequences of chords on which Alan sings lyrics with no metrics trying to stay tuned in the passages.

Of the songs present on side A, the shortest, "Serenesse" is the most similar to a proper song, but it's really nothing special. After many attempts I still dislike the side A.

Side B is a completely different story. It's a side long track which despite the unusual vocal experiments is balanced between experimental instrumental parts with a chamber rock flavor, close to RIO, and melodic parts on which Alan sings with his high pitched voice respecting the rule of metrics a bit more, on a quite good melody, even if he sometimes exceeds in taking and holding dissonant high pitched notes. The most noisy and experimental parts are interesting enough. Nothin to do with what people means as RPI, anyway. This is an experimental album closer to the free format of AREA than to bands like PFM or Le Orme.

On both the sides, the effort of NAPOLI CENTRALE's percussionist Tony ESPOSITO is an added value. I have no idea of what the lyrics are about even if I'm Italian. If it was for side B only I'd rate it at least with 3 stars, but the side A is too poor in my opinion.

2 stars only, sorry.

Listening to the debut of Alan Sorrenti I can't tink to the rubbish stuff that he released just few years after. It's clear, in the early 70s in Italy an artist couldn't literally survive without at least a hit single, and there's nothing even remotely similar to a hit single in the 4 tracks of this first release.

The side long title track is something that I don't think the Italian market has seen before. The italian prog was already selling, thanks to PFM, Banco, Orme and their likes, but Aria, based on vocal experiments and acoustic instruments, with the addition of Jean Luc Ponty's violin, was completely out of the schemes. Alan's voice is naturally high-piched, and this may be the reason why he years later tried to clone the Bee Gees. He's experimental, but not a reasercher like the other big voice of the Italian 70s, Demetrio Stratos was. The song's melody changes seveal times, the passages are never trivial, sometimes even too unusual, so when sometimes gets back to more familiar armonies, it seems more melodic than what it really is. An important role is played by Ponty's violin, which is present in this track oly, but also the work made on percussion by Tony ESPOSITO (NAPOLI CENTRALE) is remarkable.

"Vorrei Incontrarti" (I wish to meet you) is a more "regular" song. Melodic but not too different in style from the title track. Still mainly acoustic with less vocal exercises. It fades out and the voice is replaced by a final whistle. An original final.

"La Mia Mente" (My mind) is more experimental. Maybe because of the subject. Not only the vocals, the whole arrangement is unusual. I have the impression to hear also an unreferenced Theremin, but it's the synth harp that makes a weird job.

The closer is opened by a cello solo. "Un Fiume Tranquillo" (A Quiet River) has strange lyrics. Following them is not very easy even for an Italian. Not only because of his kind of singing, but also because the attention is captured by the whole. An excellent work is performed by the Trumpet, then the track goes in crescendo, not as quiet as the river of the title. Instrumental interludes driven by the trumpet bring it back to the initial theme.

It's a pity that after a so interesting debut Alan Sorrenti attempted an "easy career". He had a big hit in the late 70s, while trying to be a Bee Gees clone, and in Italy is still remembered for that song only. After that he has been almost completely forgotten. Sometimes he appears on TV, always singing "Figli delle Stelle" and nothing else.

Recently he has released a 5 CD boxset entitled "The Prog Years", but I don't think he had enough prog material to fill 5 CDs unless there's something previously unreleased.

A 2 stars career, but this is a 4 stars album. Just give it a listen before buying, you may not lke the vocal style.

ALAN SORRENTI was and is a singer and composer who was born in Naples, Italy to a Welsh mother and spent as much time in the city of Aberystwiyth, Wales as in his native born Italy. As a result SORRENTI became fluent in both Italian and English languages and culture. While he would release a very sizable discography since his debut album in 1972, in 1976 he abandoned his early flirtations with progressive and psychedelic folk rock of his first few albums and jumped into full-on dance music. ARIA is his debut and fits firmly within the eclectic progressive rock arena that displays a whole plethora of musical influences including a healthy dose not only freak folk that meets psychedelic rock but shows his affinity with the progressive Italian rock scene as well as the most obvious influence of all, namely, early 70s Peter Hammill in the form of Van Der Graaf Generator. In fact SORRENTI almost perfectly mimics Hammill's vocal style only with an Italian flair. Understandable that SORRENTI would have been exposed to VDGG as Italy was the country where they experienced their greatest success. ARIA is in a way paying homage to the great UK eclectic prog band that found its home in a distant land.

The 19 minute and 45 minute title track begins the album and not only swallows half the album but mimics many a great of the day with not only Hammill style vocal acrobatics along with his singer / songwriter skills that were so prominent in VDGG but also the progressive freak folk instrumentation of Comus which comes to mind as the instrumentation comprises mostly of acoustic guitars accompanied by the brilliant violin playing skills of guest musician Jean Luc Ponty. There are also plenty of Hammond organs and mellotrons to create a thick lysergic atmosphere that enriches all the twists and turns of the song structure. While the VDGG and Hammill comparisons may lead one to expect a rock experience, this is first and foremost a psychedelic folk album that never once delivers an electric guitar riff or solo but rather incorporates a rich tapestry of acoustic and classical guitars and on this title track even ventures into the gypsy foot stomping territory of Spanish flamenco all the while SORRENTI's vocals do their own little dances around the melodic developments.

While the musical deliveries on ARIA are top notch, it is truly SORRENTI's vocals that are the star of the show here. As the liner notes explain: "SORRENTI's voice is treated with effects that compliment his experimental tendencies. Lines rise to crescendo and echo wildly in space. Falsettos tremble and vibrate. Lyrics disintegrate into exultation where SORRENTI's voice mutates into a musical instrument. Words are gently warbled, caressed, cosseted, vibrated and violently expunged. Styles of music melt and congeal together." I couldn't possibly top this first-rate description of the vocals, so i won't even try. The fact is this album comes off as if it were a long lost psychedelic recording of Van Der Graaf Generator. This is a dilemma for me as i find the album quite the brilliant experience but am a little put off by the blatant Hammilisms expressed in every musical cadence throughout the album despite the lyrics being totally penned in the Italian language. Some remaining short tracks to have more of an Italian feel and less of the VDGG textures. "La Mia Mente" actually has more of a Robert Plant feel.

Overall i'd have to say that i dig this album more than feel any sense of animosity. Yes, the influences are more than worn on the sleeve and stand out strong and bold, but SORRENTI actually has a more varied vocal style than Hammill and the music despite feeling like a counterpart in some alternative universe of the VDGG experience still manages to be captivating and complex with many instrumental workouts underneath the strident and bravado filled vocals that dominate the soundscape. The listener is treated to a plethora of keyboards and acoustic guitars, bow bass and trombone, trumpet and synth harp. Despite my usual resistance to give albums that take the influence thing a little too far, i have to admit that i find this particular release more than mesmerizing. This really is worth hearing over and over again.

I remember I was just introduced to Alan Sorrenti through his album "Sienteme". It was not my pot but I was still regarding him as an interesting singer-songwrites with a jazzy feel in the vein of Napoli Centrale and the other jazzy-prog acts from Naples of that time.

I remember when I heard the title track for the first time from the TV. The speaker introduced Alan Sorrenti and I was excited to see that kind of artist in a top-of-the-pops-like TV show....

Ther was a reason unfortunately. As well as New Trolls did in the same period, Alan Sorrenti tried to recycle himself and make some more money by attacking the pop mainstream market with a Bee-Gees like falsetto. There is no track on this album of his previous things. The reason why I'm reviewing this album is to make people avoid wasting time and money on it.

As I have written time ago about a Camel album, I think that a bad review can be of help even for the artist. If one thinks that all the Sorrenti's production is like this will surely miss his good debut and the three decent follow-ups. This one is a plastic disco-pop album with very few goodies, mainly in some remains of jazz-blues flavor totally jeopardized by the poorness of the songs. A weak attempt to be mimic of the most successful pop bands of the time and an early anticipation of the poorness that the 80s would bring to the world.

He sold a lot of albums but as it often happens with huge mainstream successes, it was question of just a season then he has been forgotten. I have seen Sorrenti on TV taking part to a "nostalgia" show. He still sings "Figli delle Stelle".

Avoid this album but give some attention to the previous ones, not all his works are good for the waste as this.

It's been a long while that a not yet known to me artist was able to really impress me, in fact Captain Beefheart and Amon Düül II were the last and that's been some time ago.

Yes, I have discovered good music meanwhile, able to indeed impress me, Andre Demay's Generic, Farm's Farm, Pell Mell's Marburg, Yezda Urfa's Boris, Gryphon's Red Queen to Gryphon Three and Harmonium's "cinquime saison" to name just a few. Still, no new Beefhearts or Düüls, until....

It did start with Enzo Capuano's "Storia Mia Scritta" I need to say. Discovered just a little earlier than Aria, a marvellous album that I seem to have played 55 times last three months. Capuano did really trigger my extended interest in RPI, music that I of course knew and appreciated through PFM and the like, but never really in a way that I could place it in my personal top 5 of musically interesting genres. But as so often appears, there's a near bottomless pit of yet to be discovered musical gems, and unlike Alice, who landed at a certain moment, I'm still falling and still discovering. Progressive music in a way is like science; at the moment you think you've discovered the last to be known secret of your quest it just only reveals the next uncountable number of roads to the solution you then know is further away than ever. Scientifically it's frustrating perhaps, musically it's a gift :).

So, and then you encounter Sorrenti and his "Aria". I learned to distinguish between "no","nice for the archive" and "store for later checking" by just listening to short fragments of music while trying to wade through large numbers of albums, because there's simply not enough time in any human life to listen to every single piece of progressive music. Aria made the "checking" list. Interesting at first glance, different, piano, violin, an unheard before style of chanting, layered harmonic dissonants (Beefheart taught me dissonants can be very harmonic, thanks so much captain for showing me this hidden beautiful world!), indeed, worth a further check.

And yes, I found one. One of the few pieces of musical artistry that really stand out. A debut album, even adding to the magic. Magnificent in my humble opinion. And can I explain why? Tell you why it's worth to give it a try? No, I can't. I don't know why particularly this music so impresses me, it's like soup, the whole can taste so well, while also the ingredients are known, but why specifically the combination tastes so well is difficult to say. Does it matter? No.

Well ok, one hint then; is it weird that - while the piano play on La Mia Mente is so intense - you seriously consider how to get INTO the left loudspeaker? And no, I don't use nothing (good music can open up your mind anyway).

NotAProghead's remark on wives, girlfriends etc. proved to be right; this is the only one album ever that made my wife in the 20 years that I'm with her came to me to ask (demand) me to switch it off. The music already baffled me in that it did so much to me, but that it also could invoke this kind of requests amazed me even more, no reward apparently unless you seriously give it a chance.

Masterpiece, five stars.

Alan Sorrenti's trip into the Experimental Rock fields continued a year after ''Aria'' with the album ''Come un vecchio incensiere all'alba di un villaggio deserto'', again released on Harvest and recorded at the Island Studios in London between February and March 73'.A very special line- up surrounds Sorrenti, like drummer/percussionist Toni Esposito, Curved Air's Francis Monkman on synths, piano and guitar and Van Der Graaf Generator's David Jackson on flutes.

Despite the upgraded line-up the music remains in the same vein of Sorrenti's debut as well as the album's structure, including the sidelong eponymous 23-min. track.The first side is atonal, depressive and very lyrical Experimental/Folk Rock, highlighted by Sorrenti's unique vocal workouts.In this album Sorrenti's approach comes even closer to the emotional side of PETER HAMMILL and the music is mainly driven by his acoustic guitars.There are though plenty of piano exercises, smooth flute parts and haunting violin strings, that ensure to create a very cosmic and almost frightening atmosphere.The sidelong suite of the second side finds Sorrenti at his more extreme phase.This is not actually what I would call music, this is a completely dissonant and cacophonous collection of sparse sounds, full of Sorrenti's wordless vocals and cries along with dominating percussion and acoustic guitars, while the few singing parts have a cosmic theatrical approach with floating synths, pianos and flutes, which add a sporadic orientation to the composition, that as a whole is a rather painful experience.

From this point pn Sorrenti's career took slowly a more commercial approach from album to album, resulting to a succesful career until the mid-90's, even including a performance at the Eurovision song contest.His second album lacks the balanced delicacy of ''Aria'', the first side is listenable with some interesting moments, the second one though is sure to please only fans of extreme Experimental/Avant-Garde expreriences...2.5 stars.

It´s a bird! It´s a plane -No, no, no hang on a minute you were right the first time...

I was talking to Pierre (our local duck in the RPI den) about this record, and rightly so, he said that one should look at Alan Sorrenti not as a singer, but as a bird. Words of wisdom right there, and ever since that conversation took place, I´ve listened to this album with a big smirk on my face and countless images of storks and ibises flying around my head. It´s his voice that makes this comparison apt, and I promise you once you´ve heard this album, you´re not likely going to forget it anytime soon. This guy probably has one of the most charismatic and unique voices ever to ornament the face of any rock music.

Going through these different "voices" within his voice is like looking for individual blades of grass on a green meadow. There seems to be an endless amount of them. Just to give you an idea of this guy´s enormous vocal talents, I´ll name a few styles of his. First of all he has a gentle touch, when the song craves for it and he can sound almost female-like with gentle whispers and sensuousness oozing out of the phrasings. On several occasions, I´ve sponsored quite the crush on him, only to be ripped out of my newly found love with the sudden change of his singing - now turning into frantic and demonic yells. These high pitched squawks of Sorrenti might lead you into believing, that he´s only a mere Hammill impersonator, but that is far from the truth. Hammill never had this vocal range, and furthermore I don´t think he´ll ever be as eloquent in Italian. That being said, there is definite signs of Van Der Graff Generator in this music. Sorrenti does frequently use that theatrical way of wrapping his lips around the words, and the music accompanying this spectacle could also make your mind wander towards the organ lead cacophony of VDGG, but here the similarities end. Comprised by a hefty dosage of acoustic guitars with a medieval flavour - almost resembling the old jester with his lute - jumping around in sheer exuberance and carelessness, Aria is heavily rooted in the Italian folk music tradition. It´s chuck full of evil sounding rock n´ roll organs, heavy breathing wind instruments and the bass lines to back this up, - but still the soul of this recording is to be found in the old Mediterranean folk musics. Adding to this theory of mine, is the way that French violinist Jean-Luc Ponty plays his instrument on here. People who´ve heard this guy with Zappa or on his solo albums, will probably associate Ponty with those kinds of musics, but just remember that Aria is the zany and otherworldly bridge that unites such genres as classical, folk, rock n´ roll and the avant guarde, - and in this wonderful mess he doesn´t sound out of place, but rather fits in like a disguised cuckoo in the chicken coop.

Getting back to Monsieur Sorrenti and his tender vocal phrasings, people need to understand just how much out of the ordinary this album must have sounded like back then. Italy is first and foremost known for its impeccable and refined usage of melodies. Be that in their traditional folk music or inside the world of classical composers - this has always been a defining trademark of theirs. Try listening to the differences between Wagner and Puccini with a classical connoisseur, and almost immediately you´ll be facing these huge differences in both temper and angular design, but firstly in the sweet and melodic way that Puccini´s music presents itself. This is a highly melodic nation of people, and to have a young guy with obvious vocal talents come out of the blue with clear connotations to the wild and blurry avant guardistic and abrasive sides of the human voice, obliterating and alternating the well-known acoustical guitar ballads and traditional folk laden musics all at once with the flick of a switch - and with a voice of a thousand eagles............... - must´ve been quite the change. I for one would love to have experienced this first hand in down town Naples with a bottle of red wine by my side.

You! Yes, you! Indeed, I'm talking about you. You're not going to love this album, I'm quite sure about it. Not that this album is extremely bad. It's just not Prog, only Pop. This happens because of policy of ProgArchives to add complete discographies (so with such prolific artists, this kind of things happens). Some simply concentrate more on Pop albums that on what's revolving here on 'chives.

It's enjoyable, when you want to just relax and listen "easy" music. But that's not enough for this album to get high rating. I wonder how high ratings it gets on "normal" music servers. That doesn't matter much. Actually, it's doesn't matter at all here.

2(-), for pleasant, yet anti-Prog album. It's not offending and/or leaving me in disgust though.

A breath of fresh Aria

My Rating: 9/10.

Before taking the path of commercial success with songs like "Figli delle stelle" and "Tu sei l'unica donna per me", Alan Sorrenti wrote prog music. Have you ever listed to "Figli delle stelle"? If you are not italian, as I am, I think not. Well, I don't want to judge but ...ehm... I don't like this song very much 'cause it's nothing more or less than 70's disco / 80's pop or something.

So imagine my surprise when I learned that Alan Sorrenti had to his credit a couple of prog album! And now imagine my surprise when hearing "Aria" the first time I realized it was a very good album. And when, at the second hearing, I thought that the title track suite was a masterpiece. Today I listened to this record probably at least thirty times and I can safely say that Aria is my favorite suite of Italian prog with Banco's "Il Giardino del Mago".

A delicate guitar arpeggio introduces Aria, the suite of nearly 20 minutes which is the highlight of the record. The voice of Sorrenti is soft initially but soon, when the music becomes more frantic, it turns and becomes rougher, and more intense and dramatic tones emerge suddendly, in a style very close to Peter Hammill. Acoustic moments alternated instrumental crescendo with typically Mediterranean percussion style and great demonstrations of virtuosity of Jean Luc Ponty on the violin. Note that the keyboards do not have large space in favor of other instruments much closer to latin tradition. The lyrics seem to be related to a mental trip, a dream or something, until the final part of the song, where is a sudden return to reality: Attraverso i vetri della mia stanza io guardo fuori, e fuori piove / e nelle gocce sospese alla ringhiera vedo le perle della tua corona / Aria, in ogni angolo della mia stanza io ti sto cercando / Aria, sull'asfalto bagnato della mia strada io ti sto inseguendo e tu ti stai sciogliendo / Aria, io sento che ti sto perdendo (Through the windows of my room I look outside and outside it's raining / In drops hanging from the railing I see the gems of your crown / Air, in every corner of my room I'm looking for you / Air, on the wet om my street I'm chasing you and you're melting / Air, I feel that I'm losing you).

The second track, Vorrei Incontrarti is a delicate acoustic ballad, much more simple and melodic, very relaxing and beautiful. The final two song are more complex: La Mia Mente, with a lot of piano and mellotron parts, reminds me the Hammill style quite clearly and so well the final track Un Fiume Tranquillo, that stands out for its large use of wind instruments. In conclusion a great album that will appeal to fans of ethnic and folk prog, maybe a little less to fans of symphonic prog and other groups of the 70's italian scene, too much oriented towards a music dominated by keyboards.

A masterpiece of italian prog: after many hearing (and you need a lot of hearing to understand this work), I give 5 stars to it.

P.S. For VDGG fans only: If you want to hear the "italian answer to Peter".... what are you waiting for?

Best song: Aria