DUEMILA12

Duemila12 is the musical collaboration of guitarist Roberto Bulgarini and vocalist Gianluca Fineo. The two friends share a long love of all music, not just progressive rock, and their work together began in the early 1990s. After some years of musical training and professional work, they recorded their debut "Musical Elements" and released it in 2012. The music ranges from modern symphonic to art rock with an ear toward pop melody, but with extended and often luxurious arrangements and good performances.

Like so many small scale projects it suffers from the thinness of the programmed percussion, but that is my only complaint here. I really enjoyed this blend of accessible melodies and tight song structure with modern symphonic grandeur and occasionally experimental, and often quite frisky playing. The keyboard sound is modern synth for the most part, don't expect much of a dark retro-organ or piano vibe here. The vocals are very good, warm and positive, while the guitar work (both acoustic and electric) is top notch, the leads carefully considered yet dripping with emotional content.

While the first two tracks are a bit pedestrian the album finds its mojo on the instrumental "Spirits of the Moon." A haunting synth-scape melody sets the stage for pulsing bass and some aggressive guitar work, a bit of a mini-duel develops into guitar shred, spooky "spirit" like effects can be heard, before the keys and guitar blend to a calming fade out-nice track! "Verso Casa" and "Ritrovarsi Un Giorno" show off Fineo's vocal capabilities, big Italian ballads with heart-on-your-sleeve vocals full of sentiment and command. "Light's Creatures" is another instrumental, laid back layered synths and beats, but with some subtle and delightful guitar leads. "Medievals Ghosts" sports a very cool opening sequence leading to a fast, heavy guitar riff, and eventually to some of the album's most lovely moments, melodic piano runs, colorful synths, and finally a moving guitar solo.

The album alternates the more art-rock ballads with these instrumentals, the latter of which show off the quality of Bulgarini's lead guitar work. He is very good and has a real ability to color and shade with chord work, while hitting beautiful, emotional leads. I also really enjoyed the keyboard approach here, no complex bombast, just the simple yet persistent colors and workouts which were refreshing. Together these two friends have crafted what I consider an appealing, sincere debut. As mentioned it will fail to excite the fans who love lots of complexity, darkness, or grit, but for those who enjoyed refined and melodic RPI with some pop/crossover sensibilities, you may be charmed as I was. And usually I'm in the grit-prog camp, so go figure!

Google the band name and you will find a host of reasonably priced download options. I do hope to hear more from this duo, perhaps a future project which brings in a drummer and some textural instruments for the icing. Until then, I will enjoy this one!