STORIE FUORI DAL TEMPO

"Storie fuori dal tempo" is the second album of Conqueror and it was released in 2005, two years after the good debut work "Istinto". The line-up features the veterans Natale Russo (drums and percussions) and Simona Rigano (vocals, keyboards and synth) along with new members Sabrina Rigano (flute and saxophone), Tino Nastasi (guitars) and Fabio Ucchino (bass and pedal bass). The sound quality of the recording is excellent and the new members seem to get along perfectly with the rest of the band. The song-writing is good and the band did a good job of combining their own ideas and feelings with sources of inspiration ranging from classical music to Italian prog bands like PFM, BMS, Le Orme or Goblin...

The opener "Ouverture", featuring well balanced changes of rhythm and melodic passages, is an instrumental that grows like a blossoming flower leading to the dreamy "Mosaico di colori", where the vocals of Simona Rigano soar light weaving a beautiful melody... "My light thoughts travel and blow away as eagles / In a free wind, they run and foreign memories write the epilogue... White clouds get lost in a coloured mosaic..."

"No Photo" is hypnotic and suggestive, featuring an Oriental flavour... Here you can lose yourself under "a ray of moonlight" that seems come out from "The Book Of One Thousand And One Nights" while Simona Rigano's vocals could remind you of an ethereal modern Scheherazade... "Now I see again a shadow beside me / It is something I have known for a long time / It grazes me and then it looks at me, here it is, near me / But what's reality? / If we are prisoners of the world where we live / That decides for us, solitary shipwrecked persons, who sail without being free..."

"Pagine di poesie" is another good track that in some passages reminds me of PFM's "Impressioni di settembre". Lyrics describe in a poetic way a meeting with an old fisherman...

In "Klaus" quiet melodic passages are well intertwined with more pulsing moments, as if "sounds and voices were looking for an illusion in the silence"...

The final track "Morgana" is a long suite inspired by the Sicilian folklore where you can find a blend of Celtic and Mediterranean elements... It tells the story of Morgan le Fay (Fata Morgana), a sorceress who escaped from Camelot on a ship and landed on the Sicilian shores where she built a crystal palace... "The dream lives once again, renews spells, loves and madness...". The music flows dreamy with many changes of atmosphere and mood while the band showcase great musicianship and inspired song-writing skills...

On the whole, "Storie fuori dal tempo", is really an album that is worth listening to...