CORTE DEI MIRACOLI

A beauty from the 70s Italian scene easily missed, Corte dei Miracoli were the eager rhythms of Gabriele Siri and Flavio Scogna supporting a voice and the luscious twin synths of Alesseo Feltri and Riccardo Zegna. The album is somewhere between Greenslade at their most musical and the score to a James Bond film but CdM gave their brand of sleek, carefully built music plenty of heart and soul, attaining a near-perfect blend of what the Italians did best. Some commercialism peeks out now and then - maybe the distant sounds of a Ligurian radio station - but not nearly enough to take the teeth out. A sly electric piano briefly speaks before '...E Verra L'Uomo' ruptures open with some very cool play between the two keyboards. Fine singing from Graziano Zippo leads this thrilling jam evoking brethren Banco as well as Wakeman, ELP and even the firejazz of Mahavishnu. 'Verso il Sole' is gorgeous art-pop, almost opera, the four hands of Feltri & Zegna not going to waste, a marvelous track full of relaxed jazz tailored together with space age neoclassical. The reflective sadness of 'Una Storia Fiabesca' picks up by the middle and finishes heroically, more trenchcoats and intrigue in 'Il Rituale Notturno' as it puts us on a foot chase through the streets of Naples with a few moments to rest between the dangers, and 13-minute 'I Due Amanti' is an anthem of classic era symphonic rock at its most generous; many changes, grinding organs and dueling synths, and grand visions of magical lands. For those with a weakness for all that is good about Italian Symphonic Prog.