CORTE DEI MIRACOLI

Excellent release from this italian band from the 70´s that I had never heard about it until recently. I am amazed by the number of obscure good bands from that country (and also from Japan) that did not go past hte first album (well, in this case until the 90´s when there was the release fo some unissued material from Mellow records). Nevertheless, I was very surprised by the quality of the CD: the songwriting is very good, the playing is superb and the singer, although not really outstanding, is fine anyway,

The production is only average, but the group´s perfomance is brilliant, full of power and conviction that eventually overcome all the recording´s flaws. Their sound is very keyboard driven (there are two keyboards players) and a bit more jazzy than most other italian groups of the period, but only slightly. There are no fillers and the the quality of the whole album, composition-wise, is very high. The vocals are all sung in the native language and fit very well into the music.

If you like italian symphonic prog you can not miss this one. I´m glad I found this little known gem. It is only a pity that this group did not go on to have a longer career. Certainly they had everything to succeed. And this CD is proof of that. 4 stars.