L'UOMO DELLE GENTI

HORA PRIMA, for the pride of a city. Young group from BARI on the Adriatic coast, the main city of the Puglia region HORA PRIMA has existed since 2015, a group very inspired by the great groups of the seventies like GENESIS, PREMIATA FORNERIA MARCONI, EMERSON LAKE AND PALMER, YES or KING CRIMSON, that very beautiful people obviously.

Their first and short first record effort "L'Uomo delle Genti" was released in digital version at the end of 2020 and only four months ago in CD version on the Ma.Ra.Cash Records label. "L'Uomo delle Genti" is a conceptual work inspired by the life of Saint NICHOLAS, patron saint of the city of BARI.

The short instrumental section "1087" (8/0 despite everything) establishes the general atmosphere of the album with a solemn and symphonic rhythm like a trip back in time but time has passed...we are in 1087! For historical details, Italian sailors stole the remains of Saint NICHOLAS from MYRE, a city of ancient TURKEY that had fallen into the hands of the Saracens, and transported them to...BARI.

The first real piece of the disc "Il Folle Miraggio" (9/10) begins with the sound of waves and a gentle acoustic guitar. The lyrics of drummer Francesco BUX speak of a ship sailing in the middle of the night, with the prayers of the crew, their hopes and their doubts, very romantic and very Italian all that...At sunrise, the arrival in BARI was a triumph and this is where the popularity (perhaps excessive?) of Saint NICHOLAS was born. "Le mie figlie" (My daughters) which follows, evokes Nicolas giving a marriage dowry (three bags of gold) to three girls so poor that they would have been forced to prostitute themselves without it, a play narrated by the father of three young girls in person and lit by the flute of a guest Rossella BIFULCO, simply superb and even poignant, that's saying it all, my favorite of the entire work (10/10).

"La locanda nella notte" (The inn in the night), the longest track on the disc (nearly nine minutes), tells of another miracle of Saint Nicholas, the resurrection of three children chopped up by an evil innkeeper who wanted to feed his customers with... We are here and for good reason in a dark trip (the story takes place in the night and in the rain, logical), in a way the meeting of the good and the bad, not very pleasant but musically exciting (9/ 10). "La nostra festa" (Our party) begins in a calm and joyful atmosphere (the magnificent flute again), before the guitars (Domenico DE ZIO and Gianluca DI BENE) and the fusion keyboards of Roberto GOMES (sacred moog solo in the terminal part) do not take the piece towards the peaks (9/10). For history) "La nostra festa" describes the celebration of a religious folk festival which takes place each year in BARI to commemorate the arrival of the relics of the Saint on May 9, 1087 and which offers visitors a maritime procession and a parade in 11th century costume.

The concluding piece, "U Sand nèste" (Our Saint) (7/10), is sung in the BARI dialect, taking up the festive notes of the previous title, full of organ, which highlights the bass guitar of Valeria TRITTO , a little special, not easy to understand, colorful and Mediterranean as hell (even if we are here on the ADRIATIC!).

Excellent despite its brevity, a real surprise of the 2021 vintage.