PREMIATA FORNERIA MARCONI (PFM)

The CD on which I'm making this review is the 2001 BMG Ricordi edition, which doesn't have any bonus tracks. And my translation of the titles of the songs are made with Google translator. First I'll present an overall view of my analysis, then some observations will be pointed on each track.

When it comes to show how italian prog rock scenario is one of the bests in the world, this work can be indicated as an illustrious example. Four or maybe the totallity of the five musicians masters their instruments, and all of them make vocal participations, even though there is a lead vocalist. There are magnificent tunes based on avant-garde rock, classical music, mediterranean songs and some jazz feelings, almost all the time structured as symphonic prog.. If you don't know this work, my description can induce you to think that it can be confusing, too noisy and/or excessive. Not at all, at least for me. And it's easy to discover that many other listeners and I agree on this point. But if you're a fan that doesn't like complex prog, when too much instruments play at the same time, and/or when there are too many notes together at once. In this case, I'd suggest you start with side B of this release. And if you enjoy complexity, I think you'll know what to do. For me, even the most complex snippets are accesible, including when almost all of them are kind of soloing at the same time. This is the characteristic most intriguing to my rational mind, how they managed to reach such perfect balance between harmony and disharmony, with such richness, and therefore keeping it fresh through so many years of hearing. About the instruments, the sleeve informations states that three of the line-up handles many instruments. Even though the drummer doesn't appear playing many instruments, he performs a wide variety of rhythms and harmonies. And has a rare abbility, to modulate the force of the hits.

First track, Appena um Po (Just a Bit), starts with the synth and a tune that looks like it's coming from an harp, but I suppose it's taken from the mandolim. Very angelical. The acoustic guitar, with a mediterranean touch, makes the transition to the flute and harpsichord. This last one is played with an absolutely surprising and stunning harmony, which I've never heard on such instrument, while the others make an apotheotic crescendo. Vocal harmonies with one, two or three singers are subtle, elegant and lyric. Acoustic guitar and flute, by the end of this song, makes some unusual tunes.

Guitar, piano, drums and violin print a vigorous introduction to Generale (it's more probable that the translation is General, however it can also be Generic). Then they go to a march on drums,/piano, flute and the synth. A transition is made with a church organ, and it finishes with that vigorous mood once again.

Track three starts angelical. Per um Amico (For a Friend) is the track where the chords and the bass make awesome contributions, especially the violin solo and the fiercing lyricism of the acoustic guitar. The last one leads a fantastic and rapid harmony. And it is also the acoustic guitar that slows down the path to brilliantly end the track.

A vibrant tune on the acoustic guitar is accompanied by some effusive singing on fourth track Il Banchetto (The Banquet). The piano keeps up the pace. This spirit lasts through practically the whole song, with the exception to an avant-gardé synth work on its middle. This is the only short part of this track that IMO isn't perfect. But it's short, and they slowly regain most part of their genius.

Flute, acoustic guitar and vocals gently and moderatly begin Gerànio (Genarium). They delicatly and gradually explore the composition. Indeed, this happens many other times on this album, there is no hurry to execute. Part of the middle of this song is the only part that is not so brilliant, but is a very good part. Well, the second half of the track is a fabulous symphonic prog effort that slowly grows in complexity and energy.

Side A is all 5-stars. Side B is between 4.7 and 4.9.

Unlike the band's previous, more folk and classical sounding works of prog rock fare, L'isola Di Niente takes a different approach and instead implements more rock, jazz, and even slight bits of Gentle Giantesque experimental rock flairs, specifically with the last track of Via Lumiere. I think this new interpretation of PFM's sound definitely has its benefits, as it shows the band can dabble to more prog rock ideals than what they were comfortable doing within their last three records. Additionally, the focus on making their music more proggy in a sense is a great change of pace for me, as previous records had a lot more short handed songs, as opposed to here with the title track being this long and spiraling 10 minute piece. This album really does give itself a new PFM flair for appreciation.

I think that, while this change of direction is good for the band to take, I also feel like they are pulling their inspirations a bit too heavily here, and I think it became a bit of a habit later on with their next 2 records. While these songs are admittedly great, a lot of them feel very much like songs you'd hear from other bands, specifically Yes and Genesis. The guitar playing provided by Franco Mussida has the same flairs and catches as Steve Howe, and a lot of the keyboard playing elements from Flavio Premoli has a considerable Tony Banks aspects to them. They are sort of losing themselves within the threshold of their inspirations, and it is showing a bit more than usual. This, to me, is where I think PFM was losing their original magic, as, while this may sound like an original sound to PFM, they really aren't making it their own on here. It isn't bad to pull from your contemporaries or your inspirations, in fact that is how retro prog bands like The Flower Kings and Wobbler got their footing later on, but here, it, to me, PFM is starting to ditto out and become a bit of copycats, kinda like what bands like Gryphon would do with records like Treason later on after the prog rock hype died down in the late 70s.

This is far from a bad record, not by a long shot, but I cannot help but see it as far from an original and magical album. All of these songs are good and played to the best of the band's abilities, but I cannot help but find the abilities here to be in a rather muddy place. While I cannot say it is all downhill from here in terms of good music from the band, it is the beginning of a new, less PFM sounding PFM.

The version if have here is a double CD, with the album available both in English and Italian ('Ho Sognato Pecore Elettriche'), and while the former allows the non-Italian speaker to understand the concept story, I must confess I prefer the Italian just because it flows that much better in their native tongue. Playing this reminded me of why I enjoyed PFM so much back in the day, yet it has also been brought up to date and while it still contains many of the RPI elements one would expect from one of the founders of the sub-genre (love the Mini Moog), there are also plenty of others which are far more Neo in their output. The guitar can be very rocky and biting at times, and the dated layered keyboard sounds work well with this more aggressive and powerful attack.

There are times when it becomes quite classical and symphonic, others when it is far more restrained and delicate, the result being an album which never sits in one musical area for too long before moving on. This does not sound like an album recorded by musicians who are no longer in their prime and they are certainly not just releasing an album they are hoping fans will purchase as this is something which is highly relevant and deserving of being uncovered by those who have not previously come across them. This can be vital and exciting, or laid-back and reserved, and one never knows where the music is going to head next as it twists and turns. I see I need to look back and investigate their more recent releases as this is a superb release which is worth investigation by all those who enjoy progressive rock.

Naturally, the sound of PFM on this very first studio release reminisces quite a lot both Genesis and Yes - scenes of 'Nursery Cryme' may be vividly experienced by the listener on tracks like 'Impressioni Di Settembre' or the masterful two-part mini epic 'Dove...Quando...', or flashbacks from the quirkier instrumental episodes on 'The Yes Album' on 'E' Festa' could help us discover the main inspirations behind the writing and the musical direction of the then-newborn band, consisting of legendary drummer Franz Di Cioccio, master guitar player Franco Mussida, also the lead vocalist of the band at the time, keyboardist Flavio Premoli, flutist Mauro Pagani, co-writing the entirety of 'Storia' with Mussida, and bassist Giorgio Piazza.

The album has a very melancholic, soothing, and ethereal sounding, the more pastoral moments blend perfectly with the beautiful vocals, and the prevailing melodicism has to be the dominant characteristic of the sonic collages constructed carefully by the instrumentalists. Interestingly, the songs seem to be mostly structureless, perhaps a songwriting approach the band have taken after their British peers - this leads to some extended instrumental passages that reminisce, as mentioned before, that early 70s Genesis sound, with the pictorial flutes and the gentle 12-string and acoustic guitars. PFM display some masterful control over their instruments, moreover, allowing the songs to softly unfold in the most elegant of manners, displaying the vast array of moods this album contains. The listener is certainly left with the feeling that this is one continuous 35-minute-long piece of music, split into shorter episodes. Excellent symphonic prog compositions, full of all you would expect from a great prog album, with the sheer elegance, the angelic soundscapes, the more intense parts, and the exquisitely melodic approach to the writing; 'Storia Di Un Minuto', despite not being a necessarily perfect album, is a very impressive debut by a band full of gifted musicians, and has deservedly had its place among the genre's best reserved.

PFM launched a 2-CD album that was supported by a symphonic orchestra, what else is new?

The first CD is a collection of exquisite pieces of Classical Music from composers such as Mozart, Dvorak, and Verdi, the mixture of this orchestral music with the well-played rock arrangements by PFM was very interesting: it was not very similar to the classic records of the band, but definitely, it is very intelligent material and an amazing chapter of their catalog. About the second CD, well, I'd rather listen to the first one and that would make this a much better album; some of the most classic songs from the earlier albums of PFM were played here with very nice symphonic arrangements, but for my taste this was unnecessary: the re-recordings of old songs are not my cup of tea because I consider it takes off the originality and the uniqueness of the record. The interpretations are not bad, it's just that I don't see the point in doing new versions of songs that were much better in their original form.

SONG RATING: Il flauto magico, 5 Danza Macabra, 5 Danza Slava N. 1, 4 Sinfonia N. 5 IV Adagietto, 4 Romeo e Giuglieta, 5 La grande pasqua Russa, 4 Nabucco, 4 La luna nuova, 4 The puzzle, 3 Dove... quando? 4 Maestro della voce, 3 Impressioni di settembre, 4 Suite italiana (È festa), 4 Gugliemo Tell, 4

AVERAGE: 4.07

PERCENTAGE: 81.43

ALBUM RATING: 4 stars

When I first started researching about Progressive Rock I found out a list on Taringa that was supposed to be the definitive TOP 100 of the best Progressive Rock albums ever and among many other bands that I didn't know back then there were three PFM albums on the list: "Storia di un Minuto", "Per un Amico" and "Stati di immaginazione", I knew the first two, but it was the one from 2006 the one that I was missing so I decided to give it a try and I felt deeply disappointed.

The album is completely instrumental with a lot of jazzy tones and even some kind of very discrete Hard Rock patterns once in a while; unlike PFM's first albums, there is no symphonic beauty or interesting lyrics, this was just a trio of musicians improvising and, even when more than ten years had passed since the first time I heard it and I've discovered much more of the PFM's catalog, the RPI catalog, and the whole Progressive Rock catalog, this album never got my attention and I can't think of it as the amazing masterpiece most of the users of this website consider it. I do like it much more now than back in those days, but I would never consider this record as an indispensable material, just average Jazz Fusion and kind of boring instrumental rock.

SONG RATING: La terra dell'acqua, 4 Il mondo in testa, 4 La conquista, 4 Il sogno di Leonardo, 4 Cyber Alpha, 3 Agua azul, 3 Nederland, 4 Visioni di Archimede, 3

AVERAGE: 3.63

PERCENTAGE: 72.5

ALBUM RATING: 3 stars

After their incursion in Jazz Fusion with "Jet lag", PFM launched "Passpartù" which was more oriented to a pop-rock and even folkish kind of record. The title track of the album is an instrumental piece that sounds as if they were trying to ambient the reception of a hotel while pieces as "I Cavalieri del tavolo cubico" and "Su una Mosca e sui Dolci" show a musical maturity that gives no space to improvisation. A nice detail about this album is that they were once again singing in Italian, probably the American market was not so demanding with their catalog but it is really nice to see them going back to their roots.

Maybe if this album had much more keyboards, flutes, or violins, maybe with more ambitious drum patterns or maybe some more energic riffs would have made this album an excellent one, but there is a feeling of incompleteness, a weird void that wasn't filled with the modest tracklist this album has to offer.

SONG RATING: Viene il santo, 4 Svita la vita, 4 Se fossi cosa,3 Le trame blu, 3 Passpartù, 3 I cavalieri del tavolo cubico, 4 Su una mosca e sui dolci, 4 Fantalità, 2

AVERAGE: 3.38

PERCENTAGE: 67.5

ALBUM RATING: 3 stars

In "Jet lag", PFM sounded like most of the Canterbury Scene and Jazz Fusion bands that I don't enjoy listening to very often (Gilgamesh, Soft Heap, Soft Machine, Return to Forever, and Mahavishnu Orchestra to name a few): music filled with very stingy and annoying moogs and very aggressive bass lines. It's not that I don't like Jazz fusion, but those particular elements are always really hard to digest to me. Most of the songs on this record are instrumental improvisations and the few songs that include lyrics are not very memorable, I'd dare to say this is a very average PFM record and probably their least interesting record in the seventies.

Further than the excellent acoustic opening track "Peninsula", the album is completely out of my taste; don't get me wrong: if you enjoy this kind of seventies electric jazz this could be a great acquisition, but since I'm not at all in love with this musical style, I'll only listen to this in very scarce occasions and that would be only to check if my opinion changes a bit.

SONG RATING: Peninsula, 4 Jet lag, 3 Storia in "LA", 2 Breakin' in, 3 Cerco la lingua, 3 Meridiani, 3 Left-handed theory, 2 Traveler, 2

AVERAGE: 2.75

PERCENTAGE: 55

ALBUM RATING: 2 stars

This was actually the first PFM album that I've ever heard and I remember that I thought "why is this guy singing so similar to the Genesis guy?"

"Chocolate Kings" was PFM's first album totally composed in English, it was not an English version of an earlier record as "Photos of ghosts" or "The world became the world", this was completely original material. The vocalist that I thought was trying to copy Peter Gabriel was actually Bernardo Lanzetti who came out from Acqua Fragile which is a band that I was never a fan of precisely because to me, it seemed like a band making a desperate attempt to sound like Genesis.

Peter Sinfield was not involved on this record, but the lyrics written by Marva Jan Marrow were pretty good, and further than the lyrics and the language they were written on, musically, the album is pretty good. Most of the songs this album includes are extremely energic; we can appreciate a beautiful vibe of symphonic and jazzy arrangements here and there as it was usual in PFM's earlier recordings but mainly, the album is full of rock patterns; also, the vocal roles were very nicely oriented to a Rock Pop kind of album.

Not their best record but still a pretty good one.

SONG RATING: From under, 4 Harlequin, 5 Chocolate kings, 4 Out of the roundabout, 4 Paper charms, 4

AVERAGE: 4.2

PERCENTAGE: 84

ALBUM RATING: 4 stars

"L'isola di Niente" was the first PFM album to include bassist Patrick Djivas as a replacement of Giorgio Piazza and this new member brought a much jazzier style to the band, actually, this record sounds very fresh: in some way, the mix of symphonic, acoustic and rocky arrangements that were present in the two previous records of PFM were taken to a much more experimental level since they were obviously adding more and more original elements to their music.

The jazzy bass intro followed by the excellent instrumental improvisation (very in the vein of King Crimson and Mahavishnu Orchestra) to "Via Lumiere", the folky accordion final in "Is my face on straight" (which was PFM's first song written originally in English with lyrics by Peter Sinfield) and the softness of "Dolcissima Maria" were excellent innovations in the musical style of PFM. "La Luna Nuova" actually is the most similar to "Per un Amico" they made on this record. "L'isola di niente" is definitely the most amazing track of the album but every song on it has its own originality and greatness.

SONG RATING: L'isola di niente, 5 Is my face on straight? 4 La luna nuova, 5 Dolcissima Maria, 4 Via lumiere, 4

AVERAGE: 4.4

PERCENTAGE: 88

ALBUM RATING: 4 stars