It is the second time producer Max Marchini respecfully dare to revisit timeless classics. First with The North Sea Radio
Orchestra on the critically acclaimed “Folly Bololey”, issued on Dark Companion Records. Now with this stunning revisitation
of Tarkus, the revolutionary masterpiece written by Greg Lake and Keith Emerson over 50 years ago and issued by ELP on
Island on June 14, 1971.
The project was conceived whenMax, under Greg Lake’s agreement, was the artistic director of the reborn Manticore Reords.
“We don’t want to be nostalgic”, saidMax, “but performing such a
revolutionary music, so influential, is keeping the flame alive; as
we did for Wyatt’s Rock Bottom, we dared to re-propose this music
in the same way we do play Mozart or Bach, or Mussorgdky”.
Percussionist and teacher, Massimo Pastore originally transcribed
the suite for a percussion ensemble then Tempus Fugit’s artistic
director Francesco Brianzi arranged beautifully for his ensemble
which includes North Sea Radio Orchestra’s vibraphonist
Tommaso Franguelli ro celebrate the 50th anniversary of ELP’s
classic.
Originally instrumental only conceived, Brianzi and producer
Marchini invited avant/prog star Annie Barbazza to sing all the
vocal parts respecting Greg Lake’s original intention. Barbazza’s
multi talented musicianship and stunning voice was eventually
discovered by the late Greg Lake himself, who produced her for
Manticore Records’s critically accaimed “Moonchild”.
So the connection happened naturally and gave a further push to
the arrangement, adding haunting grace in songs like Battlefield.
The energy of Tempus Fugit is astounding: they gave brutal fierce
and intimate melancholy to the immense symbolist masterpiece written by Keith Emerson and Greg Lake. Barbazza asked her
friend Gregory Chiesa to join lead vocals on Mass. But the rest of the CD songs aren’t certainly just a filler: Tempus Fugit
arranged another Lake’s timeless classic: Moonchild read in a new, contemporary arrangement but respectful of his lunatic
beauty. While working with Italian avantgarde legend Lino Capra Vaccina, who is eventually writing a classical contemporary
piece for Tempus Fugit, they asked him to conceive and play a sort of a new avantgarde coda for Moonchild. So Brianzi gathered
together at Elfo Studio with producer Marchini, Capra Vaccina and Franguelli one incense flavoured full moon evening and
recorded Descent Into The Void that brings the Ensemble into the most daring experimental fields under Vaccina’s direction.
Franguelli wrote a beautiful arrangement under the advice of Massimo Orlandini, our label owner, of Keith Emerson’s Abbadon’s
Bolero that ends this album which is heartfelt dedicated of the memory of Greg Lake and Keith Emerson.
