After the acclaim obtained by the Mini Lp "Stratosferico" (published in
June 2021) Universal “Prog will never die”, manifesto of a
music without boundaries and out of time.
The six songs, for a total of 43 minutes, explore the sound codes born
in the late 60s, when non-classical music, thanks too
to the classical, it started to “complicate”. Six stories suspended between rock
and experimentalisms, capable of connecting prog, hard-rock,
psychedelia, jazz-rock, tango, classical music, acoustic instruments ed
electric, vintage and modern sounds, melody and never static rhythms.
The project was born from the union between Guido Bellachioma (critic
musical, director of the magazine «Prog Italia» and del
Progressively Festival since 1993) and by Davide Pistoni
(multi-instrumentalist and composer of superfine talent), who together
have developed ideas to propose compositions that mix
borderline music without too many blinders. In the Divae Projects there
they are some of the best Italian musicians, as well as high-level guests
absolute like the Nocenzi brothers (Banco del Mutuo Soccorso).
The Divae Project are the heirs of the Roman Divae, which in 1995 with
the album "Determination" were one of the most appreciated realities
of the post-70s Italian prog scene.
The cover is a painting by Lorenza “Pigliamosche” Ricci, one of
new emerging figures of international comics.
Original & Instrumental side
Totally instrumental, it wants to tell the journey from the sixties to
today of what has been termed progressive rock, which began as
mestizo music, therefore of strong contamination between genres, perhaps the
first crossover accomplished. We start with the ethnic impulses of origin
Latin to go to the lesson of the electrification of jazz, yes
contaminates with funk, finally the symphonic-progressive vision
developed into an accentuated melody, after a romantic one
piano introduction.
Tango zoppo
It combines popular music, such as tango, using
the accordion, and the rock one, in particular the hard guitar. The fact of
being odd (11/4), therefore not very reassuring, gives it an aspect
obscure that usually the melodies coming from the tango do not have.
È pericoloso giocare con il fuoco
When electrified jazz meets rock and funky. The song,
played live, it explores the English-speaking offerings of the early 70s
with the rock approach (the guitar certainly has Allan in its DNA
Holdsworth and Scott Henderson) and psych-prog (see the acid solo by
synthesizer, which no one would expect in such a groove
funky). The power energy of the execution is a further touch of
contamination to open up to a true fusion of the elements
stylistic.
Prog Will Never Die
After having touched the station of ethnic and jazz culture on the journey-
rock-funky we arrive at the summa of progressive rock, or the
symphonic, romantic and melodic moment, without dampening
the power approach. A mini-suite that does not force the technical aspect-
executive and odd times.
BMS side
Homage, in an original key with well-finished but spontaneous arrangements
at the same time, the Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, one of the icons
absolute rock of the 70s, not only Italian. It does so with three songs
quite different from each other: a chiaroscuro pearl from “I was born
free” (“The thin city”, signed by Gianni Nocenzi), which a
he will be 50 in December; an absolute classic and heartbreaking in its own right
romance from “Darwin!” of 1972 (“750,000 years ago… love?”,
by Vittorio Nocenzi); a forgotten song, very current,
poignant and poetically angry in the harsh denunciation against the
war, taken from the underrated “Il 13”, 1994 album (“Bambino”,
focused on victims of bombing in Sarajevo, including
very many children. The music is by Vittorio). The lyrics are
of the unforgettable Francesco Di Giacomo; through them yes
also sees the stylistic evolution of this great “player of
words”, both as a vocal performer and as a writer.
The extraordinary nature of "The thin city" and "Bambino" lies in the fact
which for the first time the two Nocenzi brothers play on a disc le
songs of Banco del Mutuo Soccorso… that is not the work of
BMS!
La città sottile
Gianni connects the first part to the third, both electric with one
splendid grand piano, recorded at the Forward Studio of
Grottaferrata, one of the best for this instrument.
Bambino
Vittorio has created a sort of sound preface with the
digital piano, preparing a great sound, to stand out from
what Gianni did on acoustic. He found a song that,
despite both of him, she had almost forgotten… still understanding of
more than what was written 30 years ago.
750.000 anni fa… l’amore
This extraordinary moment of poignant and painful
romanticism sees the presence of the classical violinist Natalia
Dudynska, hailing from Ukraine, which emphasizes both parts more
rarefied (only violin, piano and voice) than 7/8 in the more section
rock, where the rest of the group enters. It is one of the epic ballads of the
progressive rock ever, few can afford to
interpret it.
