Exposé Online banner

Exposé Online

Not just outside the box, but denying the existence of boxes.
Covering music from the fringes since 1993.

Reviews

Arti e Mestieri — Articollezione
(Electromantic ART 403, 2001, CD)

by David Ashcraft, Published 2003-02-01

Articollezione Cover art

The re-emergence of the Italian progressive fusion sextet Arti & Mestieri continues with the release of an album of studio out-takes from 1972-1975. This might not normally arouse much interest, but in this case the tracks are from two of the best albums recorded by an Italian band in the past 30 years. Tilt and Valzer per Domani still stand today as brilliant examples of melodic fusion with excellent compositions and playing. As a result, Articollezione has quite a bit of strong material on it (although it doesn’t match the overall quality of the original albums). One of the reasons that the band didn’t release these tracks in the first place is that they felt that they might be somewhat derivative. Other than one track that shows a clear Mahavishnu influence, Arti & Mestieri have an original approach that includes the adventurous fusion sounds of the 70s along with some lovely melodies that evoke the warmth of Italian folk tunes. There are fewer purely instrumental tunes here, as over half of the songs have vocals. The singing tends to be on the softer sounding songs, and they are reminiscent of John Wetton’s lovely ballads on Crimson albums such as Larks’ Tongues and Starless and Bible Black. If you are not familiar with this great band by all means seek out Tilt and Valzer per Domani. Once you’ve digested those masterpieces you may want to investigate this delightful album of undiscovered gems.

Filed under: New releases, Issue 26, 2001 releases

Related artist(s): Arti e Mestieri, Furio Chirico, Luigi Venegoni, Beppe Crovella

 

What's new

These are the most recent changes made to artists, releases, and articles.