Exposé Online banner

Exposé Online

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

Reviews

Il Tempio delle Clessidre — Live in Seoul
(Black Widow BWR 168, 2011/2014, 2DVD)

by Henry Schneider, Published 2015-02-15

Live in Seoul Cover art

The long-awaited and much-anticipated DVD recording of their monumental performance in Seoul, South Korea on October 8, 2011 is finally available. This two DVD set presents their entire live performance of nearly two hours, plus a number of other bonus features. The concert video begins with footage of the band arriving at Incheon airport, being met by SiWan, and then riding in a private bus to their traditional Korean hotel. There are scenes from the sound check, getting ready in the dressing room, and people arriving for the concert. Since I was privileged to participate in this experience, the careful viewer will catch glimpses of me, I am the gray haired guy in the red shirt. I reviewed this performance in my feature article about Il Tempio delle Clessidre two years ago, so I will not repeat myself. Since I had a front row seat for this performance, it is very interesting to re-experience it from a very different perspective. I find that I am noticing things that I do not remember having seen at the time. What does remain with me is the 70s Gothic ambiance of Italian prog rock that Elisa and band members poured forth in that magical night. I had chills throughout the concert, a body sensation that always indicates for me an exceptional experience, and I have them again when viewing this DVD. The concert footage ends with the reception line and autograph table in the lobby.

The extras on the first DVD include a photo gallery with snaps on the airline, arrival, visiting the Gyeongbokgung Palace, sound check, dressing room, concert, and reception. Do not be fooled by the apparent three-minute duration for the slide show. The music clip is about three minutes and it repeats several times until you cycle through all of the photos. There are also several video files recorded during the band’s one day of sightseeing. I have one minor gripe. Each video clip begins with one of the band’s songs, but the music ends before the video does. It would have been better if the background music had filled the entire video clip. The final feature on disc one is a copy of my feature article. And I literally mean a copy, an image of the web page. That choice is so unfortunate as my article is virtually unreadable as the text is small and the resolution is low. Fortunately, the lead in displays the URL to the Exposé site, so the curious viewer could navigate to the actual article.

The second DVD contains a number of additional live videos including their first live performance of Zarathustra on January 23, 2009, plus a performance at 2 Day Prog + 1 on September 2, 2011, Prog Liguria January 21, 2012, a short video and interview on RoadTV Show in 2012, and culminating with a song from their performance at NEARFest on June 24, 2012. This second DVD documents the continued growth and maturity of the band and their musicianship. After the events recorded on these two discs, Lupo left to join the reunited Museo Rosenbach, and the rest of the band members are becoming involved in many different musical projects.

One thing that you have to be aware of is that this is a region-free PAL DVD set. So unless you have a PAL player, you will only be able to view it on your computer. Otherwise I highly recommend that you get a copy of this phenomenal concert.

Filed under: New releases, 2014 releases, 2011 recordings

Related artist(s): Il Tempio delle Clessidre, Elisa Montaldo

 

What's new

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