| ......................................THE BAND AND RECORD OF THE MONTH |
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| . | JULY 2014 |
| Comments:
Regarded as one of the best Italian progressive rock bands of the early '70s, having a legion of fans in various parts of the world, Latte e Miele was, and still is, one of these bands full of symphonic arrangements and their albuns always showing epic themes, creating one of the most adventurous productions from that time, with musicians heavily inspired by classical music, from the beginning of their musical career. Latte e Miele is a strong example of a perfect reunion of musicians, where all them, know how to play one of the most exciting Italian Progressive Rock music. Initially the band was formed as a trio, the understanding of the musicians was total, which allowed them to play a very pure and clean sound, able to expand and contract according to the evolution of the musical works, without losing the beauty of the arrangements, and especially the musical themes. An amazing band, composed by talented musicians, with a high degree of musical knowledge and ability to play several instruments like electric and acoustic guitars, violin, bass guitar, piano, moog, mellotron, clavicemballo, celeste, drums, flute and each with different vocal interpretations. Latte e Miele made its trademark, in the glorious age of years 70. After a few years of silence, Latte e Miele back as an exceptional quartet, with Marcello Giancarlo Dellacasa, Oliviero Lacagnina, Alfio Vitanza in the first lineup, now adding in its traditional formation Massimo Gori, more a key part in musical ensemble, thus complementing the original lineup, with more one musical talent. With the return of this fascinating musical ensemble, Latte e Miele, rewrites one of his masterpieces, "Passio Secundum Matthaeum" - The Complete Work. This album is not a reissue, including some "Bonus Tracks", as well as a one remastering from the first edition, nothing like that, this a new work is a complete remake of their first album. New arrangements, new instrumental, with additional tracks, with extensive orchestration and exciting arrangements and more and more symphonic than the first album, and also including on the cast, a incredible reunion of renowned musicians from Italian Progressive Rock. Beyond the formation of the band, we have Alvaro Fella - Jumbo, Lino Vairetti - Osanna, Silvana Aliotta - Circus 2000, Paolo Carelli - Pholas Dactylus, Aldo de Scalzi - Picchio dal Pozzo, Sophya Baccini, Elisa Montaldo - Il Tempio delle Clessidre, Giorgio D'Adamo - New Trolls and Paolo Griguolo - Picchio dal Pazzo, among others. Progressive Rock fans around the world, will find tremendous delight hearing the "Passio Secundum Matthaeum" - The Complete Work, a rich sound full of memorable and sensitive melodies with extended and atmospheric instrumental sections, all vocal narrations are wonderful, and adds a real charm on the compositions. It is hard to determine which is the best track of this album, not one specifically is better than the others. The tracks are all of an evenly high quality. You must listen to the album many times, to discover all the beautiful pieces of this marvelous work. The album grows with every listen. Because the band uses many instruments and vocals, the music is solid and varied. A beautiful album from a band who always showed great potential. Brilliant and fantastic, an amazing album and band, highly recommendable... The
line-up on Latte e Miele album and actual band are:
Guest
musicians evangelists
Guest
musicians
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LATTE
E MIELE
They were formed in 1971 by guitarist Dellacasa, that had collaborated with I Giganti in their Terra in bocca, with the drummer Vitanza only 16 year old! A keyboards trio in the same style as ELP or Le Orme in Italy, their first album was Passio secundum Mattheum, with Bach-inspired music and lyrics on the Gospel. An ambitious work, it has its moments but can be boring at times.
The band members had a good technique but their keyboard/bass/drums formula was repetitive and mixed with a melodic voice with a result that's not too convincing.
The band had a good live activity, and even supported Van der Graaf Generator in one of their Italian tours. A good 1974 live recording was made available by Mellow with their Latte e Miele Live CD.
The new line-up released an album for Magma, Aquile e scoiattoli, a very good album, maybe their best and most original work, containing a rendition of Beethoven in Opera 21 and the nice 23-minute long Pavana, composed with help from former band member Lacagnina and also released in edited form on single (but curiously this appeared on Grog label).
An album recorded in 1979 was not released until it was released on CD by Mellow in 1992. Called Vampyrs, and played by the three-piece line-up of Gori, Poltini and Vitanza, it's mostly pop-rock and not comparable with the band's previous works.
Drummer Alfio Vitanza has collaborated with Vittorio De Scalzi in a revised New Trolls' line-up at the end of the 90's and is still playing nowadays with the recent De Scalzi's New Trolls incarnation called La Storia dei New Trolls. He is planning to reform the original Latte e Miele three-piece line-up for a one-off CD.
A commercial single released on Grog in 1976 by LM Special was in fact by Latte e Miele in disguise.
Latte e Miele have reunited in 2008 for a series of concerts as a quartet, with Oliviero Lacagnina, Marcello Dellacasa and Alfio Vitanza from the original group and Massimo Gori, who played in the second line-up. From one of these concerts, held in Canada, a nice live CD has been taken, entitled Live tasting.
A new studio album by the reborn group has been issued in 2009, entitled Marco Polo - Sogni e viaggi. The same line-up, with help from various big names of the Italian prog, recorded a remake of Passio secundum Mattheum - The Complete Work with some unreleased tracks, issued on CD in 2014. Thanks
to Italian Prog Web Site and Augusto Croce
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New
Release
"Passio Secundum Matthaeum - The Complite Work" 01.
Introduzione
Check
here and read an interview with all musician on the band:
Also
you can visit Latte e Miele at:
Youtube
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For
more information and every thing about the musicians and band, please visit
LATTE
E MIELE HOME PAGEN
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Another
group from Genova, this young three-piece was one of the Italian bands
with the strongest classical influences.
A
second album, Papillon, came the following year in a similar
style, but the production was much better. The album contains two side-long
tracks with the Beethoven's derived Patetica on most of side two being
a nice example of their style. An English version of it was also recorded
but only saw the light in 1992 on CD.
After
a couple of singles in 1974, the last of which was melodic and far from
the albums' level, the group disbanded, and was reformed in 1976 by drummer
Vitanza with three new recruits.
The
band kept playing until the beginning of the 80's with an always more commercial
sound but the singles released were not successful. Their last single from
1980, Ritagli di luce, even took them to the Sanremo Italian
song contest. The group included in its latest days bassist Dario Carlevaro
and drummer Enzo Barbieri.
