All around the world rock bands from the seventies reunite and make a comeback tour. Most of the time, a new studio album is the result of such a reunion. Good examples are Greenslade, Alquin and Curved Air, but also in Italy bands reunite. Delirium released in 1975 their last and third studio album Delirium III: Viaggio Negli Arcipelaghi Del Tempo. Now, 34 years later, one of the most important and influential groups of the early seventies Italian prog scene released their fourth official studio album: Il Nome Del Vento. The band members gained some weight and got bald or grey, but they can still play good prog rock. The band’s own lyricist Mauro La Luce, who wrote the lyrics for albums such as Lo Scemo E Il Villaggio and Delirium III, created a concept dealing with a man in search of his inner self. The wind helps him to sweep away all the evil he finds on his path. The beautiful painting made by Anna Ferrari certainly will help you to understand this story. Several guest appearances helped the band to create the perfect soundtrack for this concept. The contribution of a string quartet moves the music in a classical direction. But also the contributions of keyboardist Ettore Vigo on the grand piano shows that the music sometimes is inspired by classical composers as Chopin or Sati. The band has in Roberto Solinas not only a great guitarist, but also a fine singer. In spite of that, the band asked Stefano ’Lupo’ Galifi (Museo Rosenbach) and Sophya Baccini (Presence) to do some extra vocals on the album. I cannot deny that their contributions add a richer sound to the music. On one track sings Mimmo Di Martino. The result of that remarkable return led to a full membership of Delirium. Besides classical influences, the music has a lot more to offer. By using several saxophones, the style moves in the direction of jazz rock. On Cuore Sacro, the band sometimes sounds as Jethro Tull or Focus, mainly due to the use of flutes. Emerson, Lake & Palmer is another fantastic band from the seventies that inspired the band as we can hear on Verso Il Naufragio (incl. Theme One). If you listen carefully, you will discover the theme that ELP used for Karn Evil 9 from their Brain Salad Surgery album. Delirium arranged this theme so wonderfully that I consider this track as one of the highlights on Il Nome Del Vento. The bonus track L‘Aurora Boreale surely adds something extra to the album. Unfortunately, that is not the case for the bonus video made of L’Acquario Delle Stelle. The video shows computer-animated images with no artistic meaning at all, but we will forgive them this mistake because we’re talking about the music here. Therefore, I can only conclude that Delirium made a great comeback album in the best Italian tradition. ***+ Henri Strik (edited by Peter Willemsen) Where to buy? |
