Le Orme - Felona E Sonora - 1973 - Flac

From progrevies.com

This album begins almost like an opera. A brilliant overture passage opens "Sospesi nell'Incredible". The overture is based on only three notes, but the tune is developed using classical techniques (eg canon) and is a joy to listen to. The overture completed you can almost see the curtain raising and we are left with Aldo Tagliapetra's voice, backed by a simple organ chord, to set the scene (two planets alike in valour).

The lyrics on this album are in Italian, but the Le Orme web site contains an English version by Peter Hammill of Van Der Graaf Generator. According to the Peter Hammill version, the concept concerns two planets made by one creator. Felona is attended to by the creator and is happy, but Sorona is a sad and bitter world. The creator turns his attention improve life on Sorona, but Felona suffers from his neglect. The Peter Hammill translations make for dreadful poetry and from what I can tell the Italian lyrics aren't quite as bad.

The music on this album maintains an extremely high standard throughout. Stylistically there are traces of Genesis and Vangelis, but the strongest comparison that can be made is to ELP. The voice of Aldo Tagliapetra is similar to Greg Lake's, though slightly stronger and applied more judiciously. Michi Dei Rossi's drumming is excellent and somewhere between that of Carl Palmer and John Bonham. Tony Pagliuca sounds a lot like Keith Emerson, but don't expect any of Emerson's ultra fast monster solos. Where Le Orme exceed ELP is in their ability to generate a good tune consistently.

Aside from the opening track, the other highlight of this album is "L'Equilibrio", a fast paced energetic number alternately using bass and syth. to create an air of expectation. For all that the concept of this album isn't very exciting, this album is absolutely essential for anybody who likes the early seventies progressive power trio