Acqua fragile
A New Chant

I waited 10 days and at least 20 listens before attempting even a partial description of the latest Work by Acqua Fragile.

At first listen, the album seems incomprehensible, unstructured, pretentious, and lacking the epic quality that characterized the two Works of the group 45 years ago, namely the self-titled album and shortly after Mass Media Stars.

Then, little by little, the first glimmer opens with "My Forte" and "Rain Drops," two very different tracks that break through to the listener and the perception that something strong is about to arrive.

And indeed, the second track "The Drowning" written by Lanzetti on the words of Nick Clabburn, a friend and lyricist of Steve Hackett, who reminds us of a gem from another great, Peter Hammill, in a composition unknown to most and included as the opening track on the 2002 double CD live in Tokyo of PFM at the Club Città, a track called "Sea of Memory".

A seemingly simple track that transforms listen after listen until it almost becomes oxygen for the mind and an intoxicating stimulus to still believe in music as the soundtrack of one's life.

For me, the album could end there, and the beginning of the third track "Wear Your Car Proudly" in perfect 70s pop style (I refuse to call it Prog since at the time this term did not exist) with the use of synthesizers, odd times, and significant complexity, acts as the seal to what we could define as the fulcrum of the work, namely the first three tracks.

The Italian interlude "Tu per Lei" does not convince me in its musical execution, while the text, with a somewhat forced and unnatural metric, wants to talk about the relationship between music and artist with the intent to restore the concept of making music for the pleasure of making it and at the same time to do good to the music itself and not to the musician!

Of the next track "Rain Drops," there is nothing but good to say, as with the seventh track "How Came," another evident composition by Lanzetti that uses the voice more warmly than in the past, reaching an incredible expressive maturity and mastery of the highs for an over 60 and renouncing the typical tremolo that characterized his vocal timbre during the time of participation with PFM.

The all-effect track is the sixth "All Rise," with some references to Franz Di Cioccio of PFM with a youthful exuberance a bit out of season from everyone standing up and dancing in the track "Who Is Afraid of the Night," but equally well-structured and surely effective.

Finally, the track that gives the title to the CD "A New Chant" is slow to show itself, and in my opinion, suffers from a somewhat syrupy and banal melody, which poorly accompanies most of the tracks and would have deserved a greater effort in avoiding operetta or Neapolitan song passages that do not fit with Acqua Fragile.

It would be nice and interesting to have interviews and comments from the three Authors, the survivors who, in addition to Lanzetti, are bassist Franz Dondi and drummer Pietro Canavera.

A CD to definitely purchase for those who wish to enjoy music to think besides listening and for brief moments even dreaming!