Il Balletto Di Bronzo
Ys

Always prolific, Naples. The city that has defined the standards of Italian music more than any other, both at home and around the world, once again pushes the boundaries: it experiments, dares, creates, becomes a protagonist.

Inventor. There is no other way to define Gianni Leone, the true soul of this second release of Balletto. After the album "Sirio 2222," with the entry of the eclectic keyboardist, the lineup redefines its equilibrium, abandoning its pop/beat vocation to proceed with the creation of a true classic of international prog rock. A classic of exquisite originality, which is practically impossible to distinguish from track to track.

The entire story unfolds through an introduction, three encounters, and an epilogue; but unlike other concepts of the time (I think of the contemporary "Darwin" by Banco, wonderful despite its diversity), the episodes are fused together almost without a solution of continuity; only the vinyl medium manages to break an album that otherwise is like a film, needing to be followed from beginning to end. Leone, exceedingly generous behind the organ, the moog, the mellotron, the spinet, the piano, weaves an oppressive and claustrophobic plot, interwoven by a faint and delirious voice, dreamy and damned. But what strikes most is the absolute homogeneity of the overall feeling: there is no contrast between one instrumentalist and another, the harmony is total, even when the guitar seems to attack the keyboard and then succumb under dissonant and anguished electronic sounds. But gratuitous exhibition, never; the ostentation of technique is for others, not for the highly talented and balanced Giancarlo Stinga (drums), Vito Manzar (bass), Lino Ajello (guitar), far from being secondary players, never in the shadows; nor for Gianni Leone, who demonstrates stratospheric mastery never as an end in itself but always functional to the mosaic, or rather, to the painting that the ensemble etches for eternity on vinyl.

This album is certainly not for those in the mood for musical-archeological research, as it cannot be seen as a mere relic, even though it is immensely significant in music history. It is a work forever contemporary, capable of gifting dozens of hours of pure, powerful emotions to anyone willing to be transported to another world, transcending not only the limits of rock or prog rock but the boundaries of music itself.