Marchesi Scamorza
Hypnophonia

The glorious Italian progressive rock remains to this day an inexhaustible treasure trove for many bands: the Nuova Era in the '80s and the Malibran, the A Piedi Nudi and La Maschera di Cera in the '90s, or more recently Il Tempio delle Clessidre and La Coscienza di Zeno, just to name a few, have revived and honored the great tradition in this field of our country. Today, Italian bands, not only the more famous ones like PFM, Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, Le Orme but also those less known and more obscure, are revered and collected all over the world. In particular, in Japan and South Korea, our prog is a real cult object.

The Marchesi Scamorza – a young band from Ferrara – rightfully fit into the fruitful stream of renewed interest in this genre, bringing to mind the mythical era of the '70s. The band already has a good album under their belt with “La sposa del tempo” (2012). Now, their new work titled “Hypnophonia” is released, a term that symbolizes the union of music and psyche. What emerges during the listening is the achieved sound maturity of the Marchesi Scamorza, who, on this occasion, finally engage with the suite form in two compositions, and this can only delight every self-respecting progster who, let's not hide it, often awaits nothing more.

The first track, the brief “1348,” is fresh in its stride and revives certain typical atmospheres of Le Orme. The following “Il cammino delle luci erranti” is the first of the two mini-suites: it is a track of nearly 14 minutes in which the band demonstrates the great level of cohesion achieved: the settings created by the keyboards are regal and dark while a nice throbbing bass sets the beat: one inevitably thinks of legendary names like Banco del Mutuo Soccorso and Museo Rosenbach. The lyrics are also of great depth and they too fit into the best mythological tradition of our prog. The music is fragmented, full of changes in rhythm, engaging, at times hard-rock, and very inspired. In “Campi di Marte,” the beginning is instead an inevitable homage to the mythical Biglietto per l’Inferno of the first album. “L’uomo col fiore in bocca” refers to a short story by Luigi Pirandello and reminded me of Il Balletto di Bronzo. The closing is entrusted to “La via del sognatore,” divided into 3 sections and lasting 13 minutes: it is a surreal journey that takes us through dreamlike and metaphysical landscapes: the music is inspired and delves once more into territories already extensively explored in the past but nonetheless still charming. The vocals probably are not their strong point but this is an old issue of this genre.

“Hypnophonia” is an album that shows us how the Marchesi Scamorza are a very interesting reality that, at this point, could give us increasingly convincing works in the future.