Maxophone
Maxophone

If it weren't true that the major Italian bands each represent a unique style without the possibility of making rankings and hierarchies, I would say that Maxophone are perhaps the greatest. Yet another meteor in the Italian Prog scene, Maxophone also had the misfortune of entering the market in '75, when the genre was already in decline and attention was turning elsewhere, and history has taught us where.

This masterpiece, later reprinted in English with even less success, is a triumph of sunny sounds that make you dream and rejoice. Their music is almost a compendium of prog, especially for the English influences, but without losing their own personality, so Italian, so Maxophone. They can be compared to some exponents of the Canterbury phenomenon for their melody and instrumental parts, but especially to Gentle Giant for various reasons: the irony of some arrangements, the bass lines and rhythms simple but perfectly interlocked with the guitar similar to Gary Green's, and for the changes of tempo and the use of unusual instruments like the English horn, vibraphone, and clarinet. What emerges is anthology-worthy.

Technically very skilled, comparable to the more renowned PFM and Banco, with solid classical studies and an enviable yet unusual ensemble behind them, they create a collection of tracks pulsating with creativity and talent, allowing for an ideal fusion between cultured and popular music: one of the reasons for being of Progressive music.

It’s immediately "C'è un paese al mondo" that makes us fall in love with them. A piano rich in dynamics that, while almost touching Trilogy by Emerson Lake And Palmer, reaches much less cloying shores, towards the unique sound of Maxophone. The seductive voice of Alberto Ravasini, set in an ideal frame of organ and English horn, captivates us and immediately lets a clarinet intervene over a walking bass and a piano in reggae time that makes us smile but at the same time shout: genius!!
"Fase" seems to come out of Octopus by Gentle Giant for its rhythm, the vibraphone solo, and the high-toned fairy organ, but the evolution of sax, horn, and flute gives it its own charm that transports us to another dimension. The opening of "Al mancato compleanno di una farfalla" recalls Steve Howe of Yes followed by Jethro Tull, but as soon as the falsetto course begins, we are invaded by a new light, and it seems we see that butterfly blending into the unspoiled nature. "Elzeviro" makes us wonder how Peter Gabriel managed to learn Italian so well, but once again the opening linked to English canons is surpassed by the most Italian of riffs, even if Peter Banks seems to lurk shortly after. "Mercanti di pazzie" and the opening of "Antiche conclusioni Negre" perhaps mark the clearest step in their interpretation of the beloved Gentle Giant marvelously fused with personal and dreamy vocal parts. It is then incredible how the voice modulates towards a timbre eerily similar to that of Peter Hammill of Van der Graaf Generator (who sings at that point?). It is then moving the soul finale complete with choirs oozing blackness from every pore. It seems like a farewell from one of the greatest moments of Italian music of all time, so great that it couldn't grant the long-awaited encore, just like Paganini.

In 2005, an interesting box set CD + DCD titled From cocoon to butterfly was released, recalling all the, alas too few, deeds of the band. The work was promoted by sporadic concerts that leave hope for a fruitful and lasting reunion.