Pennelli di Vermeer
Tramedannata

Vermeer’s Brushes - "Tramedannata".

"The holder and the box form a right angle, what beautiful geometry on my desk."

This was the phrase that intrigued me as soon as I set foot in Iroko one winter evening a few years ago.

If you love musical fusion, then these are the Brushes for you. Impossible to classify them into a single genre since we can find elements of anything. Probably what struck me the most, and remains to this day the feature I love the most, is the presence of psychedelic keyboards, often Pink Floyd-esque.

The EP "Tramedannata", which contains various elements of the best Italian progressive tradition, is certainly an excellent introduction to start getting to know their sound: starting with the group's classic "On My Desk", with its 80s sounds and verses and chorus that you won't easily forget once heard. After this excellent introduction, we have "Waves" with keyboard and guitar melodies in unison that somewhat evoke an oriental style, but soon will be contaminated by a guitar riff. A reflective text and one that musically explores a great variety of sounds.

Right after, another by now great classic of the group, "The Worker’s Pipe". This too with an intro in tango style that you won’t easily forget, musically well-constructed verses and which later features keyboards reminiscent of Jethro Tull’s flute. After that we have "Beyond The Beyond", with an intro of electronic music, but which then blossoms into a pleasant acoustic ballad, indispensable for an EP! It also presents a reflective and poetic text, which around the middle of the song returns to the oriental notes like those of "Waves". To finish in style, there's one of those things that drives me crazy: A reworked cover of "Prinçesa" by Fabrizio de André. Magnificent performance, also because Faber's songs are malleable in any genre, and the results are often surprising as in this case.