Nicola Randone - Morte Di Un Amore

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Nicola Randone - Morte Di Un Amore

Artist:	Nicola Randone
Title:	Morte Di Un Amore
Label:	self produced NR001
Length(s):	51 minutes
Year(s) of release:	2002
Month of review:	[11/2002]

Line up

Nicola Randone - vocals
Gianni Bulbo - ....
Riccardo Gascone - ...
Enrico Boncoraglio - ...

Tracks

1)	Visioni	5.13
2)	Il Pentimento Di Dio	4.40
3)	Tutte Le Mie Stelle	4.18
4)	L'Infinito	3.28
5)	Un Cieco	4.38
6)	La Giostra	4.51
7)	Strananoia	3.59
8)	Amore Bianco	4.35
9)	Morte Di Un Amore	15.24

Summary

Nicola Randone is a vocalist/songwriter from Italy. He says his style is Italian progressive contaminated with various other music style. The album has a special website devoted to it.

The music

Visioni opens the album in typical Italian style. Not really Italian progressive though, although the intermezzo on the keyboards is distinctive enough. Randone has a very expressive voice, as many Italian singers do. Some people might even say he is overdoing it a bit, but to me it seems honest enough: he simply finds it hard to contain his emotions. Parallels exist with the moody side of Peter Gabriel, but the music is a bit more electronic than that, in fact the entire ending is filled with moody electronics. He fits well into the tradition of Lucio Battisti, Franco Battiato, Angelo Branduardi and others of the more sophisticated Italian singer-songwriters.

I like Il Pentimento Di Dio a bit less. The reggae rhythm I guess does not help much. The chorus is a very nice though with brimming organ and the music getting louder and more orchestral. Then it's back to the reggae not forgetting some Gregorian chants giving the song an Enigma feel. Tutte Le Mie Stelle is soft with a good vocal melody and a typical Italian sense of drama. The atmosphere is dark, the rhythms are modern, the strings are mellow. Again, plenty of electronics here.

On L'Infinito we find emotional climaxes over a slow drum. There is more rock here with some particularly strong guitar playing. Plenty of variation here also because the vocals go from flat and indifferent to high and emotional. Un Cieco I hear some early PFM influences. Think Impressione Di Settembre here. The melody is even quite similar.

La Giostra is in my opinion the best song on the album and it is also likely enough the most varied one: spoken voices (in this case mainly Hitler's, lots of lyrics, a beautiful chorus, the song has both dark as well as more orchestral dimensions and even mars rhythms. The ending is surprisingly folky.

Strananoia is a lot lighter, not surprising after a song about Auschwitz. Stop-start rock with speedy vocals. We move into the nylon acousticity of Amore Bianco with modern rhythms and violin. Surprisingly maybe, it does not sound unnatural at all. The guitar solo is a maybe a bit too wee, but the speed up in the middle is well-done.

So we come to the main track of the album, Morte Di Un Amore. The structure is classically oriented and the song has its share of breaks. This is one of the tracks that comes closest to prog, also in length. Again, Randone has included some reggae, but not too overly. The guitar work is rather raw. At times, I was even thinking of progmetal, quite surprising in view of the rest of the album. After a thunderstorm the reversed vocals at the end smell like Hammill.

Conclusion

A surprisingly mature effort in which Randone shows to have an identity of his own. According to himself he builds on the Italian prog bands of the seventies, but I did not hear that very much, in fact I'd call the song more sophisticated than progressive. The songs are recognizable, generally about love and such things with good melodies, typically Italian emotionality and played and produced well. Tasteful, something which also becomes apparent in the artwork.