Italian rock is a form of rock music produced primarily in Italy. The music genre has roots in the country as it spread in the early 1960s from the United States with the earliest versions of rock and roll during this period being cover versions or interpretative covers of already existing songs.
Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM) is an Italian progressive rock band founded in 1970 which continues to the present day. They were the first Italian group to have success internationally. The group recorded five albums with English lyrics between 1973 and 1977. During this period they entered both the British and American charts. They also had several successful European and American tours, playing at the popular Reading Festival in England and on a very popular national television program in the United States.
Area – International POPular Group, most commonly known as Area or AreA, is an Italian progressive rock, jazz fusion, electronic, experimental group formed in 1972 by singer Demetrio Stratos and drummer Giulio Capiozzo. They are considered one of the most respected, innovative and important bands of the blooming 1970s Italian progressive rock scene.
Lorenzo Ferrero is an Italian composer, librettist, author, and book editor. He started composing at an early age and has written over a hundred compositions thus far, including twelve operas, three ballets, and numerous orchestral, chamber music, solo instrumental, and vocal works. His musical idiom is characterized by eclecticism, stylistic versatility, and a neo-tonal language.
Sergio Cammariere is an Italian jazz singer-songwriter. He has released 12 studio albums and 1 live album.
Efstratios Dimitriou, known professionally as Demetrio Stratos, was a Greek-Italian lyricist, multi-instrumentalist, music researcher, and co-founder, frontman and lead singer of the Italian progressive rock band Area – International POPular Group.
Arbeit macht frei is the debut album of the jazz fusion band Area. It features Patrick Djivas on bass and Eddie Busnello on saxophone, who parted after the release of the album. According to the booklet the lyrics were written by Frankestein, and the music was written by Demetrio Stratos, Giulio Capiozzo and Patrick Djivas except "Consapevolezza". All tracks were registered on Italian SIAE to Terzo Fariselli, due to the fact that the musicians were not members of SIAE.
Caution Radiation Area is the second album of the jazz fusion band Area and was released in 1974. This is the first album that contains the better known line up, with Ares Tavolazzi replacing Patrick Djivas on bass. "MIRage? Mirage!" contains a part in which the whole band can be heard whispering readings, and "Lobotomia" is constructed using loud synth noise, with the clear intention to disturb the listener. Quotes of opening themes of Italian TV programs are heard during the track.
Crac! is the third album of the jazz fusion band Area and was released in 1975. With this album, the band gained more popularity in Italy, thanks to songs like "L'elefante Bianco", "La Mela di Odessa (1920)" and "Gioia e Rivoluzione", which quickly became concert favourites. All songs were written by Tofani, Fariselli and Tavolazzi, except for "Area 5" which was written by Juan Hidalgo and Walter Marchetti. When touring for this album the band even played in Paris and in Lisboa.
Are(A)zione is the fourth album of the jazz fusion band Area. It is Area's first live album. It was recorded during their 1975 Italian tour, with dates in Milan, Naples, Rimini and Reggio Emilia, and released later the same year.
Maledetti (Maudits) is the fifth album of the jazz fusion band Area and was released in 1976. It can be considered a concept album: during the 20th century, an imaginary bank in which history is stored, loses data from the 15th century ("Evaporazione"), causing people forgetting how to govern the world. Some new hypothesis are formulated: power to old people ("Gerontocrazia"), power to women ("SCUM", which uses as lyrics a reading of a writing by Valerie Solanas, the chief of the feminist party SCUM, which stands for "Society for Cutting Up Men"), and power to children ("Giro, giro, tondo" and "Caos (parte seconda)"). "Il Massacro di Brandeburgo numero tre in Sol Maggiore" is a fragment of Johann Sebastian Bach's third Brandenburg concerto. During the recording sessions of the album, Capiozzo and Tavolazzi left the band temporarily (noticeably they are absent on "Diforisma Urbano", "Giro, giro, tondo" and "Caos (parte seconda)") only to come back some months later. During these months in which they weren't in the band, the live album Event '76 was recorded at Milan's Università Statale. This was also the last studio album featuring Tofani on guitar. Most of CD re-releases contain two bonus tracks: an interview with Stratos, Tofani and Fariselli after the "Event '76" concert and the "Are(A)zione" version of "L'internazionale". From this album's tour, two posthumous concerts from 1977 were released: "Concerto Teatro Uomo" in 1996 and "Live in Torino 1977" in 2005.
Anto/Logicamente is the first compilation of the jazz fusion band Area and was released in 1977. As the title suggests, the track selection focuses more on the tracks that were "hidden, ignored by the critics and many others", as told on the booklet. "Anto/Logicamente" is a play on words based on "antologia", "anto" (not) and "logicamente". Noticeably, this album contains "Citazione da George L. Jackson", the b-side of "L'internazionale". Unlike the other compilation "Area '70", this one was reprinted on CD by Artis in 1994 and Edel in 2002.
Event '76 is the seventh album of the jazz fusion band Area, and the second live album. It was recorded in Milan's Università Statale in 1976, though released in 1979. Ares Tavolazzi and Giulio Capiozzo are noticeably absent, as when this album was recorded, they had temporarily left the band, only to return a few months later. This album is noticeable for featuring Steve Lacy on saxophone and Paul Lytton on percussion, and it is also noticeable for featuring a lengthy version of "Caos IIa Parte", which was split between the two sides of the LP due to time reasons. The live version of "Caos IIa Parte" was more improvised than the studio piece: each musician was given a sheet of paper in which there was written a word and he had to interpret it for three minutes, then change sheet of paper. Each musician had a different sheet of paper. The title track is a variation of the song "SCUM" from the album Maledetti (Maudits). An aftershow interview with Tofani, Fariselli and Stratos was released as a bonus track on some editions of Maledetti (Maudits). This was the last album of the classic era featuring Paolo Tofani, and Demetrio Stratos, who died some months after the release of this record.
Salvatore Di Vittorio is an Italian composer and conductor. He is the music director and Conductor of the Chamber Orchestra of New York. He has been recognized by Luigi Verdi as a "lyrical musical spirit, respectful of the ancient Italian tradition… an emerging leading interpreter of the music of Ottorino Respighi".
Adriano Guarnieri is an Italian composer of contemporary classical music.
Parigi-Lisbona is a live album by Italian jazz fusion band Area, released in 1996 and recorded in 1976 in Paris and Lisbon, while the band was supporting their third album Crac!. In the Paris section of the album, Demetrio Stratos announces the songs in French and sings "La Mela di Odessa" as "La Pomme de Odessa". Just like the other phostmous release "Concerto Teatro Uomo", "Parigi-Lisbona" received criticism due to the sound quality of the recordings, and because some tracks contain edits.
Gioia e Rivoluzione is the third compilation of the jazz fusion band Area and was released in 1996. This album concentrates exclusively on the albums released on the Cramps label. Just like the first compilation "Anto/Logicamente", this album contains "Citazione da George L. Jackson", the non-LP b-side of "L'internazionale". "L'Internazionale" appears as well, but instead of the studio version released on the single, it's the live version contained on the "Are(a)zione" album. The studio version, as of 2014, is not available on CD.
Live in Torino 1977 is a live album by Italian jazz fusion band Area released in 2004 and recorded in 1977 in Milan, while the band was supporting their fifth album Maledetti (Maudits). Even though the album received praise for the musical content, this album was heavily criticized for its sound quality and for some packaging errors: there is an uncredited performance of "Diforisma Urbano" on "Il Massacro Di Brandeburgo Numero Tre in Sol Maggiore" and "Improvvisazione" is actually "Are(a)zione" with a brief excerpt of "Gioia e Rivoluzione" ).
Live 2012 is the ninth album of the jazz fusion band Area. It was recorded in 2011 and 2012 during their reunion tour, which marked the return of Paolo Tofani and Ares Tavolazzi who had left the band in 1977 and 1993, respectively. Classic drummer Giulio Capiozzo died in 2000 of a heart attack, his replacement is drummer Walter Paoli.
