Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM) (translation: Award-winning Marconi Bakery) 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 The Midnight Special, a popular national television program in the United States.
PFM introduced new sounds, such as the synthesizer, to the Italian musical world. They were also among the first to combine symphonicclassical and traditional Italian musical influences in a rock music context. Such innovations and their longevity have earned PFM a place among the most important bands in the Progressive rock genre.
History
1966–1970
From left to right: Patrick Djivas, Franz Di Cioccio, Franco Mussida
The original core members of PFM were Franco Mussida (guitars, vocals), Flavio Premoli (keyboards), Luciano Dovesi (bass), who preceded Giorgio Piazza (bass), and Franz Di Cioccio (drums, vocals). They came together in the mid-1960s while playing together as backup musicians for many different Italian pop, rock and folk singers such as Lucio Battisti, Mina, Adriano Celentano and Fabrizio De André. They appeared on many recordings for other artists during this period and quickly established themselves as top players on the Italian scene before forming the group 'I quelli' (deliberately ungrammatical, roughly translates to 'The Them', or 'Those Guys') in 1968. I Quelli released one album and some successful Italian singles.
Premiata Forneria Marconi was officially formed in Milan in 1970 when the members of I Quelli met Mauro Pagani from the group Dalton. Pagani helped the group expand their sound to include violin and flute. By this time they were already highly experienced musicians who could play the kind of complex progressive heavy rock played by the leading English and American groups. Their early live performances included songs by groups such as King Crimson and Jethro Tull.[1] Other early influences included Chicago, Ekseption, and The Flock.
After rejecting Isotta Fraschini (an Italian car maker) as a name the group finally settled on Pagani's suggestion, 'Forneria Marconi' (meaning 'Marconi Bakery'), borrowed from the sign of a shop in the small town of Chiari, near Brescia. However, record producer and friend Alessandro Colombini suggested the name was not strong enough, so the title 'Premiata' (award-winning) was added. Some objected that 'Premiata Forneria Marconi' was too long a name, but the group's philosophy stated that the more difficult to remember a band's name, the more difficult it was to forget it. Italian progressive bands tended to have long names back then (Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, Raccomandata con Ricevuta di Ritorno, etc.), and so they were usually referred to as 'La Premiata', and later 'PFM'.
Italian and international success (1971–1975)
Franz Di Cioccio (with Lucio Fabbri at left)
In June 1971, PFM entered a competition-cum-music festival called the first 'Festival d'Avanguardia e Nuove Tendenze' in Viareggio, which they won, along with Osanna and Mia Martini. Later in 1971 the group signed with the Numero Uno division of RCA Records in Italy, and released their first single, "Impressioni di settembre"/"La carrozza di Hans". It received wide recognition as the first Italian hit record to feature the synthesizer. The group still regularly performs both songs. Flavio Premoli also did a special demonstration of the capabilities of his Minimoog during a PFM television performance broadcast by RAI.
In early 1972, PFM released their first album, Storia di un minuto. The album topped the Italian charts in its first week and was the first by an Italian rock group to achieve this kind of success. It contained re-recorded versions of songs from the first single, as well as "È Festa" and "Dove... Quando..." which remain concert favorites. Later in 1972 saw the release of their second LP, Per un amico. This album opened the way to broader audience recognition all across Europe. It featured a more sophisticated 16-track production and allowed the group to refine their sound.
PFM came to the attention of Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & Palmer while ELP was on an Italian tour. ELP arranged for PFM sign to their own label, Manticore Records. The first album on Manticore, Photos of Ghosts was released all across Europe, Japan, the USA and Canada and was the first time an Italian rock band found success in foreign markets. It was also one of the first recordings by a mainland European rock group to have chart success in the United States, peaking at #180 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in November 1973. The album contained mostly re-recordings of songs from Per un amico in English. New lyrics (not translations) were written by former King Crimson member (and ELP lyricist) Peter Sinfield who helped produce the new recording and mixing at Command Studios in London. Sinfield also suggested that the band abbreviate their name to PFM, starting with this album. Songs included "Celebration" (a remake of "È Festa"), which received considerable airplay on album-oriented rock stations in the USA and Canada.
Patrick Djivas
Following the release of Photos of Ghosts bass player Giorgio Piazza left the group, being replaced by Patrick Djivas, who has remained with the group since. The next PFM album release in Italy was L'isola di niente in 1974. Highlights of the album include "Dolcissima Maria" (English title: "Just Look Away") and the instrumental "Via Lumiere" (English title: "Have Your Cake and Beat It".) Again a similar English language version of the album was released by Manticore as The World Became the World (1974). The English album included another re-recording of "Impressioni di settembre" as the title track. This was their last collaboration with Peter Sinfield, as the group were not entirely pleased with his English lyrics.
1974 concerts were recorded in Toronto, Canada (Convocation Hall) on 22 August, and the Schaeffer Music Festival show in Central Park NYC on 31 August. Tracks from these shows were released as PFM's final album for Manticore, titled, Cook. The album spent eight weeks on the Billboard 200 chart, and peaked at #154 in January 1975. The same recordings were used with different artwork for the next European album titled Live in USA. PFM reached their biggest American audience when they appeared on NBC's Midnight Special program on 21 February 1975. Their nationally televised performance included "Celebration" and the instrumental "Alta Loma Nine Till Five".
1975–1978
The lack of a strong lead vocalist had always been considered PFM's biggest liability, so they enrolled Bernardo Lanzetti, who was previously with the group Acqua Fragile. While a college student, Lanzetti had lived in Austin, Texas for a few years. Most importantly, he had a powerful and distinctive voice, and could speak fluent English.
The first release by the six-piece band was Chocolate Kings in 1975. Featuring a harder rock sound, it had modest success at home but was their least popular album in Italy so far. The same album was released with different cover art by Manticore in the UK and by Asylum Records in the US. The controversial US/UK cover showed a chocolate bar in a partially peeled Stars and Stripes wrapper on the front, along with the crumpled and discarded wrapper on the back. PFM's first live performance in the UK was on BBC Radio 1's 'In Concert' programme introduced by DJ Pete Drummond on 21 May 1975 in which they performed their own arrangement of Rossini's William Tell Overture. They also appeared on the BBC television show The Old Grey Whistle Test firstly in 1974 and 1975. On 13 April 1976, on the same show, they performed the title track to the album. The album reached the UK top 20 but was less successful internationally. Mauro Pagani left the group following Chocolate Kings to pursue a solo career.
Lanzetti also appeared on Jet Lag (1977), an album highly influenced by the Jazz-fusion movement, which was recorded in Los Angeles. This was their last album with English lyrics and the last album released in the U.S., also on Asylum. Violinist Gregory Bloch, previously with the group It's a Beautiful Day, replaced Mauro Pagani and helped the band acquire notoriety in the US before leaving to join the Saturday Night Live Band in 1979.
For Passpartù (1978) PFM added two new percussion players and shifted stylistic direction once again. The album contains seven songs in Italian and one instrumental, characterized by an international pop music style; an early example of what today is known as 'Worldbeat'. The album's sound emphasizes acoustic, rather than electric guitar, and draws from Italian folk and Latin music as well as Jazz-Pop styles, somewhat like Steely Dan. This was the last album to feature Lanzetti, who then left to pursue a solo career.
Premiata Forneria Marconi during a live performance in Modena
1979–1987
In 1979, PFM once again played as the backup group for Fabrizio De André. The group contributed new arrangements for De André's songs and the ensemble toured Italy and Europe to packed concert halls. De André and PFM released two albums during this period, entitled In Concerto - Arrangiamenti PFM (1979), and In Concerto - Arrangiamenti PFM, Vol. 2 (1980).
During the 1980s PFM enjoyed continued success at home while concentrating on commercial rock music for the mainstream Italian audience. In 1980 Flavio Premoli left the group and built a successful career writing and performing music for Italian films and television. Multi-instrumentalist Lucio Fabbri joined adding skills on violin, keyboards, and rhythm guitar. Albums during this period were Suonare Suonare (1980), Performance (1981), Come ti va in riva alla città (1981), and PFM? PFM! (1984). The title track of their 1987 album Miss Baker was written in honor of the American dancer Josephine Baker. Though PFM stopped performing in 1987 they never officially broke up.
Reformation (1997–present)
In 1997 Flavio Premoli reunited with other core members (DiCioccio, Djivas, Mussida) and released the comeback album Ulisse. Though not as progressive as some of their 1970s work, this album brought PFM back to the attention of the international progressive rock audience. Ulisse is a song cycle based on the Odyssey legend by Homer, with the contributions of noted Italian lyricist Vincenzo Incenzo. A double disc live album www.pfmpfm.it (1998) was recorded with two additional musicians on their sellout Italian tour the next year.
Serendipity (2001) is a studio collection of new songs in Italian. Live in Japan 2002 was released in both a double CD and DVD edition. The double CD edition contains two new studio tracks including a collaboration with Peter Hammill of Van der Graaf Generator. Hammill wrote lyrics and sings on the group's first recording in English since 1977, titled "Sea of Memory". Live album Piazza del Campo (2005) was released in both a single CD and CD+DVD edition. It captures a live performance with the one time only return of Mauro Pagani, filmed outdoors in the main square of Siena. Italian rock singer Piero Pelù also appears on the DVD.
Keyboard player Flavio Premoli left the group for a second time in early 2005. PFM then returned to the USA for the first time since 1977 to play the Progressive Arts Showcase at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on 8 July 2005. This concert was held in conjunction with the 7th annual NEARfest progressive rock event. Other shows on this tour included dates in Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Panama, and Venezuela. Premoli's last work with the group, Dracula, was released late in the year. It is an original Rock opera based on the Dracula legend.
Stati di immaginazione (2006) is an entirely instrumental effort and has an accompanying DVD of video images made for each song. Following the pattern of earlier works, the music alternates between serene and calming sections of acoustic guitar and sections of sharper-edged hard rock. The video content ranges from fantasy-style vignettes made with computer graphics to archival black and white historic films.
PFM was the first confirmed act for the NEARfest 2009 festival, which was held on 20–21 June.
In 2010 PFM released their new album A.D.2010 - La buona novella, a reworking of the Fabrizio de André's 1970 album La buona novella. The group included sections of their own music within the original De André's folk songs, adding instrumental progressive rock passages. In 2009 PFM performed for the first time at the Sanremo Music Festival. In 2011 they appeared at Sanremo again with Roberto Vecchioni. 2011 also saw the group release Amico Faber, a box set containing the live album PFM canta De André (2008) and A.D.2010 - La buona novella, as well as a 16-page booklet, dedicated to Fabrizio de André.
A 2-CD album, called "PFM IN CLASSIC, DA MOZART A CELEBRATION", was released in 2013. CD #1 comprises somewhat creative "arrangements" by PFM of famous classical works, such as "Il flauto magico" (Mozart), "Danza macabra" (C. Saint-Saëns), and "Romeo & Giulietta" (Prokofiev). CD #2 offers "classical renditions" of some of PFM's best known titles, including "La luna nuova"; "Dove....Quando...."; "Maestro della voce"; and "Impressioni di Settembre".
In March 2015, the band announced on their official Facebook page that guitarist/founder Franco Mussida had left the band to concentrate on other artistic endeavors and his long-standing presidency of the CPM Music Institute. He was replaced by Marco Sfogli on guitar.
A new studio album, Emotional Tattoos, was released both in Italian and English on 27 October 2017. Of the original band, only Di Cioccio remains. The band is now led by and revolves around Di Cioccio (drums, singing) and Patrick Djivas (bass guitar).
In October 2021 the band released a new studio album I Dreamed of Electric Sheep - Ho sognato pecore elettriche. Conceived as a Sci-Fi-themed conceptual opus, it signalled the return of original keyboardist Flavio Premoli as well as guest appearances by Ian Anderson on flute and Steve Hackett on guitar.[2]
Members
Current members
Franz Di Cioccio – lead and backing vocals, drums, percussion (1970–present)
Fabrizio Cristiano De André was an Italian singer-songwriter and the most-prominent cantautore of his time. His 40-year career reflects his interests in concept albums, literature, poetry, political protest, and French music. He is considered a prominent member of the Genoese School. Because of the success of his music in Italy and its impact on the Italian collective memory, many public places such as roads, squares, and schools in Italy are named after De André.
Flavio Premoli is an Italian musician and composer, one of the four founding members of the Italian progressive rock band Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM). Premoli is currently endorsed by Yamaha synthesizers and pianos, and he is an accomplished accordion performer from the age of 9. Recently, he has been writing music for many Italian TV series and commercials.
Mauro Pagani is an Italian musician and singer.
Il Rovescio della Medaglia, or RDM, were an Italian hard rock and symphonic rock band. They are most famous for their symphonic rock piece Contaminazione, released in 1973. It contained four pieces from Bach's Well-tempered Clavier seamlessly integrated with RDM's own music, which often was inspired by rock or hard rock. In 1974 the record was released in an English version, Contamination, with the group's name simplified to RDM, although still written in full on the back of the LP jacket.
Per un amico is the second album from the Italian progressive rock band Premiata Forneria Marconi. Released in 1972 by all the initial members of the group, it is considered their breakthrough album that put them on the map. The album remains popular among progressive rock fans throughout Italy and the group will usually still perform all tracks on the album today.
La buona novella is the fourth studio album by Italian singer-songwriter Fabrizio De André, released in 1970. Its plot revolves around the New Testament apocrypha.
Storia di un minuto is the first album of the Italian progressive rock band Premiata Forneria Marconi. It was recorded in Milan and released by the Numero Uno division of RCA Records in Italy. The album topped the Italian album charts after one week from the release – the first time occurrence in the Italian charts up until then.
L'isola di niente is the third studio album by Italian progressive rock band Premiata Forneria Marconi, released in 1974. Like the group's previous albums, it is sung in Italian and performed well in Italy. An English version of the album, The World Became the World, was recorded in the same session. It features the same track list along with an English version of the band's first single "Impressioni di Settembre". English lyrics were written by Peter Sinfield.
Photos of Ghosts is the third studio album and the first English language record by the Italian progressive rock band Premiata Forneria Marconi, also known as PFM. Released in the U.S. in October 1973, it was the first album by an Italian rock group to appear on the American charts. The album peaked at No. 180 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in November 1973.
Chocolate Kings is the sixth album by Italian progressive rock band Premiata Forneria Marconi. It was released in 1975 by Numero Uno, a division of RCA Records in Italy. It was also released with different cover art by Manticore Records in the UK and Asylum Records in the USA.
Stati d'immaginazione is the sixteenth studio album by the Italian progressive rock band Premiata Forneria Marconi, released in 2006. It was distributed in a double edition containing a CD and a DVD; the latter contains eight shorts which, in concert, are presented to the public on the big screen. The images of the videos and the music of the album were conceived as a multimedia work, based on a project by Iaia De Capitani, manager of the group.
Una radura is the second album by Gianna Nannini. It was released in 1977, and it features many guest musicians, including the Premiata Forneria Marconi.
Jet Lag is the fifth album of the Italian progressive rock band Premiata Forneria Marconi, released in 1977 by Asylum Records in the US and Manticore Records in Europe. This album incorporates the use of fretless bass in the sound and has a jazzier feel in comparison to the band's previous efforts. Four of the five tracks with vocals are sung in English. "Cerco la Lingua" is the only one sung in Italian. The album is also the first one not featuring founding member Mauro Pagani, who left the band the year before to pursue solo projects.
Acqua Fragile is an Italian progressive rock band, active from 1971 to 1975 and from 2013 to the present. The band was established in the city of Parma. Bernardo Lanzetti, leader and vocalist of the band, is best known for his work with Premiata Forneria Marconi and has played in many other progressive rock acts, including neoprogressive band Mangala Vallis.
Franco Mussida is an Italian guitar player, composer, and singer.
Alberto Radius was an Italian guitarist, singer-songwriter, arranger, and record producer. Besides his solo career, he is well-known as a member of the group Formula 3 and for his collaboration with prominent artists such as Lucio Battisti and Franco Battiato.
Una storia sbagliata is a song written and recorded by Italian singer-songwriter Fabrizio De André and co-composed with folk songwriter Massimo Bubola. It was initially released as a single backed with "Titti". Both songs were recorded during the initial sessions for De André's self-titled 1981 album and first released in 1980 as a standalone single. In 1999, "Una storia sbagliata" was re-released within the Fabrizio De André: Opere complete box set. "Titti" had its first CD release in 2005, within the greatest hits and rarities collection In direzione ostinata e contraria.
Il pescatore ["The fisherman"] is a song by Fabrizio De André, with lyrics by himself and music by composers Gian Piero Reverberi and Franco Zauli. Backed with "Marcia nuziale", De André's translation of by Georges Brassens's 1957 song "La marche nuptiale", it was released in 1970 by the Italian branch of Liberty Records as a standalone single, De André's first of only two such releases in his career. It was the first single of De André to enter the Italian singles chart, peaking at the 13th position. Its popularity was significantly boosted by a 1979 live remake, with PFM backing De André in a new rock arrangement.
Fabrizio De André in Concerto - Arrangiamenti PFM ["In Concert—Arrangements by PFM"] is a 1979 live album by Fabrizio De André featuring Italian progressive rock band Premiata Forneria Marconi, also known as PFM, as his backing band, recorded during their successful 1979 tour of Italy and Europe. Built on powerful, complex and carefully crafted rock arrangements, either by single band members or by the band as a unit, the album marked a significant stylistic and musical departure for De André, whose output up to that point had always employed acoustic-based, folk arrangements, occasionally branching into pop but never overtly using rock structures and instrumentation. Upon release, the album became immediately very popular and paved the way for other Italian singer-songwriters for their own transition from a folk style into a more rock-oriented one. The album was followed by a Volume 2 the next year, recorded during the same shows.
The World Became the World is Italian progressive rock band Premiata Forneria Marconi's second international release, an English-language version of their third studio album L'isola di niente. It was released in June 1974 on Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Manticore Records label in the US. Like the group's previous English-language album Photos of Ghosts (1973), the band recorded new English lyrics from King Crimson and ELP lyricist Peter Sinfield, not translations of the original Italian lyrics. It was recorded in the same session as L'isola de niente. It features the same tracks, plus "The World Became the World", an English-language version of the band's first single "Impressioni di Settembre", from the album Storia di un minuto (1972). These were the first recording sessions were the first to feature new bassist Patrick Djivas, who replaced founding member Giorgio Piazza, and remains with the band to this day.
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