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 The Midnight Special, a popular national television program in the United States.
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.
Cervello ("Brain") is a band from Italy.
Mauro Pagani is an Italian musician and singer.
La Máquina de Hacer Pájaros was a mid-1970s progressive and symphonic rock band from Argentina, with strong influences by Genesis, Premiata Forneria Marconi, Yes, and Steely Dan. In their brief two-year lifespan, they didn't have much public acceptance. It wasn't until several years later that they achieved a very high reputation nationally as well as internationally.
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.
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.
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.
Arbeit macht frei is the debut studio album by Italian jazz fusion band Area, and one of the most critically acclaimed albums in Italy. It features singer Demetrio Stratos along with bassist Patrick Djivas and saxophonist Eddie Busnello, both of which parted after the release of the album. According to the booklet, the lyrics were written by Gianni Sassi and the music was composed by Demetrio Stratos, Giulio Capiozzo and Patrick Djivas. All tracks were registered on the Italian copyright society SIAE under the name of Terzo Fariselli, due to the fact that no one within the group was a member of SIAE.
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 guitarist, composer, and singer.
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.
Bernardo Lanzetti is an Italian singer, founder of Acqua Fragile and frontman of the Premiata Forneria Marconi for some years.
