Consorzio Acqua Potabile & Alvaro 'Jumbo' Fella: Coraggio E Mistero

The coming together of two Italian progressive acts with links to the past, Coraggio E Mistero finds Consorzio Acqua Potabile inviting singing veteran Alvaro Fella, from Jumbo, to front the band. Steeped in Italian progressive traditions, the approach here is unsurprisingly one based round a 70s vintage and infused with moog, recorder, whistle and flute. As you may expect, the results are a vaguely quirky melding of Jethro Tull and the more expected symphonic prog attack. Involved and intricate though "Tra Le Scale E Il Cielo" or "Il Cervo E La Fonte" are, in truth, they contain few surprises, gentle prog expanded into a European folk setting and embellished by the (literally and figuratively) bells and whistles of the Italian prog sound. While nothing here is below standard, it would also be fair to suggest that neither does anything particularly stand out, the tranquil, almost twee setting illustrated on the CD cover (the booklet is verging on huge, so hat's off to Black Widow Records for that) all too often recounted in the music itself.

The 'twist' here however is "Jumbo", a singer who it would appear is possibly better known for his youthful lyrics and performances in the 70s often being censored and banned, than for the music he actually combined those lyrics to. Apparently age hasn't dulled his attack, the energy and enthusiasm he brings welcome, even as it detracts from the songs. In fact, give or take some energetic instrumental passages in "La Strada", you could argue that so much space has been left for the vocalist to make his mark, that little else really occurs. Under normal circumstances the lack of lyrical understanding on an album isn't really a huge stumbling block for me, yet here, with "Jumbo" front and centre to the extent that everything else feels secondary, that all the lyrics are sung in Italian and not translated in the booklet, definitely leaves you feeling like you're missing out on a key element of what's going on (unless you speak Italian of course). When you factor in that "Jumbo's" contributions are often energy over precision and eccentric over restrained, then without the connect his words may (or indeed, may not), bring to proceedings, there's never quite enough left to keep you locked into this album's doctrine.

While never bad, and the musicianship is universally high, Coraggio E Mistro is too often content to feel like a non-event. "Jumbo" may be the key here, but to a non-Italian speaker, he's actually the main hurdle and even if you can overcome that aspect, the music itself never really feels like it's interested enough in persuading you to stay the course.

Track Listing
1. Coraggio E Mistero
2. Il Cervo E La Fonte
3. Io Ti Canto
4. La Strada
5. Ciao Alvaro (Dove Vai?)
6. Sette E Trenta (di Mattina)
7. Tra Le Scale E Il Cielo
8. Le Sette Stanze Di Dimitrji (vinyl only)
9. La Notte E Il Mulino Di Al

Added: April 2nd 2017
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Consorzio Acqua Potabile online
Hits: 1722
Language: english

[ Printer Friendly Page ]
[ Send to a Friend ]