Raccomandata Ricevuta di Ritorno - Il Pittore Volante (2010)

Hace un rato el Mago Alberto había presentado el primer disco de ésta banda casi desconocida para varios de nosotros, una agrupación para caerse de culo, y aquí les dejo nuevamente la presentación de su segundo disco, sacado a la luz luego de 37 años. Otra maravilla sonora de principio a fin que ha enamorado varios tímpanos y al cual varios hemos caído rendidos por su belleza a toda prueba. Señoras, señores, un discazo que deben conocer y que es posible que nadie más se los recomiende, y no encontrán en ningún otro lado.


Artista: Raccomandata Ricevuta di Ritorno

Álbum: Il Pittore Volante
Año: 2010
Género: Rock sinfónico italiano
Nacionalidad: Italia

El Mago Alberto sigue haciendo gala de su sapiencia musical y nos trae otro discazo de éstos ignotos tanos que hacen una música del recontra carajo. Realmente impresionante, los dejo con las palabras de Alberto y luego con algunos comentarios de otras personas gratificadas por esta música.

Y de pronto los Raccomandata Ricevuta di Ritorno, cual viajeros del tiempo, reaparecen después de 37 años para grabar otra placa, donde la voz de Luciano Regoli parece verse afectada por una sobredosis de Barilari, pero donde también se puede disfrutar de un trabajo acoplado a la nueva tecnología digital, y donde estos señores ya mayores se dan el gusto de seguir haciendo exactamente el mismo rock progresivo que les dieran su propio sello allá por el 72.
Un disco ambicioso por lo musical, donde todo suena impecable, cristalino, puro, no parece haber pasado el tiempo para estos tanos, un disco integramente disfrutable, un concepto musical que cierra desde el arte de tapa, una presentacion cuasi barroca, y una estructura musical muy definida, muy sinfónica.
RRR como habia mencionado en la reseña de su anterior trabajo, marcan una diferencia con los tantos grupos italianos de la misma movida, por lo climático, por lo inesperado de sus cambios musicales.
Este proyecto suena redondo, completo, quizás tantos años de rodar y rodar en el ambiente, fue cultivando un estilo multinstrumental inesperado, uno presume que de pronto un riff a la mitad de una cancion deriva inevitable en un solo,pero es aqui donde los tanos marcan la diferencia estructural,se embarcan en un clima lento para seguir con una secuencia de moog o guitarra que poco tiene que ver con lo "lógico" de la canción.
La Escuelita de Moe sigue abierta, no hay huelga por fallas edilicias,ni gremio docente insatisfecho, solo posteos y posteos para alegría de los cabezones, y éste de los RRR va a caer de perillas.
Otro pantallazo para tener referencia de la movida progre de Italia, y créanme que hay muchísimas bandas que el público comun y corriente de estos lares desconoce pero que los científicos musicales altamente reconocidos del staff cabezón (trabajan día y noche), se las van a seguir presentando.

Alberto

Espectacular eso de "una sobredosis de Barilari", pero tiene razón y es lo único criticable de éste disco, que estoy escuchando en éste mismo momento.

Hace tan solo unos días hablaba con un amigo internauta de la poca credibilidad que tenia estas ya acostumbradas reapariciones de grupos italianos de los 70's, a excepción tan solo de METAMORFOSI y como no de LE ORME.
"Il Pittore Volante" bajo el nombre de La Nuova Raccomandata con Ricevuta di Ritorno dista años luz del memorable trabajo que RRR nos ofreció en 1972, nada que ver !!!.
La idea de la Nuova RRR es de Luciano Regoli aprovechando un viejo material escrito en su época y la continuidad musical y experiencia a través de los proyectos Il Ritratto Di Dorian Gray y los metal progresivos DMG.
"Il Pittore Volante" es un trabajo que en su generalidad suena a Hard Rock (Lez Zeppelin y Jethro Tull) algo descafeinado con toques mínimos de Bluesy, Pop y Musica Clasica. Esto no quita que haya momentos progresivos, claro esta.
Yo los únicos temas que destacaría son "Il vecchio" por su elaboración y el largo solo de piano introductorio y el sabor a música clásica que desprende en su desarrollo posterior y lo teclados pomposos y misteriosos de Claudio Simonetti se dan cita especialmente en el tema mas largo "Eagle Mountain" y también en "la Mente".
En definitiva, creo que este nuovo RRR no tiene nada que ver con el gran trabajo realizado en "Per... un Mondo di Cristallo", eso si se beneficia de la colaboración de buenos músicos, de la riqueza en contenido variado de instrumentos y estilos pero el resultado final no llega a cruzar la débil linea del progresivo.
y es que tiempos pasados no fueron mejores sino distintos. 

Juan Egara
 
Vamos con algunos comentarios en inglés, pero mientras los leen vayan descargándose el disco, como hago yo... Otro discazo impresionante para que se maravillen cuando lo escuchen en el fin de semana y que pone el broche de oro para otra semana llena se sorpresas y joyitas musicales que solamente encontrarás en éste maravilloso espacio colaborativo.

I'm sure for fans of Italian prog one of the highlights of 2010 will be the reformation of Raccomandata con Ricevuta di Ritorno. Luciano Regoli, now a successful and talented artist has put down his paint brushes long enough to write and record Il Pittore Volante with some past RRR members and some stellar guests including Claudio Simonetti (Goblin) and Lino Vairetti (Osanna). RRR, like many bands in the seventies Italian prog movement only managed to release one album before splitting and here comes number two thirty eight years later! What a return though! Il Pittore Volante is a superb album and no doubt destined to be one of my favourites of the year, even at this early stage.
Whilst looking back to the glory days of RPI in the seventies Il Pittore Volante keeps one foot in the present with a stunning and diverse blend of symphonic prog, heavy rock, blues, folk and jazz. The album is brilliantly executed from the first rate cast and Regoli's singing is excellent.
Il Cambiamento, a mid paced rocker makes a fantastic opener with its Led Zeppelin style groove until Walter Martino lets loose with some dextrous drum fills towards the end. Il Vecchio is more restrained, starting with jazz piano, it features some lovely violin and has a melancholic and haunting vibe for the most part. Il Fuoco is a beautiful ballad featuring acoustic guitar and lovely female vocal parts courtesy of Cristina Cioni alongside Regoli.
Classical guitar introduces Eagle Mountain before turning into a fairly straightforward rock track with some searing electric guitar work from Nanni Civitenga. Mid song it totally changes tack; drums dropping out and acoustic guitar returning for this lovely melancholic part with more excellent Gilmour-esque soloing. Wonderful stuff indeed! Continuing in this vibe is the beautiful La Mente which features some fine sax playing. The reverse of Eagle Mountain, it picks up pace mid song, powerful bass and drums driving it along overlaid with some wild dissonant sax.
Hammond organ takes a front seat on L'Uomo Nuovo which is more in the symphonic vein. A keyboard led instrumental workout also features some obligatory flute giving it a Jethro Tull vibe. One thing that's worth mentioning about the whole album is the strength of the melodies which while often sublime are always first rate. Le Anime has a bluesy vibe, yet in keeping with proceedings has a few surprises up its proverbial sleeve. Raoul is a bit unexpected, being a rocker with a kind of ZZ Top style guitar riff. Another twist has the tempo halving and there's more excellent guitar work. The acoustic La Spiaggia closes in fine style in restrained fashion.
Many bands reform, often for the wrong reasons, but few make such a triumphant return as RRR. I can't recommend Il Pittore Volante highly enough. This album is essential listening for RPI fans and highly recommended to everyone else.

Paul Fowler

RPI album where the main RPI element is the language in which it's sung. Or maybe I lack necessary knowledge of this genre (which I lack), but presented album is quite Heavy. Not too heavy for my taste, but for what I so far heard from Italy, it is. There's strange thing that it doesn't work as much as with my ancestor (Nightfly for those who didn't understand), maybe it's because I'm used to different kind of Rock Progressive from Italy than it is presented here, but my wild guess it that it just takes some time. I would like to write something about music, about advantages and disadvantages, but I can't, because even I like it, this music somehow takes the words from my mind. Actually, I'm not even sure whether I like it or not. If this sounds like drug addict talk to you, if you think that I took some shrooms, that you're not alone. I'm thinking about the same thing, but I understand that if it's the way this music works, than it's fine and I'll comply. With
4(-) / 5, because sometimes, this music is just tasteless, without any deeper emotion (even he's screaming quite a lot at times, "it's" not here, but only sometimes).
There's something going on behind my back here, or "I don't know what's good about it, but I know it is" if you want.

Marty McFly

A triumphant comeback
Not only did Italian bands makes some of the most creative and emotionally inspiring albums of the 1971-1974 period, they have also birthed some of the best modern prog projects like Il Bacio Della Medusa, DFA, and Garamond among countless others. Yet another way Italy has excelled, besting many other places, is in the quality of their "comeback" albums. There is a reason for this. While some of these other "popular" classic progressive bands have had to struggle to marry commercial approaches into comeback attempts, many of the Italian comebacks have been all about the art, making music from the heart without boardroom considerations. Making the kind of music which inspired their fans in the first place while embracing advances in sound and technique. Understanding why there has been such an explosion of interest in the original RPI scene. This is evident in recent comebacks albums from PFM, but even moreso in the amazing triumphs of Delirium, Latte Miele, and now RRR. Often these modern albums sound more diverse as the influences of Italian artists naturally range outside of their country, and yet the style and sound of many of them are unmistakably rich in the unique Italian touch RPI fans crave.
RRR circa 2010 unfortunately finds only two members from their first album's recording lineup still on board, Luciano Regoli and Nanni Civitenga. For whatever reason this is a bit disappointing to me as I prefer band names to honor line-ups. Here RRR have filled the gap with quality musicians from the RPI scene, including members of Goblin, Libra, and Osanna (Lino Vairetti). The album is also notable for showcasing the equally impressive talent of Regoli the painter. The lovely BTF/AMS/VM issue is a gatefold mini-lp sleeve. Both it and the booklet are filled with reprints of Regoli's paintings which are as striking as the music. Also included in my standard CD pressing was a limited, numbered edition drawing on heavy paper. Special editions with even more goodies were also made available.
This joyful and enthusiastic celebration of both musical and visual art begins in the most clever way. You here this distant, fading, eerie music with fidelity indicating an old vinyl album as it ends, and if you listen close you will realize the music is the end of the last track from RRR's debut some 38 years prior. So they truly are beginning from where they left off! Really nice touch. But from there most associations to the past fall away as this album is a different animal. The songs display updated rendition of "Italian prog" with dramatic operatic vocals, which are often the high-pitched wails associated with Ian Gillan or the New Trolls, punctuated by the lovely use of flute, violin, piano, sax, and Hammond. The other side of the equation sounds almost like an influence of 1980s Pink Floyd and Gilmour/Waters solo, with songs boasting the blues-rock bravado Gilmour would grab in his heavier moments, along with the soulful female backing chorus you've heard on 80s Waters tracks, or like the backing vox of "Not Now John." But along the way they will venture through hard prog, bluesy prog, occasionally classical, jazz, and avant, showing skill in multiple waters. Not surprising considering the backgrounds of RRR and Samadhi. Also notable are the exceptional arrangements of the performers, with each piece of the sonic puzzle very clear and easily heard---no mud, nothing lost in any "soup of sound."
There are interesting real life sound interludes, such as one sequence when we are placed in the middle of a party, with laughing and conversation all around us as violins play festively in the background. In moments like these you can feel the joy of the composers as they indulge their heart and let their hair down. My favorite track "Il fuoco" features amazing angelic vocals by Christina Cioni, in a classy and elegant piece reminiscent of the recent Delirium album. Her beautiful singing is accompanied by superb melodic acoustic guitar leads, which continue with a classical feel in the opening of the next track. We have some of that fun Italian prog madness at the end of "La Mente" with outrageous wailing saxes doing battle with barking dogs. There is another section with a very Tullish sounding flute solo, while other parts range from the very mellow and introspective to the fiery and funky. A well rounded album which perhaps could be accused of trying to put too many ingredients in one dish, but I'm sure that some of these ideas have been percolating for years and restraint/minimalist considerations were not among the goals of the project. Thank goodness for that, as musical extroversion is usually put to great effect by RPI bands!
"Il Pittore Volante" offers great variety, superb musicianship, and gorgeous packaging/artwork. This is one of the most interesting releases of 2010 and should make some end of year lists.

Jim

Another imaginative italian return
After the return of Delirium in 2009, I'm pleased to see the return of another remarkable italian band - Raccomandata Ricevuta Ritorno. I'm new to Delirim as well as I'm new to Raccomandata Ricevuta Ritorno, so the newest albums are my only touch to these creative bands. I'm absolutely agree with Finnforest, that it's pure art. This is the face of pure art without any commercial aspirations.
Il Pittore Volante contains a lot of beautiful paintings outside art cover and a lot of beautiful tunes inside the sound. Typical for italian band... It's full of melancholic feelings and imagination. In my opinion, that's the reason why italians are the best musicians - imagination, the attitude to the art as whole.
The songwriting is exceptional and very original; the musicianship is full of surprises and masterful experimental decisions. The music continues the modern tradition of old italian progressive rock bands to produce strongly jazz fusion influenced albums. The variety of the instruments is also impressive. There are violin, flute, different register of keyboards and another wonderful instruments. And the combination between all of them is very well constructed.
As a conclusion: thrilling and beautiful art rock experience without weak song.

Atanas Dimov

In 2008 Raccomandata con Ricevuta di Ritorno, one of the many one shot bands of the Italian progressive scene of the early seventies, came to life again on the initiative of singer and guitarist Luciano Regoli and in 2010 they released a new album on the independent label BTF, "Il pittore volante" (The flying painter). Along with Luciano Regoli the line up on this work features the veterans Roberto Gardin (bass, guitar), Nanni Civitenga (bass, guitar, keyboards), Walter Martino (drums) and some prestigious guest musicians like Claudio Simonetti, Fabio Pignatelli, Lino Vairetti, Nicola Di Staso, Maurizio Pariotti and Carl Verheyen just to name a few. Anyway "Il pittore volante" is mainly the brainchild of Luciano Regoli who wrote music and lyrics and conceived it as a concept album inspired by a book with the same title, a kind of travelogue that he wrote and published some years ago and that he dedicated to the late Iginio Gonni, a painter and a friend, dead in 2003. The basic idea was that of an old painter who flies and look at his life from above. On the booklet you can find not only the lyrics but also a picture for every piece painted by Luciano Regoli himself. As for the music, the overall sound is not stuck in the seventies and on this work you can perceive even metal influences along with a more typical Italian progressive style. Well, during the nineties Luciano Regoli had been a member of the prog metal band DGM and he don't disown this experience...
The opener "Il cambiamento" (The changing) tells of a spiritual metamorphosis. It starts softly with a mystical atmosphere, then hard guitar riffs and harmonica introduce the changing... "It happened in those days / Something revolted inside me / Fast as a blizzard... Alone in that room I fell asleep / Dark dreams / Alone in that room I woke up in discomfort... Ah! I was changing and I didn't want it / But I was coming to life again / Yes! I was coming to life again...".
"Il vecchio" (The old man) begins with a piano solo introduction. It's a tense and melancholic track depicting the meeting with an old friend who has just had a stroke... "They had cut off his hair / That old madman was trudging up the hill / Marked by the paralysis that had darkened his mind, his limbs, his fingers / I remember him just a few months before / Enormous, disdainful, with a magnificent beard...They had cut off his hair".
"Il fuoco" (The fire) features a duet with sweet and dreamy female vocals and an ethereal and suggestive nocturnal atmosphere. Lyrics and music depict fire as a metaphor of fear in front of a natural impending event, a fire burning false fairy tales, pains, fears, desires and thoughts... "The night was over there, in front of me / Some rocks were burning / Above me gentle wings were flying away / They were flying high, they moved the air with a deaf noise / So I followed them, with the light behind my shoulders / Towards dark clouds...".
"Eagle Mountain" is a long and complex track that tells about a journey through the desert in North America. A good acoustic guitar intro by Nicola Di Staso (former member of Libra and in the line up of Daemonia) leads to new horizons and spectacular panoramas where two friends enjoy the quiet and strange atmosphere of the desert until, in the middle of a magnificent and silent landscape, they find an old truck. There's a sudden change of mood. The truck stands still but the engine is running, the driver is naked and... dead! "He let us staring at him while the night was falling in us / They day after in a café people were whispering about him / But the air was clear / We went out / I switched the engine on...".
"La mente" (The mind) features a dark and nervous mood. It's a kind of dive into madness and lyrics draw images that seem coming out from a Stephen King's novel. An enormous wasp trying to enter the room, an agoraphobic scene in the subway... "My God! What is happening to me? I'm alone, with my only enemy / I'm alone, with my ego...".
"L'uomo nuovo" (The new man) is another beautiful track. It features the arrangement by Claudio Simonetti and it seems conceived as a thriller score. It is about fear, the fear that a man has to overcome to reach knowledge. "At the beginning of the tunnel, under the subway / That noise of water running, under the subway tunnel / I paid attention but I couldn't understand the origin of that noise...".
"Le anime" (The souls) features a slow pace and a haunting mood. It depicts a nocturnal landscape. It's midnight on Elba Island and while the protagonist walks back home along a narrow street he can see the people that used to live there when he was a child and that now are nothing but shadows. "They can't see me / But I recognize them all...".
"Raoul" is settled in Paris. It's a complex piece that starts as a strange mix of hard rock and Italian melody (a peculiar blend between Aerosmith and Quartetto Cetra I dear say), then rhythm calms down and the atmosphere becomes dramatic. Music and lyrics depict a drunken clochard who's sleeping under a cardboard... "What made him still appear like a man was just a name / That name tattooed on his wrist / Only that name, Raoul...".
"La spiaggia" (The beach) is settled in Portugal. It's an amazing short ballad featuring a swirling flute and a vocal style that could remind of the Italian minstrel Angelo Branduardi. It tells of a strange meeting on a solitary beach on the Atlantic Ocean with a threatening sea that seemed like dog on the chain, desperately barking because it couldn't go any further, blocked by the high cliffs... "I felt like I couldn't breath on the beach / The rocks behind me and the thundering sea in front of me / All night long with that deaf noise...". A good finale for an excellent album, one of the best releases of 2010 so far.
By the way, a special box set edition containing the album and the book was released for collectors and die hard fans. You can read the book (in Italian) also on the official website of the artist.

Andrea Parentin

Nearly 40 years passed between the recording of the bands debut album, the subsequent split- up, and the release of this, their second album. From reading reviews of those more familiar with the classic era of this sub-genre then myself, I get the impression that the music has changed quite a bit in this time.
This is to be expected, of course, and not just because of the passage of time or some changes to the bands lineup. This album was conceived by Luciano Regoli, who also handles the vocal and guitar duties on this album, as a companion to several of the paintings that he had done. My copy of the album (the mini-LP version) comes with a booklet that includes small images of the paintings, which is quite nice.
The music on this album includes some of the heaviest stuff I have heard in the RPI sub-genre thus far, especially the hard-rocking opener track (Il Cambiamento) which includes the use of a harmonica - a great sounding track! Luciano's singing really makes a great first impression, he just straddles the line where dramatic crosses over to cheesy, giving the music a lot of intensity.
Of course, the music on this album features more than just hard-rock sounding music, with jazzy interludes (Il Vecchio), great acoustic lines (the opening of Eagle Mountain), and even some great female vocals. This variety gives the album a lot of life.
Ultimately, it is these elements - the variety, the great vocals, and a healthy dose of melody, that really make this album an enjoyable listen from start to finish for me. It's obvious that many of these Italian bands coming back after so many years are doing so purely because they have something they want to say, not out of a desire for money, and as the listener, we reap the benefits of their passion.

Stephen

Could this be an Italian Pink Floyd ? Or more precisly an Italian Roger Water ? The use of choirs, voice intonation and piano are strongly reminescent of Pink Floyd The Wall, notably the "In The Flesh" and "Hey You" titles. Other tracks take it from David Gilmour solos à la "Confortably Numbs". Even the drum track is somehow reminescent of Nick Mason's way. Then texts and accent is clearly Italian, melody bends toward latin music a few times. "Eagle Mountain" starts with a solo acoustic guitare in a very classical tone. I must say that I prefer this blend to most of core Progressive Rock Italiano, probably because I started my musical initiation with pure English prog rock.

Franp

Gente, disfrútenlo, maravillense, sorpréndanse, y entonces vuelvan a disfrutarlo.

Lista de Temas:
1. Il Cambiamento
2. Il Vecchio
3. Il Fuoco
4. Eagle Mountain
5. La Mente
6. L'Uomo Nuovo
7. Le Anime
8. Raoul
9. La Spiaggia

Alineación:
- Luciano Regoli / vocals and guitar
- Nanni Civitenga / guitar
- Roberto Gardin / bass
- Walter Martino / drums
Guests:
Claudio Simonetti
Lino Vairetti
Nicola di Staso
Carl Verheyen