Italian Progressive Rock Band La Maschera Di Cera Releases New Album

Progressive rock band La Maschera Di Cera has a new album titled Le porte del domani that is now available. For this project, the band decided to write the continuation of the “Felona and Sorona” concept, the album by legendary Italian band Le Orme that originally came out in 1973). “Felona and Sorona” is unanimously considered a masterpiece in the international progressive rock scene.

“Le Porte del Domani” (The Gates of Tomorrow) contains a 45-minute suite in nine parts. The cover artwork was made by Lanfranco, the same artist who made the original “Felona and Sorona” painting and who kindly gave the band the permission to use his 1968 opus “Gli Amanti del Sogno” (The Dream’s Lovers).

The album comes in several versions. There is an Italian-language CD edition called Le porte del domani, an English-language CD titled The Gates of Tomorrow with a slightly different mix and the LP version of Le porte del domani, and as a special box containing a lithography on plexiglass of Lanfranco’s cover painting.

La Maschera Di Cera was founded in 2001 when bassist Fabio Zuffanti (who performed with Finisterre and a lot of other projects) decided to form a group that would recreate the glorious tradition of the Italian progressive sound of the 1970s.

Zuffanti was joined by fellow Finisterre musicians Agostino Macor (keyboards) and Marco Cavani (drums), along with vocalist Alessandro Corvaglia (who plays the role of Merlin in the “Merlin” rock opera) and flute player Anrea Monetti (Alhambra, Ku, Embryo).

Zuffanti and Macor worked together on the music of the “La Maschera Di Cera” suite (the first song composed by Zuffanti in 1991) and three other songs that would form the concept of the first record. In May 2002, “La Maschera Di Cera” was released on Mellow Records and became a great success.

Their second album “Il Grande Labirinto” was released in March, 2003, also on Mellow records, and continued the refinement of the band’s sound. In April, Maurizio Di Tollo took over drums.

The band later signed with the Immaginifica label, directed by PFM’s drummer Franz Di Cioccio. Their performance at the “Spirit Of 66 Of Verviers” festival in Belgium came out in 2004 as their first live album, included as part of the DVD release “Gouveia Art Rock 2003,” a concert film of a performance from Portugal.

In March, 2005, La Maschera Di Cera began recording their third studio album, produced by Franz Di Cioccio. “LuxAde,” was released in March, 2006, on Immaginifica Records. In 2009 Matteo Nahum joined the band as guitar player. Their album Petali Di Fuoco was released in 2010 on the Aeeostella/Edel label.

The recordings are available at www.btf.it.