The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner – Chapter One (AMS 208CD, 2012)
Hostsonaten is one of the numerous projects that hard working Italian progressive rock musician and composer Fabio Zuffanti is involved in. The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner is a concept album with vocals and narrations in English. This is symphonic progressive rock at its best, with an epic feel and a combination of influences from the British and Italian progressive rock classics as well as some Celtic music elements.
The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner is a poem by English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, published in 1798. It is the story of a long sea voyage, full of incidents and a curse. Hostsonaten takes this drama and sets it to progressive rock music. The album opens with an instrumental piece, where glorious mellotron and electric guitars interact with flutes and violin.
The next parts of the album are lengthy epics with passionate vocals, with that charming Italian accent that brings memories of Premiata Forneria Marconi. You will find lots of mellotron, creative bass lines, violin, flute, and excellent guitar work throughout the album. Hostsonaten moves easily from fiery epics to slow tempo magical moments.
The band on The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner – Chapter One includes Fabio Zuffanti on bass guitar, Moog Taurus bass pedals; Luca Scherani on mellotron, Mini-Moog & Korg Sigma synthesizers, Hammond organ, grand piano, Fender Rhodes & Wurlitzer electric pianos, accordion, mandolin; Maurizio Di Tollo on drums; Matteo Nahum on lead guitar, acoustic & classical guitar; Silvia Trabucco on violin; Joanne Roan on flute; and Edmondo Romano on bagpipe, soprano sax, percussion, bodhran, recorders.
Guests include Alessandro Corvaglia, lead vocals on Parts I & IV; Carlo Carnevali, recitations and vocals on Part I; Davide Merletto, lead vocals on Part II; Marco Dogliotti, lead vocals on Part III; and Simona Angilioni, lead vocals on Part IV.
Hostsonaten was founded in the late 1990s by bassist and composer Fabio Zuffanti. He was one of the founders of Italian progressive rock band Finisterre and wanted to start an ‘open group’ to develop some of his new projects. He named the band after a very famous movie by Ingmar Bergman.
By open, Zufanti meant a band where everything except Zufanti could change. Hostsonaten symbolizes Fabio’s genuine love for progressive rock, jazz, folk and world music. Some of Hostsonaten albums are part of the ‘Seasoncycle Suite’ project, an ambitious concept in four parts and four CDs dedicated to the four seasons.
Hostsonaten’s discography includes Höstsonaten (Mellow Records, 1996), Mirorrgames (Mellow Records, 1998), Springsong – Part IV of ‘Seasonscycle Suite (Mellow Records, 2002), Springtides – Anthology of rarities (Mellow Records, 2005), Winterthrough – Part III of ‘Seasonscycle Suite (AMS/VM2000/BTF, 2008), Autumnsymphony – Part II of ‘Seasonscycle Suite’ (AMS/VM2000/BTF, 2009), Summereve – Part I of ‘Seasonscycle Suite’ (AMS, 2011), The complete Seasonscycle Suite, 4CD + DVD available only in Japan (2011), and The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner – Chapter One (AMS, 2012)
The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner – Chapter One is an exceptionally good album by an array of top progressive rock talent from Italy.
Buy the CD from http://www.btf.it or your favorite progressive rock mail order outlet.
Buy the digital download version at Amazon.