The Samurai of Prog – The Spaghetti Epic 4 (Seacrest Oy SCR-1035, 2022)
The Samurai of Prog continue their prolific explorations of diverse topics with “The Spaghetti Epic 4”. As the album title indicates, this concept album is a tribute to Spaghetti Westerns, those iconic Italian movies filmed primarily in Almeria, Spain.
The current nucleus of the Samurai of Prog consists of Finland-based Italian bassist Marco Bernard and Finnish drummer and percussionist Kimmo Pörsti. The remaining cast of every album varies, although Bernard and Pörsti always treat the listener to an impressive array of progressive rock musicians. This is truly a sensational prog collective.
“The Spaghetti Epic 4” begins with an homage to Ennio Morricone, the most famous composers of spaghetti western soundtracks. The first track includes a mix of progressive rock and the surf guitars and trumpet that characterized the spaghetti western soundtracks. However, this is not what you will find throughout most of the album.
Most of “The Spaghetti Epic 4” falls under the category of state of the art symphonic progressive rock with a deeply Italian flavor. This is for various reasons. First, the topic is Italian movies, and then you have the material composed by several Italian musicians as well as other guests. Lastly, many of the guests on this occasion are Italian musicians. In that sense, this recording has an exquisite rock progressive Italian flavor. Indeed, some sections have a Locanda delle Fate essence.
The music is fantastic, full of memorable instrumental keyboard and guitar work, as well as the solid rhythm section.
As usual, the artwork ifs by the current master of progressive rock album design, Ed Unitsky.
The line-up includes Marco Bernard on bass; Kimmo Pörsti on drums and percussion; Tommaso Fichele on vocals; Stefano Galifi on vocals; Juhani Nisula on electric guitar; Marcel Singor on electric guitar; Rafael Pacha on keyboards, acoustic & electric guitars; Marco Grieco on keyboards, acoustic & electric guitars, sound effects; Alessandro Di Benedetti on keyboards; Mimmo Ferri on keyboards, electric guitars, dulcimer, viola braguesa; David Myers on piano; Beatrice Birardi on glockenspiel, tubular bells, custom percussion set “G. Tamborrino”; Adam Diderrich on violin; Sara Traficante on flute; and Marc Papeghin on trumpet.