Mangala Vallis is an Italian rock band formed in 1998 conceived by Gigi Cavalli Cocchi (drums and percussion), Mirco Consolini (guitar and bass) and Enzo Cattini (keyboards). The band’s name is a canyon on Mars, which appears in the novel Sphere by Micheal Crichton.
The band’s primary genre is progressive rock, influenced by other kinds of music coming from the background of the musicians´ past artistic experiences. Major elements of their production are the care and the quest of the best sounds and nuances.
On February 8, 2002, their first CD was released, “The Book of Dreams”, a concept album inspired by the fantastic adventures created by the great French writer Jules Verne. The album featured special guest Bernardo Lanzetti (former vocalist of Acqua Fragile and PFM).
During the following two years Mangala Vallis played at major progressive rock festivals in Belgium, Germany and Holland.
“Lycanthrope” was the band’s second album, released in November 2005. By then, Bernardo Lanzetti had become Mangala Vallis‘ official vocalist and lyricist. David Jackson, former saxophone player with Van Der Graaf Generator, was the special guest on this concept album inspired by the modern human being, who is confused and struggling between the modern society’s constraints and his own instinctive nature.
The third album came out in 2012, titled “Microsolco”, yet another concept album, essentially a follow-up of the previous album. On this CD, Mangala Vallis’ songs describe the fast pace of modern times and the idea of returning to a quieter and more natural dimension. It referred to what happened on December 21, 2012, and the theory that it was going to be humanity’s last day. Actually, in “Microsolco” there is ´the end of a certain kind of world´ when a hacker, on that exact day, infects the whole internet with a virus capable of destroying all the digital memories of the planet. This act will force everybody into thinking deeply about life and lost values, and make people retrieve ways of life lost in time. Fundamentally, a reconciliation between Mankind and Mother Earth.
In 2018, the band started to work on the new project called “Voices” which was released at the beginning of 2020. Yet again, “Voices” follows the path of its predecessor. This is because every creation by the band is the result of an ever-changing journey, accelerated, mostly, by the events that occur inside the same band. What happened was that the veteran band members Cavalli Cocchi, Consolini, Milazzo and Tiranti were joined by an old friend of the band, Gianfranco Fornaciari, as a keyboard player and songwriter.
The common thread of the songs on “Voices” is represented by the voices we hear from our deepest inner self, coming from our head, our heart, or our soul. These are voices that become louder and louder, and that need, as time goes by, the urge of coming out: to scream!! Voices that increase, little by little, their intensity, because the positive aspect of aging is that we understand better who we are and what we want. The time has come to say stop compromising and no more suffocating our real personality. The album’s cover represents this concept: we are that planet, and those speakers represent our Voice exploding with all its self-consciousness towards the rest of the world.
The lineup on 2020 included Roberto Tiranti on vocals; Gigi Cavalli Cocchi on drums and percussion; Mirco Consolini on electric and acoustic guitars, bass guitar, vocals; Niky Milazzo on electric guitar, and Gianfranco Fornaciari on keyboards and vocals.
Discography:
The Book Of Dreams (Tamburo A Vapore, 2002)
Lycanthrope (Ma.Ra.Cash Records/Tamburo A Vapore, 2005)
Microsolco (Ma.Ra.Cash Records/Distilleria Music Factory, 2012)
Voices (Ma.Ra.Cash Records, 2020)