Massimo Pieretti – “A New Beginning” | Progressive Rock Central.com

A New Beginning is Massimo Pieretti’s first solo album. It was released, independently, on September 1, 2022. It is inspired, from a very delicate period of his life; and that of all of us human beings; the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus. Massimo describes it this way, “It comes at the end of a long course of study, listening and observing the social themes most dear to me. But above all from the need to shout out to the world my idea of music and more. It is a largely autobiographical concept album consisting of 15 tracks through which I tried to express my point of view on today’s society by taking a cue from my personal problems and my life experiences”.

Massimo Pieretti takes care of all aspects related to the production of A New Beginning, starting from the composition of the music to the creation of the basic tracks, to the drafting of the texts (in tandem with Gianluca del Torto).

Massimo Pieretti created the music, lyrics, keyboards, programming, backing vocals, and production; Gianluca Del Torto plays bass, rhythm guitars, and added lyrics; Ciro Afeltra, Lorenzo Cortoni, Elena D’Angelo, Daniela Del Ponte, Marco Descontus, Nikeef, Germana Noage, Kate Nord, Daniela Papale, Francesca Pelliccia, Maria Chiara Rocchegiani, and Raymond Francis Weston Jr, add vocals throughout the album; Roberto Falcinelli plays lead and rhythm guitars, and creates soundscapes; Ivan Avicolli, Gianni De Chellis, Luigi Pistillo, Mauro Rosati, play lead and rhythm guitars; Elena Laurenti plays violin; Stefano Azzolina plays viola; Gianni Pieri plays cello; Marco Orfei plays woodwinds and soprano sax; Riccardo Sandri plays Mellotron; Fabrizio Russo and Emanuele Zazzara play fretless bass; and Leonardo D’Angelo, Alessio Palizzi, and Matteo Santi, play drums and percussion.

A New Beginning was mixed and mastered by Francesco Mattei and Massimo Pieretti at Underworld Studio. Maria Serra, created the album cover art and illustrations.

A New Beginning is a musically heterogeneous album; but can be divided into three, macro areas: the most personal and autobiographical songs. (“Oh Father”, “Growing Old”, “Things to Live and to Die For” and “Family and Business”); the more experimental and related to Massimi’s passion for cinema and film music, (“Intro”, “In November”, “Is it that Girl Right?” and “Out of This World”); and finally, the trilogy of “A new Beginning”, including: Parts A and B.

Although this is a very personal album, Massimo Pieretti, welcomes you into his world with an emotional plea to learn from the experiences he describes. The album is full of good listening music, with a progressive theme, but not overly conceptualized. I think it is Massimo’s intention to share his world with you, through song. The album mixes multiple genres and themes to help express the feelings and knowledge gained, from examples or experiences from Massimo Pieretti’s life.

He opens the album with a tribute of his love for his father, “Oh Father”.

He plays soft music, surrounding the “Final Great Speech for Humanity, from one of the greatest films of Charlie Chaplin; the ode to the tyranny and oppression of fascism, The Great Dictator.

“Things to Live and Die For’, almost has a bluesy feel to it.

“Family and Business”, has a more straight ahead rock sound to it. It includes a kinda rap, spoken word, section to it.

“A New Beginning”, is a big conceptual, epic progressive rock voyage for Massimo Pieretti, providing the correct advice, “We must look for our best”. We should always try to perform at our best. Sharing and caring for each other in the best way possible. Words, we can all live by, I also hope. Choose love over hate, as the Beatles said so long ago. Or as Massimo Pieretti says, “It is the only way we can be!”

Overall, this is a wonderful album, full of love and emotional pleas to change the world, and get us back on track towards saving it. Starting from a point of preservation and enriching, instead of decay or destruction of its people or qualities. I really enjoyed the hopeful message, gained from the experience of Massimo Pieretti’s life. After all, what else do we have to share in life, but our knowledge learned from our life experiences and wisdom, accumulated over time. We should all be willing to share it with the world, with the hope and aim of saving the world and its people. Thank you, Massimo Pieretti, for your contribution to this goal and strategy!

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