MALIBRAN – REMASTERED COLLECTION (Maracash Records/ Bandcamp) (2025)

Malibran are Giuseppe Scaravilli - vocals, electric and acoustic guitar, flute, bass and keyboards; Giancarlo Cutuli - flute and saxophone; Jerry Litrico - electric lead guitar; Alessio Scaravilli - drums and percussion; Benny Torrisi - piano and keyboards and Angelo Messina - electric bass. Two tracks from each of their albums apart from a single excerpt from their first album “The Wood of Tales” (1990), a vinyl release are included on this compilation. ‘Trasparenze’ apparently won a Prog Award for best Italian progressive rock in 2009 and reminds me a bit of Gentle Giant. So, what else can I tell you? This is carefully crafted melodic symphonic prog of the highest calibre, full of twists and turns, light and shade (e.g. A heavy guitar break followed by pastoral flute and acoustic guitar on ‘La Città Sui Lago’., as all good prog should have. Most pieces are around 10 minutes long but, flute with guitar arpeggios and the sound of waves before a passage of play that brings Jethro Tull strongly to mind on ‘Magica Attesta’, proves they can condense their imaginative ideas into just 4 minutes. Influences are hard to pin down and I find it difficult to find much about them online. Some parts (‘I Know Your Soul’ in particular) remind me of Camel. P.F.M. are another obvious link as on the dramatic chameleon like ‘Si Dirà Di Me’ and Banco perhaps on ‘In Viaggio’ (nice synth and organ sounds and a rhythm section in full flow and another guitar solo and a surge of flute at the end- fantastique!). If you don’t know this band it is perhaps time to get acquainted.