Week of February 25, 2007

Corte Dei Miracoli

Personnel:
Alessio Feltri - hammond organ, electric piano, synthesizers
Riccardo Zegna - keyboards
Graziano Zippo - vocals
Gabriele Siri - bass
Flavio Scogna - drums, percussion
Michele Carlone - piano, lead vocals
Mario Alessi - bass
Alessandro Della Rocca - guitars

Album:
Corte Dei Miracoli – 1976, Grog GRL 04
CD - 1990, Seven Seas KICP 2003, Japan
CD - 1994, Vinyl Magic VM040

CD: Dimensione Onirica (archive material from 1973-74) - 1992, Mellow MMP 104

CD: Live At Lux - Mellow MMP 138

CD: Progressive Voyage (Various Artists) - Mellow MMP 164 contains more archive material

This interesting group failed to secure a recording contract at the right time in 1973-74, although demo tapes from this early period have recently been issued on CD. Their leader was the keyboard player Alessio Feltri, who composed all five tracks on “Dimensione Onirica” (1976), released on Vittorio De Scalzi's Grog-label. Vaguely modelled on Banco's symphonic rock, Corte Dei Miracoli also had a twin keyboard line-up (synthesizers, electric piano and organ being used in that priority), but with the vocalist being far easier on the ear than Banco's operatic Francesco Di Giacomo. Graziano Zippo can be compared to a softer Peter Hammill. Their complex, jazzy, punctuated rhythms featured a lot of hand-beaten percussion instruments. Along with Celeste and Locanda Delle Fate, this is one of the best albums to be released in Italy after 1975.

Taken from Scented Gardens of the Mind - A guide to the Golden Era of Progressive Rock (1968-1980) in more than 20 European Countries, by Dag Erik Asbjørnsen, Borderline Productions, ISBN 1-899855-12-2


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