Alan Soretti Aria Clear Green Vinyl Edition

Few records were able to break through a music scene as “Aria” by Alan
Sorrenti. It was 1972, Progressive Rock was at its peak, and basically out of
nowhere appeared, as a lightning from a blue sky – on EMI / Harvest record
label among other things – Alan Sorrenti, a half-Welsh artist heading from
Naples. Parsons Project, from Naples but half Welsh, from the mother. This
is a debut album at the same level of Banco's eponymous LP, P.F.M.'s
"Storia di un minuto" or Area's "Arbeit Macht Frei".
The album, it must be said, is not too much accessible for everyone, due in
particular to the 20-minute long suite that occupies the entire first side: it
sounds like a stream of consciousness transposed into music, with a high
dose of improvisation, especially as it regards Sorrenti’s voice. When you
start at the highest levels is difficult to keep on the same, and in fact Alan
would never be able to reach the same incredible heights of this LP, today
considered a masterpiece of Italian prog, and at the time of its release,
perhaps with astonishment by the same artist, incensed by critics and
consequently by the public. Sorrenti was among the first ones to use the
voice as an instrument, even before Demetrio Stratos in the aforementioned
Area; he was also one of the few solo artists to excel in a world, that of the
progressive rock, almost exclusively reserved to bands. Among the various
guests, the most famous is undoubtedly the French Jean-Luc Ponty, whose
contribution on violin embellishes this record’s title-track.
This reissue is identical to the original 1972 one in its artwork, and makes
available again in LP format an album that, despite its popularity, is very
difficult to find even in the most recent reprints. A welcome return, another
'must-have' for Italian prog listeners!