Panther & C. - Il Giusto Equilibrio - 2017
“... an album of pure bliss ...”
intro
Panther & C. is an Italian band from Genova. The band is active since 2003 and after their debut album “L’Epoca Di Un Altro ...” from 2015 this “Il Giusto Equilibrio is the successor. The album was released last year by the label Black Widow Records. Interesting fact for me is that the band played together with one of my favorite Italian bands La Coscienza Di Zeno and that the band will perform on this years edition of the 2 Days Of Prog + 1 Festival in Veruno. A festival that will be visited by your progVisions reviewer. Listening to this album I am looking forward to that gig.line-up
Alessandro La Corte - keyboards; Riccardo Mazzarini - guitars; Mauro Serpe - vocals, flute; Giorgio Boleto - bass; Falco Fedele - drums
review
On “Il Giusto Equilibrio you will find the following 5 tracks; “...E Continua Ad Essere...”, “Giusto Equilibrio”, “Oric”, “Fuga Dal Lago” and “L’Occhio Del Gabbiano”. The first and third track are around the four and a half minutes but the other ones have a duration between 11:29 and 13:41 minutes. Yes this is an album full of long and diverse RPI (Rock Progressivo Italiano) compositions. The short opening track “... E Continua Ad Essere ...” has in the uptempo parts some Neo Prog influences but in the slow middle section the quality of the composition reveals itself. Beautiful melodies with tasteful flute and delicate guitar work. This continues in the opening of the first of the long tracks “Giusto Equilibrio”. But those delicious melodic parts alternate with uptempo but often melodic synthesizer and guitar solo’s. A fine combination with the warm and passionate vocals of singer Mauro Serpe who is also responsible for the tasteful flute parts on this album. Alessandro La Corte shines here with delicate and classical piano parts and impressive organ parts with an ELP flavor. With a nice electric guitar solo this beautiful RPI song comes to an end. The second short track is called “Oric”. In contrast to the short uptempo opener this is a beautiful sung ballad with lovely keyboard strings and delicate guitar work. And of course the flute can not be missed in this song ... beautiful. And this is only the first part of this fine album. “Fuga Dal Lago” is another highlight. Almost twelve minutes of great melodies and fine keyboard and flute work. Nowhere the music becomes freaky or complicated, it is all about beautiful melodies. What a lovely track this is, your reviewer is impressed. So far this is my favorite song of the album. The album closes with the song “L’Occhio Del Gabbiano”. The first part of this track has more jazz influenced guitar and bass parts. After a fine vocal section you can enjoy lovely guitar melodies and intriguing keyboard parts. Love the mysterious atmosphere of the keyboard parts in the middle section. The song is just another highlight of this fine RPI album.conclusion
I am positively surprised by this beautiful album. Alessandro La Corte is a skilled keyboard player who is playing for the compositions. Don’t expect freaky ego stuff of this man ... it is all about blissful melodies. The overall atmosphere is on the mellow side of the progressive rock spectrum. In this aspect I can understand the remark of another reviewer who mentioned the band Locanda Delle Fate in his review. But I personally find the music of Panther & C. highly original and therefore recommend this album to all the lovers of RPI and progressive rock in general. An album of pure bliss. See you in Veruno guys!