Garybaldi "Astrolabio" 1973 second album Italy Prog Rock
The second album under the Garybaldi name (but the third overall from the group) is maybe their best, but be prepared for a very short track list as only two of them lasting each their own vinyl side. With this album, they only confirm the direction they had taken with the sidelong suite from their debut album. Rumours has it that keyboardist Lio Marchi played on this as a session man - he does not get any writing credits, although he is very present.
Mother Of Lost Causes starts off as a very spacey-sounding exploration, but soon develops superbly what they had promised with the Moretto Da Brescia pinnacle of Nuda. Simply superb double-tracked guitar wailing somehow reminding more of Robin Trower (another Hendrix-ey connection) and very abruptly ended by an almost sonar- echoed repeating key that is reminiscent of a great Argent track. Astounding stuff, you proheads!!! In Italy only Flea (with their Topi O Uomini album) approaches such a complete feast of guitars at the time.
The second track is recorded live and is kick-arse rock'n roll (sometimes sounding a bit like Hendrix's Voodoo Chile played by Trower) and some wild KB-guitars (Purple-like) call and response. This track is not quite as proggy as the previous one, but shows another facet (improvising) of the group. Pity these guys stopped so soon, even if Fossatti will make further records.
Easily their better album, this lengthy solo feast is never over-indulgent or gratuitous heroics and in its genre is a textbook example of its own....by...by Sean Trane .....~
One more unusual but pleasant Italian Progressive album from 70-th. It includes only two compositions ( one on each LP side), so is very short.
First song is dreamy melodic composition musically in traditional RPI style of that time. Only the big difference are in instruments: whenever keyboards presents and plays important role, music in total are guitar driven. In comparence with previous album, guitar sound is softer and warmer, more rounded, far from heavy Hendrix sound. Composition by itself is very nice, one of band's very best.
The second song ( or side B of original LP) is very different. It's another long composition, but recorded live in small studio with small team of listeners. And in fact it's pure Hendrix-oriented psychodelic bluesy song. No prog elements there at all.
In total, the album is short, but leaves it's traces in your head and your heart. Quite unusual guitar-hero oriented music for Italian bands of period. But songs are melodic, sound openly and catch you with their warm melodism....by snobb ....~
I quite liked their first two albums (each one rated with three stars), if you would accept that "Gleeman and Garybaldi was a one and only band.
This one starts with a more keyboards approach and deep psychedelic texture. Some sort of very early Floydean impression combined with a definite Italian flavour. Quite well achieved to tell the truth. Poetic (I'm referring to the music, since I don't grab too much of the Italian language), and full of harmony.
The true prog feel has never been as deep than during this epic, and the usual and great "Hendrix" feel enters the scene somewhere at half-time. I have to admit though that this portion is not my fave one: it doesn't reach the ankle of the master for a good while, but then finally "Bambi Fossatti" shines as he did in the previous albums: a good (but not great) guitar moment.
Still, what prevails globally on this epic are the keys. Some excellent (but short) mellotron lines are wonderfully sustaining the fine guitar work during the excellent closing part.
The second and epic track was recorded live and has little to share with its first counterpart. "Sette" is fully "Hendrix" oriented even if during brief moments, keyboards are surging (but this was a standard for the band).
This track is heavy and bluesy and features a lot of guitar maestria of course. Like Hughes mentioned, there are some fine call and response between keys and guitar (while both Led Zep and Purple were doing this on a vocal / guitar base). This live performance holds a lot of improvisations and can definitely be considered as a tribute to the great man. But IMHHO it lacks of truly great moments.
Three stars for this good album.....by ZowieZiggy .....~
In my opinion this is a huge improvement over "Nuda" the debut.Those Jimi Hendrix hero worship moments in the vocals and guitar work are not so obvious here, in fact they're all but gone. Bambi Fossatti the guitarist is such an amazing player he really doesn't need to imitate anyone. I really like the fact that this album consists of two over 20 minute suites, it gives Bambi and the band lots of time to stretch out and experiment.
"Madre Di Cose Perdute" opens with the sounds of birds as relaxed guitar sounds come and go.Drums and organ 2 minutes in, reserved vocals 2 1/2 minutes. A change after 7 minutes as it builds quickly and becomes fuller sounding. Nice. The guitar is soloing beautifully as the bass throbs and the drums beat. A calm before 10 minutes with guitar expressions.The beat is back 12 1/2 minutes in as the guitar continues. An earlier theme returns 15 1/2 minutes in and the guitar is fantastico ! The theme ends 19 minutes in as we get some laid back organ with bass to the end.
"Sette?" is actually a live track. We hear it introduced then this excellent bass line comes in with guitar and drums in tow. It kicks in at 1 1/2 minutes.The organ dominates after 2 minutes. It's the guitar's turn before 4 minutes to lead. Vocals before 5 minutes. Love the guitar here. Check out the guitar / organ interplay before 8 minutes. Vocals are back 9 minutes in but he's pretty much speaking the words. His guitar is talking too. It picks up before 12 minutes with singing. A calm a minute later then the guitar starts to solo. Incredible performance here. A change 16 minutes in as the organ takes over. The guitar is back after 18 minutes. A huge applause ends it.
A solid 4 star album.....by Mellotron Storm ....~
Garybaldi belonged among the popular Rock bands in early-70's, performing regularly at the most famous Italian open festivals and supporting acts such as Uriah Heep, Van Der Graaf Generator and Santana on their Italian tours.Prior to the recordings of a second album Lio Marchi and Angelo Traverso left Garybaldi, who were reduced to a trio with the addition of Sandro Serra on bass only.However the new album features Marchi as a guest musician on keyboards.For ''Astrolabio'' the band signed a contract with Fonit, which released the album in 1973.
This one contains two sidelong pieces only for a total time of 43 minutes, the opening one was recorded in studio and the second one was taped live.Both are good examples of guitar-oriented Psychedelic/Prog Rock with Fossati's guitar in evidence.Not technically explicit, both long tracks are based on atmospheric soundscapes, intense singing and Fossati's stretched guitar solos with a pretty old-fashioned sound and many moments with a quite loose playing.Some vocal melodies in here have a bit of a poppier tendency similar to 60's stylings, but the majority goes straight into jamming guitar fists, low-tempo groovy lines and some more fiery textures with Fossati's impressive solos in a HENDRIX style.The presence of Lio Marchi is responsible for some of the tunes close to Classic Italian Prog, coloring the sound with beautiful symphonic images or just supporting in the background with his Hammond organ.''Madre di cose perdute'' is propably the best of the two pieces, pretty solid effort with Fossati's displaying a wide variety of moods with both attacking riff scratching and melodic solos and Marchi's work being exetremely balanced.The live-recorded ''Sette?'' is even more guitar-oriented, tending to improvised performances, with ovestretched soloing and a less balanced sound overall.Still some of Fossati's most complex executions appear in this track.
Garybaldi officially folded in 1973, giving rise to a new Fossati project in 1974, Bambibanda e Melodie, which had a more jazzy but still charming style.Garybaldi were brought again out of dust by Fossati in late 80's, releasing two more albums, ''Blokko 45'' and ''La ragione e il torto'', both having a limited interest for Prog fans.An archival release, the 2010 LP ''Note Perdute'', containing some previously unreleased material, seems like a nice document, and in 2011 comes the release of ''Live in Bloom'', an interesting live album.
''Astrolabio'' marks the second and last official album of Garybaldi from the 70's.The opening piece tops up any previous or future piece recorded by the band, while ''Sette?" is rather uneven, abstract and less convincing, still some of Fossati's best guitar lines are included in here.Recommended overall....by apps79 ...~
Side one is among the best music to come out of 70s Italy, though it doesn't sound like anything else from that country. It's closest in spirit to krautrock - a long, somewhat minimal, (mostly) instrumental piece with an alienated feel, that's repeatedly punctured by one of the most rousing guitar riffs I've ever heard. And it's got great stereo separation, almost like Conny Plank was on the mixing desk. What a track!
But then we have the totally lame B-side, a "live in studio" recording that sounds like it wants to be New Trolls. Why?
I think I'm going to glue my two Garybaldi albums together - the A-Side of Astrolabio with the B-Side of Nuda. Now that would be a perfect album.....Phallus_Dei ....~
Astrolabio was Garybaldi's second LP and it includes two very lengthy songs. The A-side track "Madre Di Cose Perdute" is a studio song while the B-side song "Sette?" is a live recording. Both of the songs include some tremendous guitar jamming which I enjoy a lot. The first song starts off a bit loose but it turns out to be a killer song. The live track is very solid too but it would be better without the mediocre vocals.
I'm gonna rate this second Garybaldi album with four stars. It's less progressive but more jam band oriented than their debut. Astrolabio deserves a listen in case you like long psychedelic guitar jams. This is a strong record but I still dig their debut a bit more.....CooperBolan....~
After tumbling the sensual curves of a naked body where a handful of little men, like the story of Gulliver, came to sink into the wet walls of a cave still untouched by any foreign presence, the Garybaldi turn henceforth their gaze towards the stars and begin to dream of an elsewhere, of another possible. However, from the first seconds of "Madre di Cose Perdute", we feel that the group did not consider it necessary to fundamentally question. Whose fault, ultimately, if Bambi Fossati is a talented guitarist? We will not muzzle him, he who embodies the main asset of this training, all this to avoid offending some sensibilities ... And then, those who quibble will soon realize that his faithful companions, Sandro Serra and Maurizo Cassinelli, have neither the verve nor the intuitive qualities of Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell. So, instead of aiming at us, we can concentrate so much because we are facing a big chunk; aspiring space rock without really being ... Twenty minutes to slip, twenty minutes of guitar solii sequences perfectly negotiated, but do not hide the factitious nature of a sometimes painstaking studio editing between different themes that the gins cotton. Lio Marchi, still present although officially not already part of the group, comes to give, through its layers of mellotron, a little side Moody Blues not disgusting, transforming this unlikely collision of dissimilar universes if not interesting in any very curious case. And we are surprised to find that these twenty minutes have finally passed quickly enough. But, like a famous commercial, the hair does not even have time to retract that already, the second blade comes to mow it; "Sette?", Another kilometer title ending on "Brother Jacques" (!), And this time captured in concert, conveys a feeling definitely close to a Band of Gypsys or a Ten Years After. You are warned. conveys a feeling definitely close to a Band of Gypsys or a Ten Years After. You are warned. conveys a feeling definitely close to a Band of Gypsys or a Ten Years After. You are warned.......~
With a cryptic blue cover (certainly less expressive than the previous one, designed by Guido Crepax) and two long tracks, one on each side (speaking of LP), the Garybaldi publish in the lucky year 1973 (the one of "Dark side of the moon" of Pink Floyd and "Larks' Tongues in Aspic" by King Crimson , so to speak) their fascinating and inspired album " Astrolabe ". Two long suites, as often happened for bands of the progressive and psychedelic scene, starting with the cosmic Ash Ra Tempel (which in the same year published their excellent "Join Inn"), with which the leading guitarist Bambi Fossati (class 1949) presents to the public a curated and musically dynamic work.
The line-up is therefore composed by Bambi Fossati on guitar and vocals, Sandro Serra on bass and vocals, Maurizio Cassinelli on drums and vocals and, for the occasion, Lio Marchi on keyboards. Produced by Maurizio Salvadori, " Astrolabio " stands out from " Nuda " for a main reason: while in the well known and appreciated album of 1972 the band had created a completely progressive opera, in their personal style, in " Astrolabio " the Genoese Fossatiit allows spaces more suited to improvisation with fluid, dilated and involving compositional structures, expressly aimed at a more vibrant and vaguely hendrixian style. The greatest value of this album, in fact, is the undisputed skill on the instrument that Bambi Fossati demonstrates with extreme naturalness and energy, a real gem of reference for every guitarist.
The first song, " Mother of lost things ", begins with the bucolic sounds of birds (" Floyd " style of Pink Floyd ) and simple and suggestive guitar notes, perfect to introduce one of the most beautiful and evocative lyrics that have been composed in that period: oneiric journeys, candid runners in a timeless dimension, distant islands, ethereal seagulls, nights of enchantment and visions from which one does not want to wake up. In its relative brevity, the text stands out for its effectiveness and creativity in a sublime poetic invocation wisely in symbiosis with the music in which it is interpenetrated. Mellotron, drums, bass and guitar, all graceful and sumptuous at the same time, follow the quiet singing embroidering appropriate soundscapes, while Fossatiadds fast guitar passages between one verse as if they were wings that suddenly slam into their aerial movement. The solo part of the guitar in its central section is decidedly agile and powerful, before ending, after a total of twenty minutes, in relaxed and nuanced cadences.
" Seven? "Appears immediately for what it is: 100% pure music straddling freak'n'rock and hendrixian rockblues, supported by a solid and captivating arrangement. Recorded on-stage , the song - basically anarchoid in the texts - speaks of the 'system' (as the singer himself points out at the beginning) and represents a sound bomb in which Bambi Fossati offers the best of himself in solos and shivering passages, technically masterful, able to capture the listener and immerse him in a lively composition that recalls in the sound the glories of the " Taste " by Rory Gallagher, as well as the glorious moments of the historical festivals, from Woodstock to the Isle of Wight.
Undeniably intriguing the bass part that is an introduction to the piece and supports the skeleton in its entire duration, together with the brilliant touches of drums that stand out in perfect rhythmic synchrony, until reaching a sequence of organ and keyboards, in last part, exquisitely progressive in the modulations, and then conclude with this (after just over 21 minutes total) before the short final applauses.....BY FABIO TRUPPI.....~
Bambi Fossati
We Italians also had our little Hendrix.
And they all came from Genoa.
One was Nico Di Palo, the visionary and acid guitar of the New Trolls premieres; the other was Pier Niccolò "Bambi" Fossati, the dreamer of Garybaldi, one of the best Italian rock bands of all time.
I do not know, in the water of my city, between the Sixties and Seventies, there must have been something special and the rockers' generation was succeeded by the rockers: extraordinary bands like the Delirium were born in a very lively musical laboratory (with another Fossati, Ivano), the New Idea, the Osage Tribe, the Duel Mother, the Milk and honey, the future Matia Bazar that were then called Jet ... there were excitement and ideas and above all great freedom. And truly the freest, the most magically hippie of them all, was Bambi, named for his love of nature and the poetic habit of getting lost in the woods above Tiglieto.
When I met him, it was a meeting that filled my heart, because Bambi, generous and poor in cane, very kind and politically angry, is an innocent and talented person, who really played disinterested. Music, for him, was not made for money, career or personal affirmation, but to pursue a dream of sharing, peace and freedom.
And this naive and sincere vision of life, Bambi paid for it, remaining a wonderful secret for many fans but not for the general public.
But let's go in order; therefore: for nine years I edited a column called "Hard Rock Cafone" on the monthly Rolling Stone. I had permission to shoot in a large hunting reserve: the rock of the seventies and the surrounding area, starting from hard rock and digressing cheerfully. And among the first whims that I took away one was telling the story of Fossati, in fact.
In 1992 I played in a group of rock blues and I happened to try in a cube of reinforced concrete that was just above the cemetery of Genoa, Staglieno, a location more suited to death burial deaths than to my ignorant unacknowledged on Eko.
Unlike my companions, I was like a few dogs and I often left the filthy practice room to smoke a cigarette. The cubotto was a kind of multi-storey silo; we went there late at night, so I never found out what it really was, originally, but from a lower level nothing soundproofed came heavenly notes: with a certain reverence they told me that it was Bambi who tried, "an underground glory of the seventies ", and I had never found the courage to introduce myself to know him and maybe, through the laying on of hands, receive some of his instrumental expertise.
After fifteen years I recovered his phone number and called him. He replied, incredulous that someone wanted to interview him ("But Rolling Stone, that? But are you really sure?"), And I managed to organize a meeting. He lived above the railway station of Brignole and to reach his house he had to do several hundred steps uphill, a task that would have been well repaid. In fact, Bambi, after giving a guitar lesson, welcomed me and told me his story, that of a boy in love with music.
Genovese thoroughbred with a marked accent, hair gathered in a tail, the cigarette always lit, Bambi identifies a precise turning point in his life: May 23, 1968, when Jimi Hendrix plays at the Piper in Milan. He learned about the small Italian tour (Milan, Bologna and Rome) reading about a Melody Maker bought at the newsstand at the Principe station. Together with the classmate and adventures Ronzani takes his brother's beetle ("Come Thelma and Louise ... and neither of us had a driving license!") And faces night and fog to see the concert. Which is a shock: "It seemed like a spaceship had landed ... Jimi was an alien!"; and with a little satisfaction: "After the performance, behind the scenes I was given one of his cigarettes, a Philip Morris without a filter that I still have, all tattered ...".Lady Madonna - arrives at the debut album with the album of the same name, a record that transcends the beat painting psychedelic frescoes, touching the hard as at the time only the Trip had dared, and giving us the first complete Italian electric blues, Chi sei tu, uomo. , man .
Then you decide to make a change: the group changes its name and with the single Marta Helmuth the Gleemen become Garybaldi, the sounds harden (between Hendrix and Deep Purple by Mandrake Root ) and the first complaints arrive: the song tells of a witch burned by the Inquisition and Rai does not like it. Then the album that delivers the Garybaldi to history, the dazzling Nuda (1972) that is embellished by the most beautiful cover of Italian rock, a triple gatefold with a Valentina as the title , designed by Guido Crepax: simply spectacular.
The record is beautiful and fresh and between suites, hendrixian waste, improvisations and progressive experiments (in the best sense of the term, the authentic one and the era) remains one of the most valid documents of that season. Bambi is not a particularly technical guitarist (even if he lends the skin to many youngsters of today who pulverize meaningless scale), but has an impressive feeling and his soundin Italy it has no equal. It's the season of big pop gatherings and Garybaldi are always there; open for the Van Der Graaf Generator, the Santana and also the Bee Gees (!) and play everywhere, many times alongside the Area friends. The imperative of those years is fully embraced by Bambi: "Be original and unique, first of all!". And then share, music and the world view: "I was a hipster, a hippie with a political tendency, clearly on the left ... to talk about it today is strange, but to communicate - for us - was the fundamental thing!". The photos give us back on stage a mustachioed Bambi, long-haired and always with the bandana ("When I played, I was sweating like a beast ... I put it for this, not to imitate Hendrix ... but go to explain to music critics!"). After the more experimental Astrolabio (1973, a Cosmic Guitar is credited to Bambi ) the Garybaldi stop. He does not pay any attention to De André: ("We drank a few bottles of whiskey together. He always told me: you have to go away from Genoa!") And composes the lyrical, solar and dreamy Bambibanda e melodie (1974), album where stronger the influence of Carlos Santana and the guitar ranges free on percussion rugs, as in the sensational Pian della Tortilla .
The record is beautiful and fresh and between suites, hendrixian waste, improvisations and progressive experiments (in the best sense of the term, the authentic one and the era) remains one of the most valid documents of that season. Bambi is not a particularly technical guitarist (even if he lends the skin to many youngsters of today who pulverize meaningless scale), but has an impressive feeling and his soundin Italy it has no equal. It's the season of big pop gatherings and Garybaldi are always there; open for the Van Der Graaf Generator, the Santana and also the Bee Gees (!) and play everywhere, many times alongside the Area friends. The imperative of those years is fully embraced by Bambi: "Be original and unique, first of all!". And then share, music and the world view: "I was a hipster, a hippie with a political tendency, clearly on the left ... to talk about it today is strange, but to communicate - for us - was the fundamental thing!". The photos give us back on stage a mustachioed Bambi, long-haired and always with the bandana ("When I played, I was sweating like a beast ... I put it for this, not to imitate Hendrix ... but go to explain to music critics!"). After the more experimental Astrolabe(1973, a Cosmic Guitar is credited to Bambi ) the Garybaldi stop. He does not pay any attention to De André: ("We drank a few bottles of whiskey together. He always told me: you have to go away from Genoa!") And composes the lyrical, solar and dreamy Bambibanda e melodie (1974), album where stronger the influence of Carlos Santana and the guitar ranges free on percussion rugs, as in the sensational Pian della Tortilla .
Meanwhile, the political climate has become incattivito and Fossati puts aside the electric guitar, disappearing a bit 'from the lap: "I had a project that was called Acoustic Mediterranean ... we did our cock!". When he returns to the wattsfired from the Marshall, the music has changed again and the audience wants to dance, let alone listen to an improviser. These are the years in which Genoa knows the black crisis, with the withdrawal of the steel sector, unemployment, the paralysis of the port, the heroine that when it arrives is sold too cheap to avoid arousing suspicion ... Even Bambi suffers, and is also genoano: "We have not retired: we have continued, but on the sidelines ... we are so in Genoa, we hide in the caruggi". In the charts dominate synthetic porcate that will grow a generation of zombies, but the real problem - practical and daily - is that you can not find more to play live. Bambi has no great royaltiesto be received and arranged to teach to play many boys, as an excellent bad teacher, returning to the limelight only in 1990 with the beautiful Bambi Fossati and Garybaldi , solid rock blues and a curious rap in Genoese. As for many guitarists with hendrixian origins, style becomes cross and delight. Bambi has his own way but "if I do not do a few Jimi covers in concert, they'll eat me alive". They follow at fairly regular distances Bambi Comes Alive (1993) and then, gradually sonically incriminating, Blokko 45 (1996) and La ragione e il twist(2000), in a style that the musician calls "psycho metal blues". Moreover, unlike many of his peers, Bambi does not rely on nostalgia but listen to what happens around and is enthusiastic about the Pantera and especially the Rage Against the Machine, a deadly mixture of molotov rap, metal and political awareness. By the way, I ask him: where were you during the G8? "Here, in my house ... in the square to take the blows!". Several cigarettes later, the conversation ends by making the point on the System that he already attacked more than thirty years ago: "You buggered since they invented the watch. Do you understand? The universe in an alarm clock! ". I leave it as if I had always known it.
Since then, Bambi has seen him twice again; I seemed tired, struggling with a thousand difficulties, even economic: "If I had a euro for every site that speaks of me, I would be rich broke down!". And yet ...
Then I learned that the Garybaldi gathered, without him, unfortunately sick. No one thinks of profiteering, indeed: the Garybaldi units - with the extraordinary guitar of Marco Zoccheddu, once Gleemen and then with the Osage Tribe and De André - are a tribute to one of our poets, one that made us dream without using the words but a guitar.....by Filippo Casaccia......~
Credits
Bass, Vocals – Sandro Serra (2)
Drums, Vocals, Effects – Maurizio Cassinelli
Guitar, Guitar [Leslie, Cosmica], Vocals – "Bambi" P.N. Fossati
Keyboards – Lio Marchi
Tracklist
A Madre Di Cose Perdute
B Sette?
GLEEMEN/GARYBALDI
1969-72
Pier Niccolò "Bambi" Fossati (guitar, vocals)
Lio Marchi (keyboards)
Angelo Traverso (bass)
Maurizio Cassinelli (drums)
1973
Marchi and Traverso quit, replaced by:
Sandro Serra (bass)
BAMBIBANDA E MELODIE
Pier Niccolò "Bambi" Fossati (guitar, vocals)
Roberto Ricci (bass)
Maurizio Cassinelli (drums)
Ramasandiran Somusundaram (percussion)
Lady Madonna/Tutto risplende in te (singolo, 1968)
Gleemen (LP, 1970) Nel libro Note Di Pop Italiano, Bambi Fossati viene definito
il Jimi Hendrix Italiano.
Garybaldi
Marta Helmuth/Corri corri corri (singolo, 1971)
Nuda (LP, 1972)
Astrolabio (LP, 1973)
Bambibanda e Melodie (LP, 1974)
Acustico Mediterraneo
Acustico Mediterraneo (LP, 1977)
Bambi Fossati e Garybaldi
Bambi Fossati e Garybaldi (LP, 1990)
Bambi Comes Alive (LP, 1993)
Blokko 45 (CD, 1996)
La ragione e il torto (CD, 2004)
