Contrappunti by Le Orme

Contrappunti, album by the great band Le Orme released in 1974.

The title seems to have several meanings and origins; it could come from the compositional style, the structure of the album, or the contents and messages it wants to convey. There are different opinions about it.

Musically, it contains beautiful musical interweavings with a baroque flavor, especially at the beginning of each side, like a sort of overture.

The tracks alternate between instrumental and sung pieces. The rhythms alternate between faster and slower songs.

From the point of view of content, social and protest themes typical of the era in which it was released are addressed, and there is a lot of experimentation between classical-style harmonies and rock contamination.

The album is indeed more experimental compared to previous works, with keyboardist Tony Pagliuca delving deeper into his studies of classical counterpoint, evident in the interaction between keyboard and piano, particularly in the Title Track.

Some notes on the tracks

- Contrappunti is a powerful opening to the record with great organ and piano parts.

- Frutto Acerbo is one of the TOP tracks of the album, with beautiful acoustic guitars, piano, and a fantastic mellotron.

- Aliante with its particular rhythmic experiments.
- India, an experimental track that uses unique scales and a cosmic interpretation of the sitar sound, in my opinion a masterpiece.

- La Fabbricante D'Angeli with its committed lyrics on the theme of abortion, musically more “traditional"
- Notturno, a dark and atmospheric instrumental with great acoustic piano and organ.
- Maggio closes the album, an impressive and complex epic track lasting about 9 minutes, with majestic sections with tubular bells, aggressive synthesizer solos, and a powerful sound with church organs and a driving percussion section. Fantastic

Great collaboration from pianist Gian Piero Reverberi, who was also the producer of the album, with exceptional piano parts.

It is a transitional album, which combines the band's initial prog-rock sound with later, more hard-rock and funky directions, an avant-garde work, very and deliberately complex, which as Michi Dei Rossi himself said: «We needed to change and we did it without thinking about the charts».

Here we are undoubtedly talking about a masterpiece album, the band's last complete progressive work before it took a different direction.

Note: All links to the musicians' works are in the TAGS under the article title or on the "Artists" page

Tracklist

1. Contrappunti (5:56)
2. Unripe Fruit (3:35)
3. Glider (3:20)
4. India (3:13)
5. The Angel Maker (4:47)
6. Nocturne (3:51)
7. May (8:51)
Duration 33:35

LineUp

- Aldo Tagliapietra - vocals, bass, guitar
- Antonio Pagliuca - keyboards
- Gian Piero Reverberi - piano, producer
- Michi Dei Rossi - drums, percussion