R E V I E W S
Mauro Pagani

A CCORDING to the liner notes of this album, Pagani wanted to represent an ethnic flavor (a bit Arabic) as the individual from Lombardia, North Italy. At first he wished to title this album "Lombard and Saracen," but the album issued with no particular title.

Mauro Pagani cover       In this album he plays with session players and members from PFM and Area. Especially, the fifth number titled "L'Albero Di Canto" is quite technically played with Area, and Demetrio Stratos's scat sounds just like an wooden instrument. Additionally, no melancholic ballad backed by mellotron is contained at all.

      As Di Cioccio stated in a recent interview in Marquee (a progressive rock magazine in Japan), Pagani was frustrated with the situation of PFM when the band started to record Jet Lag. The band used to go on tour in US, UK, and European countries, although Pagani wanted to settle down at one place and study for doing something two or three years later. As stated in the album liner notes, after Pagani left PFM, he lectured the history of music at National Musical Academy over years. Then his first album was released.

      I could not find the similar musical orientation in Pagani's first album as seen in PFM's representative albums in early years. Anyway this album is my favorite because this album contains the eruption of his soul in those days.

Hiroshi Nagano
 

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