HOMUNCULUS RES: Ecco L'impero Dei Doppi Sensi (PROGRESSIVE ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

You can be born in Palermo and love progressive rock, but that doesn't mean you have to play RPI (Italian progressive rock). That's what the members of Homunculus Res said to themselves, whose music, if it has to be qualified according to geographical criteria, is much closer to the sea spray of the Canterbury school - so named because most of its first representatives came from this region - than to the sunshine of Sicily.

The ten tracks on "Ecco l'Impero dei Doppi Sensi" recapture the blend of whimsical lightness and gentle melancholy that was the hallmark of Caravan, Hatfield & the North, National Health and Soft Machine, albeit with less of a jazz touch than the latter. The music is fluid and melodic throughout, despite the many variations in themes, sometimes flirting with pop ('Il Bello e il Cattivo Tempo') or psychedelia reminiscent of Syd Barrett and early Pink Floyd ('Fiume Dell'oblio'), and even venturing into atmospheric experimental music on 'Doppi Sensi'.

Nevertheless, the general tone of the album is reminiscent of Caravan and Hatfield, while the vocals evoke Richard Sinclair's phlegmatic, vaguely mocking nonchalance and Robert Wyatt's tender melancholy and repeated use of dreamy onomatopoeia. This often light-hearted singing (in Italian) and the timidly sunny music that accompanies it reveal nothing of the rather dark, pessimistic texts they carry.

Numerous guest musicians each contribute one or two tracks, multiplying the album's sonic diversity with the presence of saxophone, flute, clarinet, oboe, trumpet, horn (not an exhaustive list!), as well as more intriguing instruments such as the panaulon flute, crystal organ, tangent piano and glass harmonica.

Its relative complexity doesn't prevent "Ecco l'Impero dei Doppi Sensi" from being easy to grasp, thanks to its fluid, melodious music. Without copying its models, Homunculus Res brilliantly perpetuates a musical tradition where few bands venture. - Official website

HOMUNCULUS RES

ECCO L'IMPERO DEI DOPPI SENSI

MARACASH

PROGRESSIVE ROCK