New Celeste Album

[strawberrybrick]

Not one of the best known Italian Prog bands, but their debut albums is a classic. Now they are back from more!

"MMP 540 CELESTE - IL RISVEGLIO DEL PRINCIPE out in Autumn 2018 with exclusive bonus track for the Japanese market!
CELESTE is a very important name within the vast world of Italian progressive rock. Like many other bands, they disbanded after only one self-titled LP released in 1976, but thanks to that beautiful album we can consider Celeste among the greatest Italian prog groups. After the reissues of unreleased material in the nineties, we were still missing one piece: a new album consisting of original songs, which finally sees the light here, in "IL RISVEGLIO DEL PRINCIPE" (The Prince's Awakening), that will be exclusively released by Mellow Records in september!

[Scrotum Scissor]

^While that debut most certainly is the classic Celeste release, more people should get to hear their other two as well. I Suoni In Una Sfera is unspectacular but contains some highly memorable tunes (written for a film), while Celeste II (or Second Plus in enhanced version) displays some more intricate and experimental aspects of their approach. This is one of those Italian bands who could have benefitted from a 'complete recordings' package, as I believe only the first album is available nowadays.


Nice to hear that they're doing new music, of course. Ciro Perrino had several interesting projects running through the 70s and early 80s, and AFAIR he contributed in establishing the Mellow label.

[Progatron]

This is one of those Italian bands who could have benefitted from a 'complete recordings' package, as I believe only the first album is available nowadays.

I believe there was such a set, although it's probably not easy to come by nowadays...

[strawberrybrick]

The complete recordings exist! (or at least existed)

https://strawberrybricks.com/guide/r...ings-1969-1977

[arturs]

I have the "2nd" Celeste album, in quotes because IIRC it was largely demos not intended for release. I haven't played it in years and probably could not find it if I wanted to, but it was mediocre. None of the pastoral charm of the first. On several tracks they sounded like they wanted to become fusion-era Soft Machine or something. Weird.

[Scrotum Scissor]

I have the "2nd" Celeste album, in quotes because IIRC it was largely demos not intended for release. […] it was mediocre. None of the pastoral charm of the first. On several tracks they sounded like they wanted to become fusion-era Soft Machine or something.

Celeste were from Genova and from the same circuit as Picchio dal Pozzo (a couple of whose members even appeared on the second Celeste), so yes - "fusion" was part of their upbringing and aspiration. And while I agree it didn't always work for them, there are some fine ideas and melodic snippets to be had. That influence was also present on their first recordings, btw (i.e. the Sfera soundtrack).

[Crawford Glissadevil]

Good news to my ears!

[TheH]

Cool didn't see this one coming!

Also good to see Mellow Records back on the releasing front. I already thought they where administrating their
heritage on Bandcamp only.