Label : Raro! Records
Review by Luisa Mercier
When you less expect something, it happens. Saint Just are back again! After three solo records, the Italian singer Jenny Sorrenti felt the need to go back to her roots and creating new music with her first musical project. Saint Just already released two albums back in the ’70s creating an unique mix, loved by Italian and foreign prog fans. It is a weird fusion of British folk and American rock, psychedelia and elegant, classy music, instrumental journeys and soaring vocals. All of this made Saint Just a cult band and such they stayed through the decades that followed until now.
Jenny went on her solo career experimenting with Mediterranean music but at the end of 2010 she announced that Saint Just were back. She had to find the right musicians and the perfect mix: the result is “Prog Explosion”, the new record published as a vinyl and devoted to prog rock. Saint Just Again have composed a lively, varied record, focused on a different song structure, open to a lot of influences (from psychedelia to rock-jazz as in “Depressione Cosciente”). The album was born out of a wise decision: they recorded live in the studio, so the sound is quite warm and expressive. The band is techically very skilled: just think of “Il Cercatore” or the folk-rock in “Ai Bordi”. Amazing is the vocal performance of Jenny in the title-track helped by the male vocals of Francesco di Giacomo (singer of the Prog rock legends Banco del Mutuo Soccorso). More modern are “Giganti” and “Fuga da Ogni Gabbia” where a more immediate style has been preferred to utterly complicated songwriting. “Prog Explosion” is one of the best examples of reunion; the real deal for all classic progrock lovers!
Rating – 80/100
Tracklist
- Il cercatore
- Depressione cosciente
- Ad occhi aperti (dopo Morfeo)
- Ai Bordi
- Giganti
- Fuga da ogni gabbia
- Prog Explosion
Line Up
- Jenny Sorrenti – Vocals & Keyboards
- Elio Cassarà – Guitars
- Ernesto Vitolo – Hammond, rodhes, synth, piano
- Vittorio Pepe – Bass
- Marcello Vento – Drums, steel drums, gong