(Rock Progressivo Italiano) Randone - Linea di confine - 2009, FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Randone biography

N. Randone was born in Ragusa on 08/10/1972.
Today Nicola lives and works in Catania.

The first musical experiences of the guitarist and keyboardist-singer start in 1990 when he takes part in several musical projects embracing his first great passion: the electric guitar.

Nicola simultaneously is involved, for most of his time, in building and maintaining a literary-musical portal: Il mondo di Art. This site receives 1000 unique visits per day and it also had the honor of achieving different awards for the design including the prestigious Italian Web Awards.

Along with his primary job (graphic designer) Nicola has always supported his passion for music and composition. In 1998 the collaboration with the band Gray Owl brings the band to the auto-produced cd "La parete di ghiaccio" selling all the copies (1000 units). But the band struggled to remain united and Nicola decided to take a small break to write his first solo work. "Morte di un amore" comes 4 years after: album in which the author has poured his desire to still believe in music combined with the desire to reach a wider number of listeners. In a few months the album gets a positive reaction from critics (reviews), the distributors Musea Records and BTF add the cd to their worldwide sale catalogues. The title track of the album was broadcasted by RAI Radio 2 in a famous radio program: DEMO. Suddenly the first definition that will accompany him throughout his musical career: Randone is a "prog singer"!

After 1 year Nicola was contacted by the producer Beppe Crovella, keyboardist of the band ARTI E MESTIERI and author of soundtracks and music for television. Nicola joins Crovella's team in 2003 and takes part in the project "Colossus and Musea RY" which is a musical adaptation of the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala.

Nicola thus composes his first song for an international production. The single is inside a triple cd in company of famous bands and not from all over the world. Nicola is supported by the band TEMPORE of Turin, already known for their collaboration with Mike Keneally (guitar player of Frank ZAPPA). The track is a success and takes the full band in concert in Helsinki (August 2003), capital of Finland, in the festival Alwari Rock. Here Nicola has the possibility to propose tracks of his solo work Morte di un amore.

A few months after, Crovella decided to launch the first cd of the band Randone: Nuvole di ieri, a long suite of 45 minutes already written by the composer while he was waiting for feedback from the producers interested in the genre. And it is precisely on this occasion that the band RANDONE was born. In selecting the components Nicola thought to unite around him old and new musicians. At his side Riccardo Cascone at the drum (already present in Grey Owl and in the solo album Morte di un amore), Marco Crispi at the electric guitar, guest at the hammond organ, piano, moog and mellotron Crovella himself and Daniel Martinez at the bass.

The album gets a lot of great public and critical. It is called the best progressive album of 2003. The thing pushes Crovella, after only 3 months from Nuvole di ieri, to produce a new work that sees the light in June 2004. The album in question is Ricordo.

Simultaneously, after the good work done by Kalevala, the Finnish Association Colossus, yet with Musea Records, proposes Nicola to participate in the new project dedicated to "C'era una volta il west" of Sergio Leone: Spaghetti Epic. RANDONE appears on the double CD that sees the light in the month of September of 2004 along with 5 other bands, all with international fame. On this occasion Livio Rabito joins the band as at the bass guitarist.

The criticism is beginning to pay increasing attention to the name RANDONE, the music is geared more and more towards the belief component progressive and theatrical. Talk about it the famous portal SuperEva, several Japanese magazines, Finnish, French and American music magazine cite the band as the new hope of the progressive Italian.

The following year sees the completion of the last cd: Hybla act 1,
The suite is the result of the sensitivity of progressive composer and the great feeling associated with folk traditions of his homeland and the staff of this band is enhanced by an additional member, the saxophonist Graziano Raniolo. (tune the tv on the recording sessions)

The disc is officially presented in concert at the main square of Ragusa Ibla. The show is filmed and audio recorded in multi track. In 2006 Electromantic produces the first live DVD of the band entitled Hybla act 1, a live barock opera (tune the tv on the trailer). Inside the DVD is inserted at the individual product and Musea Records Colossus, a tribute to the good the bad and the ugly of Sergio Leone that is inserted into a box for the international distribution title: Spaghetti Epic 2.

Done with the dvd publication, Nicola takes over the suite which was focusing on the sin from the Nuvole di Ieri and the work is inspired by his story: Alle porte del paradiso and still is being completed. At the same time the author manages to complete the new album: Linea di Confine, that is out at the beginning of the 2010. The disc is working actively phonic arranger Carlo Longo and the usual musicians with the collaboration, bass, Giuseppe Scaravilli (MALIBRAN).

To better understand the world of the author is essential to refer to these addresses:

Il mondo di art: www.randone.com
Il mondo di Art blog: www.diario.randone.com
La band: www.band.randone.com
Youtube Randone: www.youtube.randone.com
Facebook Randone: www.facebook.randone.com

http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1404

Randone - Linea di confine
3.95 | 29 ratings | 5 reviews | 21% 5 stars - progarchives.com

Prolusion. RANDONE is a modern Italian band, led by singer and keyboardist extraordinary Nicola Randone. “Linea Di Confine”, their fifth album, is issued in two versions: as a full-format book (which I can’t read, as I don’t speak Italian), with a CD inserted into the pocket on the inside of its cover, and as a standard CD outing, which can be purchased from Electromantic Music, the group’s native label which owns the rights on all their other recordings. The album lasts for 77 minutes – too long for me, so I have armed myself with patience prior to taking on it.

Analysis. On this new effort Randone has deviated from the classic symphonic style with elements of rock opera that typifies most of the band’s previous work, turning towards a more light sound, which embraces Neo Prog, balladic Art-Rock and mainstream music, as well as traditional Italian romanticism – as a dominant feature of the vocal constituent. The music was originally worked out as a platform for Nicola’s vocals and so it is heavy in accompanying those almost everywhere on the album. Besides singing, however, the man pretty often narrates, at times littering the songs with alien voices of a natural as well as artificial origin, radio ones included – I really wonder why singer as gifted as he is has decided to use those. All sixteen of the compositions present suit the above idiom, save the fact that almost a half of those (tracks 2 to 5, 11, 14 & 16) are texturally fairly transparent and are instantly accessible. There are fine instrumental arrangements on the majority of those, with lush passages of a virtual string ensemble underlying a thoughtful organ solo or the interplay between piano and acoustic guitar, but they don’t appear to be really effective, since they are basically slow-paced and are overshadowed by the vocals in addition. Either way, quite a few of the songs sound cut out of the same mold. The other tracks – 1, 6 to 10, 12, 13 & 15 – are more interesting and compelling. All of them deploy elements of heavy music as a supplementary genre component (kudos to Marco Crupi, whose guitar playing is quite inventive here), showing that the band has the capability to develop a new direction. The vocals are more varied on these compositions, though it is mainly on their instrumental level that the real goods are delivered and where Nicola himself is at his best, effectively applying his arsenal of vintage keyboards. All in all, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I find Prologo, the sole vocal-free piece on the disc, to be its best track. As for the worst one, it would be Preghiera Di Un Re, which uses a drum machine throughout. Yes, a few of the other tunes contain sections (or moves if you will) that drummer Riccardo Cascone didn’t have a hand in, either: strangely enough, considering that he is still a full-member – at least is credited as being so.

Conclusion. From a classic progressive viewpoint, Randone’s “Linea Di Confine” is a step backwards compared to any of the releases that form the band’s back catalog. Nonetheless, in spite of all its flaws (to mention only one, the musicians have room to grow on each of the tracks), this is still a worthwhile effort. Why? It contains nothing flashy and – what really matters – is full of originality as well as melodic beauty.

VM=Vitaly Menshikov: November 20, 2010
http://www.progressor.net/review/randone_2010.html

- Nicola Randone / vocal, piano, hammond, moog, mellotron, synths, ac guitars
- Marco Crispi / lead electric and acoustic guitar
- Riccardo Cascone / drums

Guest
- Carlo Longo / orchestral arrangments
- Beppe Crovella / moog, hammond, mellotron on 1,2,3,6,15,16
- Salvo (Dub) Giorgio / bass and CBass
- Giuseppe Jcaravilli - bass on 2 and 4
- Livio Rabito - bass on 7
- Federica Davola - female vocal on 10
- Veronica Crutaldi - female backing vocal on 6
- Fabrizio Javoca - male backing vocal on 6 & acoustic guitar on 14 and (16)