| "Vita Nova" (1971) Line-up: - Eddy Marron / all guitars, solo vocals - Sylvester Levay / vocals, vintage keyboards, Hohner clavinet, hybrid harpsichord - Christian Von Hoffman / drums, vocals Review from amazon.com) Vita Nova was like too many prog rock bands of the '70s, released one album and then disappeared. Their only album came out in 1971. Their music is really a unique brand of progressive rock, lots of nice organ work with great variations throughout the whole album. It's full of energy and full of progressive time signature changes and instrumental prowess. The vocals aren't used that much, but when used, it's exclusively in Latin! Not sure what they're singing about. There are some nice, more rocking pieces, the occasional exploration of ethnic styles, like Istanbul, which has a more Middle Eastern feel, to some really majestic organ passages and everything in between. What's really interesting is Sylvester Levay would later compose the theme song to the TV series Airwolf, which of course, was heavily electronic in an '80s fashion, not unlike Tangerine Dream doing the theme song to Streethawk (another short-lived TV program from roughly the same era, the mid 1980s). Of course nothing even remotely resembling the Airwolf theme to be found on Vita Nova's sole album from 1971, just great organ-driven progressive rock, with the exception of the occasional Emerson, Lake & Palmer reminder, reminds me of no other progressive rock group. Overall a great album and one ... |
