I was thinking the other day that it might be an idea for this website to set up a “Hall of Fame” slot. Not the type of corporate “Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame”, or the Nashville thing, but a celebration of all music and artists which have profoundly moved me and influenced my writing over the years.

I have a deep love of the Italian people and their culture. I was, of course, familiar with classic artists such as PFM & Banco over the years, but appreciation of the wider scene took far longer. It took me a long time to write any serious Italian prog review, but looking at my collection tonight, Italian music is second only to English in a cast of thousands.

In any such Hall of Fame, Inner Prospekt, the artistic vehicle of Allesandro di Benedetti, would have to be included. His work is everything I love in my music. Intelligent, imaginative, telling stories, moving, and Unusual Movements, available on Bandcamp at https://innerprospekt.bandcamp.com/album/unusual-movements is the thirteenth album in this series. It might just be his best.

The album is over an hour long, with seven tracks, alongside a bonus on the digital version. A word first about the cover. Minimalist, a bench set against the infinity of the universe and the backdrop of our beautiful planet (despite our worst efforts), a scape which has you thinking before you even hear a note.

There are guests who have helped Allesandro to create this work, and they are discussed in each individual track below.

So, to what we get on an essential musical journey.

The Bridge is our introduction, composed for The Samurai of Prog, featuring Federico Tetti on guitars and Daniele Vitalone on bass, who produces an instantly groovy melody set against Di Benedetti’s keyboards before Tetti produces a memorable guitar solo leading into a playful piano and keys. As an introduction, this is hard to beat, and it is embedded below.

This is followed by Mantra, a repetition of a statement, in this case “everything will be fine” commenting on those days of the pandemic amidst so much uncertainty. It is the first of three epic tracks here (and the longest at just over fifteen minutes), and again has Tetti on guitars alongside Giuseppe Militello on sax. I love the effects that illustrate indoor pursuits to begin and the mournful notes accompanying before a jazz-infused improv takes precedence, at once pretty and questing. The vocals when they arrive encapsulate the mood of the time perfectly, and the sax complements it with a deeply reflective segment of music. We spent a lot of time looking deeply into ourselves, with collective fear abounding. Even in the deepest depression, I/You say all is going to be fine. What a time to experience, and I will add here that the mantra itself is perfectly put across musically by a deep mellotron and distorted notes at the ten-minute mark, Tetti shows his class with an angry riff, the emotions here swinging as wildly as they did for us before the track segues into its fundamentally mournful reflection.

Winter Day is brilliant, a theme which resonates with me ever so strongly, that of a father writing to his son to apologise for the legacy our generation has left them, but also how he had failed to reveal the evils of man by being overprotective, and he seeks forgiveness, perhaps as a final act. Musically delicate, Marco Bernard provides a beautiful bassline, the vocals are achingly lovely, the orchestration searching. It is embedded below. I would quite happily have had another twenty minutes of this, and if I hear anything more beautiful in 2024, I will be astounded. Is it too late for our and our parents’ generation to make things right? I hope not.

Neverland is the second epic track and was composed for Marco Bernard’s debut solo album referencing “the boy who never grew up”, but there is a fascinating dark twist on this reimagining the eponymous island as a kingdom of the dead. That is what I love about the music we listen to, this type of reinterpretation of classic tales which also parallel our darkest nightmares or thoughts. Instantly noticeable and appreciated are the acoustic guitars, and the initial playful nature of the island, but the clever invitation to “my friends” to leave their life and join the island of lonely souls brings on that darker hue, and the orchestration, especially the flute, brings that to the mind very well. The bass melody and the urgent keys and percussion take us away from a symphonic sound to a more jazz infused musical play, and the extended guitar solo by Rafael Pacha when it arrives takes us to another level, with the track expanding into a symphonic burst of noise before we are taken down into the quieter and darker afterlife so cleverly. This is just about the epitome of modern progressive rock, a whole piece of music telling its story crystal clear with depths revealing themselves each time it is put on.

Just Five Minutes is, in fact, over seven minutes long and Militello especially provides such a smoky sax to lead a gorgeous jazz number infused with the spirit of the finest metropolitan Italian live bars, Pacha lovingly teasing Allesandro’s brushes. A track to be played with the finest beer or wine, dreaming of a life which should never come to an end, and, God willing, never will. The final ninety seconds simply take you to a different existential plane.

Around the Corner references something I think about often (I hesitate to say great minds think alike, because I only write about a great mind’s creations), and that is an adult looking back at one’s childhood self, understanding what made the adult in the formative years, and I will make a bold statement that this is up there in these terms with one of my all-time favourite tracks dealing with the same theme, Gabriel’s classic Family Snapshot. It is the final epic length track we have, and the most noticeable thing that strikes you is the gorgeous pastoral orchestration, simply breathtaking in its execution in the opening passage, before after two minutes the jazz influence asserts itself and the vocals tell the story in which I picture myself looking at my vulnerable and often unhappy child self from the top of the room before we get such a lush passage dealing with the essence of childhood, a nigh on perfect mix of the folk, jazz, and symphonic (Tetti’s guitar solos would grace any classic progressive rock album, and Alessandro certainly takes his piano cue from Banks) as you are likely to hear. I have embedded this incredibly beautiful and moving track below. It is worth the album fee on its own.

The Question is another introspective track with the subject demanding to be left alone to confront his inner demons and wanting to find answers to the deepest questions of how to protect and love. Carmine Capasso provides some haunting guitars, but Di Benedetti highlights why he is such a talent. Understated and fragile voice, piano which searches the soul, and effects which both move and ask questions of the listener. A piece of music which is unparalleled in its ability to move you, right up to that tiny, but ever so evocative, tap on the side of the drum at the end.

The bonus track is Living Like A Looner, a revisitation of the themes of Neverland.

I read an interesting article today in The Spectator magazine I subscribe to which essentially said that no band or artist wishing to be successful describes themselves as “prog rock”. I might well quote it in my next vlog. Well, that was an interesting comment from a journalist working for a magazine which has for many years railed against the societal norms. For those of us who do not regard “prog” (whatever meaning one might place upon that) as a dirty word, we are constantly in awe at just how much our music simply continues not just to delight, but to push the boundaries forward.

Unusual Movements is an essential album, a certainty of quality and intelligent emotion in an era of uncertainty and corporately manufactured “feelings”. Imagine you are that adult looking down at your younger self, or that parent apologising for the wrongs inflicted upon the child(ren). I think we could do a lot worse than sharing this delightful album as far and as wide as we can.

A plea. Please support the artist and buy as opposed to simply streaming.