Mother From The Sun by Marco Ragni — An Album Review by CarayzeeDiamond
Mother from the Sun – Album Review by CarayzeeDiamond
Marco Ragni – Artist
The Band:
Marco Ragni: Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, Mellotron, Greek Bouzouky, Drums and Programming
Enrico Di Stefano: Sax
Davide Gazzi: Acoustic Guitar
Luigi Iacobone: Flute
Enrico Cipollini: Electric Guitar
Giovanni Menarello: Acoustic Guitar
Alessandra Pirani: Lyrics
CarayzeeDiamond’s Take on What’s Happening With The Album:
1. Into the Wheel of Time – Complexity with Ease and Grace are descriptive words about the opening track. Vocals are easy as the breeze with clarity and great harmonics. Into the Wheel of Time – Our body is like time on our souls told as beautifully as it’s ever been told. 9:13 of shear epic music bliss, with saxophone heaven, time changes and everything you want to hear in a complete song.
2. Sea of Vibes – Another epic offering @ 15:15 (story I take to be about life and the longing to be accepted in life and in love) Begins rather easy at first then the rhythm picks up with excellent guitar play & water, yes water! Just beautifully done story about the struggles of life and being in a family that’s not your own nor do they want to be your own as they attempt to keep you under their thumb. This track is much more complicated yet also with an ease and grace only a master artist could pull off. The track rides on in guitar ecstasy & picks up tremendously with a groove and some great keys for an ending.
3. Panting – Short but sweet of the character running away from his problems and his family.
4. Haven of Marble 17:45 Epic! – Having left his family behind, with some beautiful guitar work, a tremendous melody & lyrics that are sure to Rock you, life is changing. Just a fantastic story that takes us on a journey. That nobody can protect us 24/7/52, nobody. So we must be strong on our own. The struggles of being free are tugging at him and people are turning away from him, declaring him a liar. The arrangement is sublime, with all the changes and almost theatrical, yet easy progressive style. This track will have you on a ride like a superb musical roller coaster. A track you will want to sit down and listen to. Just fantastic listening music. This epic fits in nicely to the theme and the story of the album, with changing time signatures, up, up, sideways and around “mood swings and saxophones” that do wonderfully with the lively creativity that’s called Haven of Marble. Damn sweet track.
5. Faint Memory – A beautiful track, 4:40 in length, This track to me is where the story shifts gear and shifts from my thoughts of my own upbringing to the real theme of the album as told by Marco Ragni. A relationship between man and nature which, incidentally, is what the answer to all our yearnings of life and in life. At some point in our lives, we either pull towards nature and good or towards greed, envy and strife. The story begins taking the shape of the artist-painting or eloquence and actually leaving my own thoughts of likeness of what I’ve lived, behind.
6. The Light is Burning – 2:22 – Speaks of how man has abused nature and has attempted to subdue earth to the point of destruction. Short and sweet with the beautiful arrangements and vocals.
7. Get out of Here – 2:10 – The character of the story realizes he has a choice to make and decides to make a change in the way he perceives the world and how he has been contributing to it’s demise.
8. Far Beyond The Line – 22:05 – The Change in my opinion. the character is having issues about it all and begins to understand the magnitude of what the earth’s destruction is doing. Wonderful guitar work & keys. the situation picks up with the wailing of the guitar and some great rhythm licks & climaxes with some guitar solo from bliss, itself. What I really like about this track and every track is that Marco takes his time on everything. No hurry here and it shows in the quality of this piece of work.
The confusion of the heart throws the character into a black hole, he seeks to retrieve his soul from the depths of despair and from the clutches of the forces contrary to nature or so I perceive.
9. The First Time I Saw the Sun – 1:19 An incredible catalyst instrumental that brings us to
10. Skies Painted By The Wind – 7:31 – A semi-epic tune of the character in the ebb of change in his thinking of how he wants to live and in harmony with nature. He sees the future and the future is looking as bright as the sun. The wind of change is sweeping across his soul and is awakening to a new day and a new era in his life. The music arrangement is plainly put, sublime.
11. In The Air – 3:13 – The character awakes to his new life. He realizes that this yearning takes two, whether it be his love or his love for nature and while seeking to be at one with all that is good he is contemplating his new found path.
12. Breathing – 1:18 – A catalyst instrumental track that connects the contemplation of the new path to
13. Northern Light – 4:00 – I’m having an eargasm as he lives his new found walk in life. Anything we have passion about, we become as one with and at one with nature and with love, the only engine of survival, it is the same. Beautifully done lyrics, vocals and arrangement. The character is now fully a part of the world he lives in and is content.
14. Mother From The Sun – 2:12 – A reprieve of sorts from track 1 with the character as one with nature, a complete 180 in his life and love does conquer all, and saves us all.
This Album is a Brilliantly Stunning release of the struggles man has to evolve from the origins of an animal to a a being with compassion. Some of us learn these valuable lessons early in life, some by midlife and some of us sadly enough, never learn the art of compassion. The character in the story goes from his noticing that something is terribly wrong & not being wanted by his own family to wake up to the fact that what isn’t right is his perception of how he should be and realizing that things will change for the better if he finds his path or the true path of life. The lyrics are masterfully written, and his vocals are sublime.
The arrangement is something like I’ve never heard before. It’s much more uniquely complex than anything I’ve ever heard yet the artistic beauty not only multiplies, but I had about 3 eargasms before Into the Wheel of Time ended and that was only the beginning.
Bottom line:
Artistic Quality 1-10 = 10 Reasoning: Evenly flowing, changing time signatures that happen almost without noticing the difference, Lyrics unlike anything I’ve ever heard and Vocals that I could listen to for the duration without getting knackered in the least. Very enjoyable Album.
Lyrical Quality 1-10 = 10 Reasoning: 1. Did the lyrics fit the music? 2. Does the story flow evenly, relevantly and concisely? 3. Are the lyrics understandable ( Did I “get” it?) Yes to all three questions.
Originality of Work 1-10 = 10 Somebody would be hard pressed to link this work with any other Artist work. Marco is much more complex and at the same time Sublime than whatever you want to stack up against this Album.
Arrangement 1-10 = 10 Reasoning: I’ll just refer you to the album. Listen to the instruments and how they interact with one another. Even the catalyst tracks took their time and everything flowed effortlessly no matter how complex. Brilliance.
Vocals 1-10 = 10 Reasoning. Marco did the vocals all by himself & without any backup vocalists. His voice is superb and his vocals demand a top rating.
50/50 Eargasm Quality. Original, Artistic Quality,Lyrical Quality, Arrangement & Vocals are 5 areas that matter most to the Artist and to the Music Connoisseur.
