Biglietto per l'Inferno
Encyclopedia
Biglietto per l'Inferno is an Italian
progressive rock
band
whose album Biglietto per l'Inferno
, in spite of the limited success it scored in the 1970s, is today considered a cornerstone of the genre.
, Lombardy
, coming from the bands Mako Sharks and Gee. The year 1972
marked the band's first concerts. In 1974 the band released their eponymous LP, a mixture of hard rock
and progressive sounds. The most prominent instruments in the record were Marco Mainetti's guitar and Giuseppe Cossa's keyboards. Claudio Canali,the lead singer, also played flute
. The lyrics Canali wrote for the song "Confessione" were about a murder: despite the band's name, meaning "Ticket to Hell", the lyrics have no references to hell or demonic themes - (except the quote "What do you say, brother - you have murdered? (...) I cannot save you from the eternal fire, you only have a ticket to hell"). The other songs feature lyrics dealing with social and psychological themes.
The second album Il tempo della semina
("The Seed-time") was recorded in 1974
-1975
(production by Eugenio Finardi
), but was not issued until 1992. Biglietto per l'Inferno split up in 1975. Some of its members continued their careers in the music industry: Giuseppe Banfi recorded four electronic music
albums in 1977-1988 under the name Baffo Banfi, while Fausto Branchini issued several pop music singles. Mauro Gnecchi joined a jazz
band and worked for Racconti della tenda rossa by Franco Mussida. Mainetti earned a Ph.D. in physics
and Canali retired to live as a monk in a monastery located in the mountains near Lucca
, Tuscany
.
A 30th anniversary box set was released in 2004 containing remastered versions of both official albums, a third CD with a live recording from 1974 in Lugano
, and a DVD including various material.
In 2007 Pilly, Mauro Gnecchi e Baffo with Fra Claudio (Canali) blessing, restart the band.
The new project is characterized by a folk music texture and by the ".folk" suffix that has been added to the end of the bands name. As although a folk element could be heard in the earlier incarnation the new Biglietto is a much expanded band with a more diverse range of acoustic instruments being used than before. As well as the obligatory flute which was always a key element of the bands sound we also have Accordion, Bagpipes, Ocarina, Mandolin, Violin, acoustic guitar, stand up bass, fife and recorder.
The most noticeable difference to fans of the band will undoubtedly be Canali's replacement, female vocalist Mariolina Sala. The rest of the new members all fill their rolls with admirable aplomb with guitarist Franco Giaffreda playing with a more modern metal style, the jazzist Enrico Fagnoni at bass and double bass and three pure folk musicians: Carlo Redi, Raineri Fumagalli and Renata Tommasella
The band published in 2010 a new album Tra l'assurdo e la ragione and starts a live tour.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
band
Band (music)
In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...
whose album Biglietto per l'Inferno
Biglietto per l'inferno (album)
Biglietto per l'Inferno is a progressive rock album released in 1974 by the Italian band Biglietto per l'Inferno, considered one of the cornerstones of the genre...
, in spite of the limited success it scored in the 1970s, is today considered a cornerstone of the genre.
History
Biglietto per l'Inferno's members were from LeccoLecco
Lecco is a town of c. 47,760 inhabitants in Lombardy, northern Italy, north of Milan, the capital of the province of Lecco. It lies at the end of the south-eastern branch of Lake Como...
, Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
, coming from the bands Mako Sharks and Gee. The year 1972
1972 in music
-Events:*January 17 – Highway 51 South in Memphis, Tennessee is renamed "Elvis Presley Boulevard"*January 20 – The début of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon at The Dome, Brighton, is halted by technical difficulties,...
marked the band's first concerts. In 1974 the band released their eponymous LP, a mixture of hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
and progressive sounds. The most prominent instruments in the record were Marco Mainetti's guitar and Giuseppe Cossa's keyboards. Claudio Canali,the lead singer, also played flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
. The lyrics Canali wrote for the song "Confessione" were about a murder: despite the band's name, meaning "Ticket to Hell", the lyrics have no references to hell or demonic themes - (except the quote "What do you say, brother - you have murdered? (...) I cannot save you from the eternal fire, you only have a ticket to hell"). The other songs feature lyrics dealing with social and psychological themes.
The second album Il tempo della semina
Il tempo della semina
Il Tempo della Semina is a progressive rock album released in 1992 by Italian band Biglietto per l'inferno. The songs were actually recorded in 1975, but after Trident Records, the band's label, went bankrupt, the album was never released...
("The Seed-time") was recorded in 1974
1974 in music
-January–April:*January 3 – Bob Dylan and The Band kick off their 40-date concert tour at Chicago Stadium. It's Dylan's first time on the road since 1966.*January 17...
-1975
1975 in music
-January–April:*January 2 - New York City U.S. District Court Judge Richard Owen rules that former Beatle John Lennon and his lawyers can have access to Department of Immigration files pertaining to his deportation case....
(production by Eugenio Finardi
Eugenio Finardi
Eugenio Finardi is an Italian singer, songwriter, guitarist and keyboardist.-Life:Eugenio Finardi was born in Milan, Italy, on July 16, 1952, in a musical family: his father was an Italian music sound engineer and his mother an American opera singer; at age six Finardi made his first record,...
), but was not issued until 1992. Biglietto per l'Inferno split up in 1975. Some of its members continued their careers in the music industry: Giuseppe Banfi recorded four electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
albums in 1977-1988 under the name Baffo Banfi, while Fausto Branchini issued several pop music singles. Mauro Gnecchi joined a jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
band and worked for Racconti della tenda rossa by Franco Mussida. Mainetti earned a Ph.D. in physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
and Canali retired to live as a monk in a monastery located in the mountains near Lucca
Lucca
Lucca is a city and comune in Tuscany, central Italy, situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plainnear the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Lucca...
, Tuscany
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
.
A 30th anniversary box set was released in 2004 containing remastered versions of both official albums, a third CD with a live recording from 1974 in Lugano
Lugano
Lugano is a city of inhabitants in the city proper and a total of over 145,000 people in the agglomeration/city region, in the south of Switzerland, in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, which borders Italy...
, and a DVD including various material.
In 2007 Pilly, Mauro Gnecchi e Baffo with Fra Claudio (Canali) blessing, restart the band.
The new project is characterized by a folk music texture and by the ".folk" suffix that has been added to the end of the bands name. As although a folk element could be heard in the earlier incarnation the new Biglietto is a much expanded band with a more diverse range of acoustic instruments being used than before. As well as the obligatory flute which was always a key element of the bands sound we also have Accordion, Bagpipes, Ocarina, Mandolin, Violin, acoustic guitar, stand up bass, fife and recorder.
The most noticeable difference to fans of the band will undoubtedly be Canali's replacement, female vocalist Mariolina Sala. The rest of the new members all fill their rolls with admirable aplomb with guitarist Franco Giaffreda playing with a more modern metal style, the jazzist Enrico Fagnoni at bass and double bass and three pure folk musicians: Carlo Redi, Raineri Fumagalli and Renata Tommasella
The band published in 2010 a new album Tra l'assurdo e la ragione and starts a live tour.
Current
- Giuseppe Cossa (pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, AccordionAccordionThe accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
) - Mauro Gnecchi (drums)
- Enrico Fagnoni (bass, double bassDouble bassThe double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
, acoustic bassAcoustic bass guitarThe acoustic bass guitar is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually somewhat larger than a steel-string acoustic guitar...
) - Mariolina Sala (vocals)
- Franco Giaffreda (guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
) - Carlo Redi (violinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
, mandolMandolinino) - Renata Tomasella (flutes, ocarinas)
- Ranieri Fumagalli (flutes, ocarinas, BagpipesBagpipesBagpipes are a class of musical instrument, aerophones, using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. Though the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe and Irish uilleann pipes have the greatest international visibility, bagpipes of many different types come from...
) - Giuseppe Banfi (art director and electronics)
Past
- Giuseppe Banfi - organ, minimoogMinimoogThe Minimoog is a monophonic analog synthesizer, invented by Bill Hemsath and Robert Moog. It was released in 1970 by R.A. Moog Inc. , and production was stopped in 1981. It was re-designed by Robert Moog in 2002 and released as Minimoog Voyager.The Minimoog was designed in response to the use of...
- Fausto Branchini - bass
- Claudio Canali - flute, flugehorn, vocals
- Giuseppe Cossa - piano, organ, keyboards
- Mauro Gnecchi - drums
- Marco Mainetti - guitar
Discography
- Biglietto per l'infernoBiglietto per l'inferno (album)Biglietto per l'Inferno is a progressive rock album released in 1974 by the Italian band Biglietto per l'Inferno, considered one of the cornerstones of the genre...
(1974)- LP, TridentTridentA trident , also called a trishul or leister or gig, is a three-pronged spear. It is used for spear fishing and was also a military weapon. Tridents are featured widely in mythical, historical and modern culture. The major Hindu god, Shiva the Destroyer and the sea god Poseidon or Neptune are...
1974 - CD, Vynil Magic 1989
- CD, BTF-VM2000/Trident 2001
- LP, BTF/Trident 2005
- LP, Trident
- Il tempo della seminaIl tempo della seminaIl Tempo della Semina is a progressive rock album released in 1992 by Italian band Biglietto per l'inferno. The songs were actually recorded in 1975, but after Trident Records, the band's label, went bankrupt, the album was never released...
(1992, da registrazioni del 1975)- LP, Mellow Records 1992
- CD, Mellow Records 1992
- CD, Mellow Records 2004
- POP Villa Pamphili (2002, raccolta di autori vari )
- CD, BMGBMGBertelsmann Music Group, , was a division of Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Japan's Sony Corporation of America on October 1, 2008. It was established in 1987 to combine the music label activities of Bertelsmann...
2002
- CD, BMG
- Un Biglietto per l'inferno ( all past recording collections 2004
- Triplo CD, BTF 2004
- Live 1974 (2005, 1974 live recordings;
- BTF 2005
- Tra l'assurdo e la ragione (2009)
- CD, AMS/BTF 2009