Il Balletto di Bronzo
Encyclopedia
Il Balletto di Bronzo was an Italian
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 from Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

. They formed in the mid 1960s, and released two albums, Sirio 2222 and Ys, before disbanding in 1973.

Sirio 2222 (1970) is a psychedelic album originally released on RCA. At this time, the band was Marco Cecioni (vocals, guitar), Lino Ajello (guitar), Michele Cupaiuolo (bass) and Giancarlo Stinga (drums).

In 1971 both Cecioni and Cupaiuolo left the band, replaced by Gianni Leone (vocals, keyboards), from the band Città Frontale, and Vito Manzari (bass), formerly of Rome's Quelle Strane Cose Che. This line-up released Ys in 1971 on Polydor, a very innovative album, regarded as one of the finest examples of Italian symphonic rock
Italian rock
Italian rock is a form of rock music produced primarily in Italy. The music genre has roots in the country as it spread in the early 1960s from the United States with the earliest versions of rock and roll during this period being cover versions or interpretative covers of already existing...

.

Written by Leone, Ys is a concept album divided into four parts: "Introduzione", "Primo Incontro", "Secondo Incontro" and "Terzo Incontro ed Epilogo". Beginning with an atmospheric organ and vocal intro and relentlessly mounting in intensity for the following 38 minutes, Ys is a narrative alluding to the legend of the mythical city of the same name
Ys
Ys , also spelled Is or Kêr-Is in Breton, and Ker-Ys in French , is a mythical city that was built on the coast of Brittany and later swallowed by the ocean...

. Stylistically the album moves through odd-metered fusion, progressive and psychedelic rock and avant-garde/free jazz leanings. Gianni Leone's keyboards and vocals dominate, though Ajello, Stinga and Manzari all deliver fine performances. Texturally the album is particularly rich, as it features Moog synthesizers, mellotrons, spinet, female voices and numerous stereo and tape effects. Its density and heavy use of dissonance have earned it a reputation as a difficult, if potentially rewarding, listen.

The band released several singles, among them "Neve Calda/Cominciò per gioco", "Si, Mama Mama/Meditazione" and "La tua casa comoda/Donna Vittoria". Over the years, some rarities, including previously unreleased Spanish language singles have surfaced.

Despite breaking up in the early 1970s, Il Balletto di Bronzo continued to exert an influence, mostly on the strength of their second album. Several bands, amongst them Nurse With Wound
Nurse with Wound
Nurse with Wound is the main recording name for British musician Steven Stapleton. Nurse with Wound was originally a band, formed in 1978 by Stapleton, John Fothergill and Heman Pathak...

, have cited them as an influence, and the album Ys has been reissued at different times in Italy, Korea and Japan.

In the late 1990s, Gianni Leone reformed the band as a trio, recording the live album Trys. As of this writing this incarnation of the band is still active as a live ensemble with a rotating roster, Leone being the sole constant.
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