A Quest for Prog 4: Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - Io Sono Nato Libero

"A Quest for Prog" is a series of 50 Progressive Rock reviews to be written over a year.  The band selection is taken from the book in the first post on this blog.  And the albums I am reviewing is based on the highest user ratings for each band on Progarchives.com.

Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - Io Sono Nato Libero (1973)
Produced by Sandro Colombini

Vittorio Nocenzi – Organ, synths, spinet
Gianni Nocenzi – Piano, electric piano
Marcello Todaro – Electric guitar, acoustic guitar
Renato D'Angelo – bass, acoustic guitar
Pier Luigi Calderoni – drums, percussion
Francesco Di Giacomo – vocals
Rodolfo Maltese – Acoustic and electric guitar
Silvana Aliotta – Percussion
Bruno Perosa – Percussion

Track listing:
Side one:
1. Canto nomade per un prigioniero politico (15:46) (Nomad chant for a political prisoner)
2. Non mi rompete (5:09) (Don't bother me)
Side two:
3. La città sottile (7:13) (The subtle town)
4. Dopo... niente è più lo stesso (9:55) (Then... nothing is still the same)
5. Traccia II (2:39) (Track II)

Released in 1973 "Io Sono Nato Libero ", translating as “I Was Born Free”, was the third album by Italian band Banco del Mutuo Soccorso.  Formed in Rome, Italy by brothers Vittorio and Gianni Nocenzi they initially influenced by Gentle Giant, EL&P and Jethro Tull.  The band released two records in 1972, “Banco del Mutuo Soccorso” and “Darwin”, before releasing this album.
“Io Sono Nato Libero” begins with the 15min long track “Canto nomade per un prigioniero politico”.  Like all prog tracks of this length the song has a lot of sections and styles.  This song moves from quiet Piano/Vocals passages to Spanish Guitars to ELP style keyboard jams to strange freakouts to Jazz passages.  It goes to allot of places and is a really exciting piece of music.  I’ve listened to this song a number of times and it still surprises and keeps me interested for the whole 15 mins.  I get the impression Banco del Mutuo Soccorso are not a band that overplays for the sake of overplaying and in this genre are actually quite restrained.   A really impressive piece of music. 
The second song on the album “Non mi rompete” is a sixties style folk song.  It immediately reminded me of Donovan for some reason.  It’s a nice song and the chorus is particularly good. 

Side two starts with “La città sottile” which is a really interesting tune.  It’s a groovy and dark song that features some discordant jazz piano lines.  But there are also some space rock synth lines that come as a surprise but work really well.  The Guitar and Drums are really tasteful and in the world of prog are very simple but add allot t.o the song because of it  There’s also a Spoken Word/Jazz freak our section which adds to the Jazz/Space Rock vibe of the song. 
Following on is “Dopo... niente è più lo stesso”.  It begins with an electronica section that concidering this was an early 70's recording sounds very contempory.  This track then goes into a guitar driven passage which as a nice tempo and movement.  It breaks down into a semi classical Piano/Synth passage that is odd and pretty at the same time.  At about the halfway mark it moves into a section that sounds a lot like early 80’s Jethro Tull but with a Space Rock vibe.  Pretty cool and unusual.
The last song on the album is a short piece called “Traccia II” a song that wouldn’t be out of place on the “Clockwork Orange” Soundtrack.  Or for those of younger years 8-bit/Midi versions of songs that float around on the internet.  Cool little track and an interesting way to finish quite a diverse record.
I still haven’t quite gotten my head around this album because I am still being surprised by it.  If you are looking for instrumental workout then I wouldn’t recommend this but for those who want to be taken on a journey give these guy’s a go.

8/10