Wednesday 4 June 2014

Nostos (Ubi Maior, 2005)

Strongly influenced by the Ancient world, Ubi Maior not only choose a Latin name for themselves, but they also title their debut album and this 23 minutes suite "Nostos", "νόστος" in Greek alphabet. The word means "homecoming" and is especially employed by Homer to describe the long and difficult return of the Trojan War heroes to their Countries. So this track, divided into six parts, is a well written allegory of the long road waiting each and every man over the challenging and infinite sea of life. To accomplish their task, Ubi Maior employ all the usual moods, instruments and styles of progressive rock and particularly those of the so called Italian prog.

Davide Pagin created the beautiful artworks for "Nostos".


This doesn't mean "Nostos" should be considered as a mere derivative music: as for the Homeric saga, these musicias succeed in reworking and reviving their favourite genre, that sounds fresh and new to thelistener. I like, for example, how well they mix here sung themes and instrumental passages and the way the balance down tempo and up tempo sections. Another strong point, as always in good Italian bands, is the beautiful contrast between acoustic and electric instruments. Try this and follow the hero coming back home. And prog actually is home for me.

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