Notturno Concertante

Progressive Rock Band

A Mellow Records Band...
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Notturno Concertante started as a duo in 1984. The name of the band was taken from a two guitars piece composed by Ferdinando Carulli, an italian musician who was one of the most important guitarists of 1800. Lucio Lazzaruolo (classical guitar and keyboards) and Raffaele Villanova released their first demo in 1985. It features five acoustic instrumental tracks. Part of these pieces will be included in their first album.
This demo received a good acclaim from progrock magazines in Europe and in Japan. In 1986 Lucio and Raffaele, with a little help from the vocalist Giancarmine Tammaro, released "Crystal Spirits", a more rock-oriented demo. For the first time they used a rhythmic section. In the same year a new demo is out; "My wordless chant" is a work where acoustic and electric stuff mingle. Giancarmine is now a permanent member of the band and his contribution is very important. "Resemblance", published in 1987 is a kind of summary of the music of the band; you can hear old & new tracks, the old ones re-arranged and now sung.
Meanwhile Notturno Concertante is a REAL group with Lucio, Raffaele, Giancarmine, Enzo Abbondandolo on bass and first Pasquale Pascuccio, later Michele Iacoviello on drums. In 1988 NOTTURNO has the first track published on vinyl (Nocturne) on an album called "Double Exposure" close to legends such as Anthony Phillips and Geoff Mann. "Screaming Cassandra in the desert" marks a real improvment for the band, they now have an always increasing following among progrockers. Their first album "The hiding place", recorded on 8-tracks in a private studio is released in March 1990 by the small french label Musea. It is considered as one of the best progressive rock albums in the italian scene and has been recently reissued on CD with bonus tracks by Mellow Records.
NOTTURNO begins to tour (The band played in Florence, Naples and Rome) with increasing success.

A big change in the group history is "Erewhon" their second album and the first for Mellow Records. Recorded at the band own studios "Transparent Music", "Erewhon" is a concept album about a society where things are really strange; the thieves are admired and the honest people live in the shadow; a place where nothing is right and everything is false; a place very close to Italy... The artwork is by Riccardo Mannelli, one of the best italian artists. In musical terms "Erewhon" is really different from the old stuff. Raffaele is now the singer, with the help of the female vocalist Betty Iandolo, while Lucio is more concentrated on keyboards. A few months later Mellow publishes a collection of new and live songs "News from nowhere", including also Marillion covers. "The glass tear" is the last and best album. Notturno is now Lucio on keyboards and classical guitars, Raffaele Villanova lead vocals and guitars, Sabrina Caprarella lead female vocals, Enzo Abbonandolo on bass and Patrizio Paladino on drums.

Not forgetting other two releases for Mellow: "Carpet crawlers" for the Genesis tribute and "Vision" for the Van Der Graaf Generator hommage.
Notturno Concertante guys are now recording "Ice" for the new Mellow Camel tribute while Lucio is setting up a new fully digital studio where the band will start recording the new album soon.