Le Orme

05-17-11

Le Orme

Le Orme are one of the more accessible Italian 1970’s progressive rock bands.  The core of the band is Aldo Tagliapietra (bass & vocals), Tony Pagliuca (keyboards) and Michi Dei Rossi (drums).  All of the singing is in Italian.  There are 2 x overlapping 60’s albums by Le Orme (“Ad Gloriam” and “L’Aurora”), still in the Italian pop group vein.  The list below are their 1971 – 1982 releases, and of greatest interest:

Collage (Philips Italy, 1971)

Uomo di Pezza (Philips Italy, 1972) approx. “Man of Rags”

Felona E Sorona (Philips Italy, 1973)

Contrappunti (Philips Italy, 1974)

Smogmagica (Philips Italy, 1975)

Verita Nascoste (Philips Italy, 1976) approx. “Hidden Truth”

Storia O Leggenda (Philips Italy, 1977) approx. “Story and Legend”

Florian (Philips Italy, 1979)

Piccola Rhapsodia Dell’Appe (Philips Italy, 1980) approx. “Small Rhapsody of the Bee”

Venerdi (DDD / RCA Italy, 1982) (CD issue was called “Biancavene” on Replay Italy)

Happily, there are 2009 re-mastered CD’s of the Philips titles, so if original Italian LP’s are not easy to find, you can get very good sounding CD’s.

I first went to Italy in 1979, and I got to meet Aldo Tagliapietra of Le Orme, thanks to an introduction that I was given by my late friend Tony Harrington, who knew the band (from their time in Los Angeles, recording “Smogmagica”).  When I met him, they had recently completed recording “Florian” (which is named after an old, fancy café in Venice).

In addition to their 9 x Philips albums, there were a few non-LP singles, notably “Canzone D’Amore” (1976) – I am not sure if it has turned up on CD as a bonus track or if it’s on any of the many “Best Of” CD’s.

There is also an excellent 2CD set in Japan called “Live Orme” (King Records, 1993) – which has a lot of not-entirely-professional live recordings of the band during their peak years (initially, it was a 2LP set in 1986, and expanded greatly when it became available on CD).

In 1984, Aldo Tagliapietra made his first solo album, “…Nella Notte” – which continued very much in the style of the last Orme album “Venerdi” (1982).  I do not think this album was ever issued on CD.

The original group re-formed around 1990 and recorded at least two more albums, “Orme” (1990) and “Il Fiume” (1996).  I think both Aldo and Tony have now retired from the present-day Le Orme, so I really can’t recommend anything after “Il Fiume”, as I’ve not heard any of it.