Le Orme – Michi dei Rossi and Aldo Tagliapietro on the Band’s Past, Present and Future (20

Interview date: 04.10.2007

In the late sixties, Le Orme were still playing psychedelic music that wasn’t all that interesting or innovative. But in the early seventies, after the guitarist left, they turned into a mighty trio. Plenty of people called them the Italian Emerson, Lake and Palmer, but that would be unfair. Over a long career they’ve made a heap of excellent, innovative albums, and most experts rank them (alongside Premiata Forneria Marconi and Banco del Mutuo Soccorso) in the holy trinity of Italian prog bands. In the nineties, after a few more commercially minded albums, they got back on the road to their old glory and thrilled all their fans. Rockline sat down with two legends, Aldo Tagliapietra (vocals, bass, guitar, sitar) and Michi dei Rossi (drums, percussion).

Rockline: First off, I should say I’m a big fan of the Italian progressive scene. Where do you see yourselves within it, in terms of importance and consistency? Personally, I’ve always felt Le Orme had the most consistently good albums of any Italian band.
Le Orme: In Italy, three prog bands matter the most. That’s PFM, Banco and Le Orme. They’re all more or less on the same level. It all depends on the listeners and their tastes. Some like PFM more, some like Banco,…

What was your relationship like with other bands from Italy, like Banco, PFM, Balletto di Bronzo, Quella Vecchia Locanda…?
We’re friends with these bands and we often run into each other and hang out. That goes for all of them except Quella Vecchia Locanda, who aren’t playing live at the moment.

Have you ever thought about teaming up with any of these bands on a joint project?
We sometimes play together, but if you mean records, we’d definitely love to work with somebody, we just haven’t managed it yet, because it’s sometimes hard to line up schedules.

What were your influences in the beginning? Lots of people say you were heavily influenced by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, but personally, apart from the frequent use of Hammond organs and the fact that you performed as a trio, I don’t really see big similarities.
We definitely liked Emerson, Lake and Palmer a lot, but our music is quite different. In the beginning, when we became a trio, we listened to a lot of Nice records, just for practice. Maybe that’s why journalists like comparing us to Emerson, Lake and Palmer so much.

I’m also curious about your lyrics. How did you pick, and how do you still pick, the themes for the lyrics on your albums? Felona e Sorona, for example. How did that concept come about?
In the seventies we wrote the music first and only then the lyrics. We got our inspiration for the lyrics from the music. Now we write music and lyrics at the same time. For us, Felona e Sorona was a kind of experiment. In England there were lots of bands putting out concept albums, but in Italy it was pretty new.

How did you decide to play more acoustic music, like on the album Florian? Was it planned, or did it just happen naturally?
We never liked repeating ourselves. We like making different albums, we like to experiment. We enjoyed doing that. We wanted to do something that was new for us. The idea for the acoustic approach was Toni’s (Antonio Pagliuca).

Do you think Italian prog bands in the eighties had to make more accessible music? Or was the market simply no longer open to prog bands like you?
We still call the eighties the dark age. We did our best stuff before disco pushed us off the scene. We were confused. What was going on? What was right? What was wrong? It was really hard. The only way to survive was to write simpler stuff. It was about survival.

Can you tell us why Toni Pagliuca left?
We don’t like to talk about that. Things like that just happen.

After he left, it seemed like Le Orme came back to life. There’s a completely new energy in the music. Would you say his departure turned out to be the right decision?
Yes. It was a good decision for us and for him.

How would you compare your newer music with the albums from the seventies? I notice a lot of similarities between stuff like Florian and certain tracks on Elementi and Il Fiume.
Yes, you’re right. We found again what used to be ours. We went back to our roots. Now we feel very free.

Lately (over the last fifteen years) there’s been a lot of talk about a revival of symphonic prog, with bands like The Flower Kings and Spock’s Beard. Do you see yourselves as part of that revival? What do you think of such bands?
We’ve met some similar bands at prog festivals. They’re very good, and we don’t think it’s a revival. Their music is pretty modern, and we think it’s new progressive music.

Do you think audiences today are more or less open to music of your kind? I’m mainly thinking of the crowds at prog festivals.
Prog fans are very receptive and open-minded. We really liked the crowd at NEAR fest. It was similar in Italy in the seventies. Sadly, that’s no longer the case right now. These days it’s pretty tough for prog bands in Italy.

Are you planning any gigs in Slovenia, or at least somewhere near it? I know you played in Koper once.
We’re wrapping up our summer tour now, then we’ll take a break, and in the winter we’d like to play some club shows.

Do you have any plans for a new album?
There are no plans for a new album at the moment. Right now we’re preparing the concert from NEAR fest, because it will probably turn into a live album.

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