Artist : Zio

Album : Flower Torania

Release Date : 25-01-2020

Added : 19-02-2020

'Zio' is the project of drummer 'Jimmy Pallagrosi' (former drummer of 'Karnataka' - see here) who wrote and composed a concept album of progressive rock with prestigious singers who play the 4 characters of the story: we find 'Hayley Griffiths', the former singer of 'Karnataka' who should release an album in 2020 with the 'Hayley Griffiths Band', 'Heather Findlay' the former singer of 'Mostly Autumn' which continues a solo career (see last album here and the last live here),' That Joe Payne 'which was singer of the progressive rock group 'The Enid' and 'Franck Carducci' (see his latest album here). 'Flower Torania' is the story of Alan who has to face trials in three magic realms to be able to recover the Torania flower which will help a little girl names Belbi to smile again beacuse she was condemned to never smile again.
On the music side, it is a progressive opera with quite different atmospheres from each other and this inside the different titles which range from 2 minutes to 8 minutes each. For example, we go from a short melancholic piano/voice introduction ‘Ride Along’ to ‘X-Ray’ which develops a progressive rock alternating calm and energetic passages in which the vocal and instrumental arrangements are sought after and complex. It is in the middle of the opus that we have the 4 longest developments that all come out of the classic progressive schemas with multiple influences between pop, rock and metal and many changes of rhythm within each composition, each bringing great originality but necessarily requiring several listenings to draw fromthem all the richness.

In summary, 'Jimmy Pallagrosi' with talented artists releases an extraordinary progressive opera with multiple juxtaposed influences, which makes it an album quite apart and certainly reserved for an informed public because difficult to tame...

Line Up / Musicians

Jimmy Pallagrosi (Drums), Hayley Griffiths (Vocal), That Joe Payne (Vocal), Heather Findlay (Vocal), Franck Carducci (Vocal), Olivier Castan (Keybords), Lizzie Hayes (Bass), Marc Fascia (Guitar), Richard Henshall (Guitar), Alex Lofocco (Bass), Cagri Tozluoglu (Orchestration), Alfonso Alfano (Accordion)