With “La Materia del Suono” (The Matter of Sound), his first solo record, the multi-instrumentalist from Perugia allows his creativity to literally explode and flood into a mixture of music genres that is no other than the true spirit of progressive rock.
We are dealing with a cinematic concept album, the result of a compositional process that began years ago on the piano, an instrument that in fact dominates the stage from the first to the last note over a mainly jazz-rock and fusion rhythmic-melodic core. Countless contaminations are to be found throughout each track: classical, lyrical, ethnic, folk, and rock music, with several Moog and Mellotron performances that pay tribute to the Scandinavian prog, while flute and saxophone – played by Eva Morelli from Il Bacio della Medusa – frequently evoke jazz-rock and 1970s progressive music.
The album is fully instrumental, with the exception of the closing “Ciò che trascende” (What Transcends) whose lyrics are sung by the legendary Jumbo’s unmistakable vocalist Alvaro Fella, and explicitly invite the listeners to be always themselves and to constantly ask existential and philosophical questions in an increasingly materialistic and cold world.
With “La Materia del Suono” Diego Petrini eventually manages to make his few guest musicians sound like an orchestra, and proves himself to be a quite unique musical talent!
It is an extreme variety of the form that is explored here, and in this case delivered by a band that appear to be rather fond of applying a number of contrasting elements in their compositions. At the most extreme, we get passages of high tempo and high intensity escapades alternating with gentle, light toned and flowing escapades of frail and serene beauty here, the latter often being more minimalist in approach as well as execution. In between we detour into atmospheric laden, dark toned metal landscapes, a little bit of thrash metal oriented passages come calling too, with off kilter and quirky sections that flirt a bit with a more traditional variety of progressive metal included but also majestic, powerful and Wagnerian types of extreme metal being a paid a visit or two. That we have an instrument detail or two with a possible folk music inspiration may be worth noting too. Atmospheric laden, melodic backing vocals is a feature throughout, and while the lead vocals very occasionally may have a similar form of delivery the main parts of the lead vocals revolve around a style that is twisted, distorted - or both. An album to seek out by those who enjoy a more inclusive, borderline experimental and contrast-oriented variety of extreme progressive metal. (Olav M. Bjornsen at progressor.net's facebook)
Today more than ever, Ujig stand out for a unique fusion of progressive jazz, electronic contaminations and bold improvisations. Each song is a sound journey that reflects the group's philosophy: breaking the mold, exploring new dimensions and challenging conventions. And above all, valorizing differences, the band claims: «The Delta is the symbol of difference in mathematics. Difference is the uniqueness of every human being, Difference and one's uniqueness are a wealth and a treasure that must be preserved and defended in a world that tends more and more towards homologation».
