Wednesday 29 September 2010

Le Orme - Ad Gloriam



Le Orme - Ad gloriam



One always finds that no matter how many records you collect or listen to over the years that some never venture far fom your record player, they become etched into some part of your psyche. These albums are boxed and wrapped up in brown tape by little electonic beings that hold no physical form, they are loaded into some sort of transportation device and shipped off for storage in the great vaults of your mind ready to be recalled when ever needed. You never grow bored of these albums, you dont have to be 'in the mood' to listen to them, on the contrary they inflict their mood upon you.

Le Orme's debut album entitled Ad Gloriam, released in 1969 is one such album for me: I cannot listen to this wonderfully trippy psychedelic sunshine pop Lp without beaming from ear to ear and being transported to a world where the sun always shines, birds sing loud from the trees and Great uncle Bulgaria lives underneath my garden of wild flowers, herbs and fruits.Every morning old Uncle Bulgaria and myself lay around in the sun, drinking his home brewed wine, smoking special herbs and discussing the great topics of the day. Occasionally we will pop Ad Gloriam on to the record player and think that... 'life is not so bad'


Yes the lyrics are all in Italian so we (as in my eldery Wombly friend and I) have no idea what they are about but that hardly matters as the vocals and harmonies on the album's title track (and throughout the rest of the album in fact) are simply beautiful. Ad Gloriam is laced with; trippy guitar work, hammond organ, flute, piano, harpsicord, strings and percussion from start to finish and hops around somewhere near the centre of a crystal clear pond filled with ethereal instrumentals, moody psych and soaring sunshine pop.


I know this album may not be considered by some to be as good as some of their more 'Progressive' material that they released as a three piece band in the early 70's but I really dont care, I think this album is beautiful, it makes me smile a lot, the instrumentation and vocals are brilliant in every song. Go out and track down a copy for yourself, take it into the garden and give Uncle Bulgaria a knock; he will answer the door with a great big smile, a bottle of the good stuff and a bag of strong smelling herbs, put the record on, lie on the grass, chat rubbish and let the day drift away.

Ad Gloriam



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1 comment:

  1. Total thumbs up. Love Italian prog. I'll be back. Great blog, sir.

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