Le Vergini Folli

"Short and sweet" would be a great way to describe Camerata Mediolanense's latest. The band was always fascinated with baroque and Renaissance music, but their hallmark was a darkwave/postpunk sound blended smoothly in with their classical Italian influences, and from the cover to the music, darkness is, at first, nowhere to be seen. Where Vertute, Honor, Bellezza ran the whole gamut of their sound -- opera, atmospheric neofolk, and electronica all took a turn --, every song on Le Vergini Folli seems as if it could have been played a hundred years ago, or three hundred years ago, to a general lack of comment. If it wasn't for Camerata Mediolanense's antecedents, we might think twice about reviewing this here, but despite its non-metal contents, founding composer Elena Previdi's skills in creating darker, colder types of music adapt just as well to her classical interests. Instrumentally, they are showcases of minimalism: There is no percussion other than what is used for effect on the first track, and few discernable electronic sounds; the vocals, piano, and violin comprise just about everything you will hear. But the songs are beautiful, enough sometimes to take one's breath away; Notte Di Novelli Sogni's delicate piano hook, one of my favorites, combines with a metallic-sounding background to deliver the closest thing to a pop hook this album has. Radiant as the album's songs may be, it soon becomes apparent that all the vintage Italian love songs aren't as much a departure from past work as an indulgence in influences that the band has always treasured, sort of like when Falconer released Armod. Pace Non Trovo brings things back to earth a bit with a darker and louder chorus that has Giancarlo Vighi's vocals taking up most of the lower range, and Quando 'L Sol is darker and more introspective in tone than its predecessors. Anyone who listened to Camerata Mediolanense albums for the martial percussions and darkwave influences will get caught by surprise by Le Vergini Folli, since just about all of that gets jettisoned on this album in favor of chamber music; and for all I know, metal listeners who had the patience for a post-punk album that happened to include Italian operatic singing might not be able to summon up interest in one that consists of nothing but. But anyone who sticks with it and listens all the way through won't regret it. Bandcamp: https://camerata-mediolanense.bandcamp.com/album/le-vergini-folli.