Om åtta timmar... (MNW, 1976)
Swedish vocals, Italian vocals, spoken
word
International relevance: *
När dagen randas (Nacksving, 1978)
Swedish vocals, Italian vocals, instrumental
International relevance: *
Bella Ciao was like the central
station of progg – seemingly everyone passed through at one point
or another. Thus, collaborators are too numerous to mention but
sometimes included Kjell Westling,
Jan Hammarlund,
Lena Ekman and
Fred Lane. With participations also by members of the Narren theatre
group and their album often centered around a certain theme or topic, the albums have a slight conceptual feel.
Centered around Italian immigrant and Bella Ciao
founder Carlo Barsotti, their music often had a southern European and
even burlesque touch despite the serious working class message. Their
joyful playing makes their 1976 debut album ”Om åtta timmar...” one of the better political albums of the
era. The vocal style on these traditional Italian working class songs
is sometimes loud and a bit harsh, but if you can come to grips with
that, it's really an entertaining album.
”När dagen randas” is in a similar
style to ”Om åtta timmar”, but something is lacking – not only
two of the band's previous members Lena Ekman and Jan Hammarlund. It
simply isn't as frothingly playful, and I'm tempted to blame it on
the label change, from MNW to Nacksving, run by progg potentate Tommy
Rander. He had a remarkable talent for sucking breath and blood out of the best
music, leaving only an empty shell of political doctrines dead on the ground behind him. Not
that ”När dagen randas” is
that bad, but it never reaches
the level of their debut.
Bella Ciao released two more albums, "Misteri Buffo" also on Nacksving in 1980, and ”Bella Ciao sjunger 'Från 1945 till evigheten'” on their own impring in 1981.
from När dagen randas
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