Entity - Il Naufragio Della Speranza (2024)

The Italian progressive rock band Entity was formed in the early 90s and emerged from Sardinia. In 2013 the first album Il Falso Centro was released. It was inspired by the themes of the exploration of inner life, of the irrational, of madness and of dreams. After a very long gestation and interruptions, finally in 2024 the band's second work Il Naufragio Della Speranza was released. The title evokes a famous painting by Caspar David Friedrich. With this release the band is completing the previous themes from their debut album. This work begun between 1994 and 1997 and was finally realised in 2024. On the new album the inner life of a young artist who sees his dreams shatter against reality is explored.

The line-up of musicians responsible for recording this second album includes Sergio Calafiura (vocals), Marcello Mulas (guitar), Gianluigi Longu (bass), Marco Panzino (drums) and Mauro Mulas (keyboards). Together they came up with a 50 minutes long album which includes 10 excellent songs. On those songs the band takes their influences from progressive rock but also from rock and jazz.

Album opener Derealizzazione starts a little bit like Turn It On Again from Genesis but moves in a totally different musical direction after one minute. The sound of the Dutch band Focus comes to mind when you hear Marcello Mulas on his guitar. Sounding like Jan Akkerman. Also Mauro Mulas and his organ sounds like Thijs van Leer. But this also is for a short moment because Mauro moves over to the acoustic piano and starts playing some kind of jazzy piano parts. After that the opening theme comes back and some fine Minimoog sounds can be enjoyed before Sergio Calafiura starts to sing his first vocal lines. Done with a lot of passion in his native language.

Follow up Inettitudine is the longest track on the album and has some fantastic different musical moods. It starts with some wonderful classical piano playing and again Calafiura joins with some passionate vocals. After a couple of minutes the whole band joins in and the songs gets into a higher gear. Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Premiata Forneria Marconi come to mind several times.

The Cristallo starts with acoustic piano and acoustic guitar before we can enjoy some wonderful emotional vocals again. Evoking the typical popular Italian singers. The song stays in a rather mellow mood and has a fantastic guitar solo.

Next up Osservatorio starts with some parts played on the drums before the whole band joins in on this more up tempo tune. Excellent guitar and keyboard parts can be enjoyed. Focus again comes to mind but also a band such as The Flower Kings.

Fuori Dalla Realtà is the shortest of the 3 short tracks on this album. It's a mellow instrumental only performed on the acoustic piano. Very beautiful playing if I may say so!

Next up time to dance the tango on Risveglio - Tango. Next to the piano and organ the electric guitar gets the leading role here with some fantastic playing. A great instrumental!

Again the guitar up front on Risveglio - Fuga. An Italian version of Focus? Maybe! Another strong instrumental!

The vocals return on Un Volto Senza Nome . The second short piece on this album. Another mellow piece of music with mainly the piano that is accompanying the vocalist.

The whole band in action again on the up tempo track The Enigma. Here it is as if Kansas from the USA are having an influence on the band.

The album ends with the last short track. Namely E Sarà Domani. Another mellow instrumental. Probably only performed by Mauro Mulas on his piano and synthesizer. It ends this fantastic album in style. Leaving many questions probably unanswered in the story.

Therefore maybe a follow up might be possible to this second part of this interesting story. But for now I really enjoyed this second part of this conceptual story divided over two album. How the first part sounded on Il Falso Centro still is a mystery to me because I didn't hear it yet. Hopefully I can play it one day also in my sound system opening for this excellent second album Il Naufragio Della Speranza made by this great band. Because that's what Entity from Italy is. Therefore I say to them grazie!