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In 18th century Europe, the baroque guitar evolved from an instrument with 5 courses to one with 6 courses - initially the courses were paired strings but later the consensus of popularity favoured single strings as is common today - so it was perfectly natural that someone would take this a stage further and add a 7th course (or string). Those advocating the 7-string guitar included French guitarist Napoleon Coste (1805–1883) who composed specifically for the instrument, and the Italian guitarist Mario Maccaferri (born 1900) who used additional unfretted bass strings (known as diapasons or bourdons) on his guitars.
The above pictured guitar is an Italian 7-string by Ermelinda Silvestri and dates to the mid 1890s. In keeping with most of Silvestri’s instruments it bears the butterfly inlay which was a trademark of sorts. The seventh string seems to be very close to the edge of the fingerboard, which suggests that it wasn’t intended to be fretted and would have been a diapason (or bourdon if you prefer).(via Guitar Blog)
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~ Wikipedia:Comunicato 4 ottobre 2011/en - WikipediaToday, unfortunately, the very pillars on which Wikipedia has been built - neutrality, freedom, and verifiability of its contents - are likely to be heavily compromised by paragraph 29 of a law proposal, also known as “DDL intercettazioni” (Wiretapping Act).
This proposal, which the Italian Parliament is currently debating, provides, among other things, a requirement to all websites to publish, within 48 hours of the request and without any comment, a correction of any content that the applicant deems detrimental to his/her image.
Unfortunately, the law does not require an evaluation of the claim by an impartial third judge - the opinion of the person allegedly injured is all that is required, in order to impose such correction to any website.
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Pangea, “Invasori”, 1976. This was one of those legends of Italian prog so rare that some didn’t believe it really existed. Apparently after the album was cut the label changed their mind and decided to stop some of their “progressive” projects in their tracks. So the original vinyl run was limited to a few boxes of promos with plain white covers and the legend grew.
The album is a sound painting, an avant-garde work covering a variety of styles. It veers from just a bit of symphonic to pop to jazz-rock to ambient to space, with a curiosity and desire to try a bit of everything. It is precisely the goal of wide-open experimentation that makes “Invasori” so difficult to categorize and yet so thrilling to discover. (via Progarchives.com)
Pangea 07 Al Bazaar (par RaulGordonG)
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“La pizzica, musique stridente, mêlant tambourin et violon, servait à guérir par la transe les femmes affectées, dites « tarentulées » [2]. Mingozzi suivait de près les sentiers ethnologiques frayés sur La Terre du remords par le communiste indiscipliné Ernesto De Martino [3] quelque temps auparavant. À cette époque, l’hégémonie de la rationalité intellectuelle bourgeoise – toujours profondément positiviste – se piquait d’éliminer cet héritage magico-religieux honteux, essentiellement relégué à l’espace domestique, et de refouler l’une des tares culturelles associée à « la question méridionale ».” via Article11.info)
Taranta: Pizzica salentina e Tarantismo nel Salento (I° p) (by SALENTOit)
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L’Uovo Di Colombo was another extremely unlucky group. Various music magazines of the era did them no favours, and EMI, their label, didn’t promote the band - not bothering with any advertising whatsoever. The group was invited to participate in the third avant-garde festival of Naples but, unfortunately, they didn’t get to play there. In spite of this, they managed to record a beautiful album in 1973, where ‘pure’ and symphonic rock go hand in hand perfectly, without any undue influences from foreign prototypes, apart from just slight hints of Keith Emerson. (via alexgitlin.com)
L’uovo di colombo (l’indecisione) (by dagodue)
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~ Italian Scientists Claim (Dubious) Cold Fusion Breakthrough - FoxNews.comThe problem is, they haven’t provided any details on how the process works. After their paper was rejected by several peer reviewed scientific journals, it was published in the Journal of Nuclear Physics— an online journal apparently founded by Rossi and Focardi. Further, they say they can’t account for how the cold fusion is triggered, fostering deep skepticism from others in the scientific community.
Based on this lack of even a theoretical basis for the device’s function, a patent application was rejected. Their credibility isn’t helped by the fact that Rossi apparently has something of a rap sheet, which allegedly includes illegally importing gold and tax fraud.
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“La mente vola” (Mind flies) is another long and complex track that begins with an hypnotic marching beat leading to a sudden wake up featuring dramatic vocals and “moog waves”… “Suddenly you see the sun / You breath the air, you pick up a flower / You don’t know anymore / What you were yesterday… Now you know / What’s the wish to prey / Now you know / What’s the strength to hope…
The art cover is wonderful and perfectly depicts the content of the album. It’s a painting by Adriano Marangoni spread on a three fold jacket featuring white doves with an olive branch in the beak dropping bombs on a dreamy landscape…
In 1973 this work passed by almost completely unnoticed and Alphataurus disbanded after a while during the sessions of a second album that was released, incomplete, only in 1993 by Mellow Records as “Dietro l’urgano”. Nonetheless this eponymous excellent debut work became later a “cult album” among Italianprog fans… (via Progarchives.com)
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They began their career in 1969, the odd name coming from a popular Playboy model of the early 60’s, and only released three singles in their five years career, the first two closer to the Italian beat of the time, while the third had a good rockier B-side in Torneremo ancora. though still far from their LP sound.
The group was a sextet in the picture on the cover of the 1969 single, reduced to a five-piece in the second, a year later.The album came in 1973, the vocal parts are short but very well made by singer Paradiso, leaving plenty of room to acoustic atmospheres and the sudden assaults of guitarist Vitolli and flute/sax/keyboards player Trama, and the seven tracks on the album are all highly regarding, with a mention for Smarrimentowith a sweet flute introduction, a furious guitar/flute interplay followed by the acoustic guitar based vocal parts that leads to a powerful guitar-driven end.
After the album release De De Lind played at 1973 Rassegna di Musica Popolare held in Rome, and at Be-In festival in Naples, with new drummer Fabio Rizzato. (via Italianprog.com) -
Que des pays étrangers s’ingèrent dans les affaires libanaises, on s’en doutait. Le Liban est, depuis longtemps, un champ d’affrontements de puissances régionales, de l’Iran à Israël, de la Syrie à l’Arabie saoudite. Plus inhabituel est le fait qu’une grande puissance reconnaisse ouvertement qu’elle mène une action permanente contre l’une des principales forces du pays, force qui participe, par ailleurs, au gouvernement. Ces pratiques américaines rappellent les interventions des Etats-Unis en France ou en Italie durant la guerre froide contre les partis communistes. Le Hezbollah, qui a rendu public son nouveau programme le 1er décembre 2009, est la seule force libanaise qui maintient une milice armée.
~ 500 millions de dollars contre le Hezbollah - Les blogs du Diplo -
Here is an outrageous double neck guitar in lyre guitar form. I presume those trumpet attachments are sound enhancement devices!
