Photos Of Ghosts (Clear Vinyl)＜完全生産限定盤＞

＜イタリアン・プログレッシヴ・ロック名盤 / カラー・ヴァイナル再発シリーズ＞
1973年発売 Premiata Forneria Marconi (プレミアータ・フォルネリア・マルコーニ)『Photos of Ghosts』
日本で最初に紹介されたイタリアン・ロックの代表作にして最高傑作

EL&Pのグレッグ・レイクに見出されて英マンティコア・レコードから世界進出を果たした、プレミアータ・フォルネリア・マルコーニ(PFM)の3作目で初の英語ヴァージョン。
クラシカルな旋律や中世的な叙情性、地中海の香りを匂わせながらも、恐ろしいまでの演奏テクニックを披露し、イタリアン・ロックの素晴らしさを世界中に知らしめた名盤となった。英語詞は元キング・クリムゾンのピーター・シンフィールドが担当し、2曲でプロデュースも行う活躍ぶり。全7曲中5曲は、イタリアにおけるPFMの初期2作品(『幻想物語』と『友よ』)から選曲された再アレンジ・ヴァージョンで、「晩餐会の三人の客」はイタリア語オリジナル・ヴァージョン、「オールド・レイン 」は書き下ろしの新曲。
シングル・カットされた「セレブレイション」は世界中でヒットを記録した。1973年作品。180gクリアー・ヴァイナルでの限定発売となる。

PFM were already Italy's premiere progressive rock band when Emerson, Lake & Palmer signed them to the British trio's own Manticore label in 1972 and turned to King Crimson alumnus Peter Sinfield to write English-language words (sung phonetically) for this, the Italian group's debut international release. A phantasmagorical creation, Photos of Ghosts is filled with lush melodies and rich musical textures, all wrapped around Sinfield's frequently surreal lyrics, which seem an extension of some of his better work from King Crimson's Lizard and Islands albums. In contrast to ELP's music of the same period, PFM's music still retains some loud echoes of psychedelia, and the music has a refreshingly airy, open sound, free from the thick, heavy-handed Germanic textures generated by most of the rival U.K. classical rock bands of the period -- this album can stand next to competing works by Genesis, Yes, et al. from the same period. Additionally, PFM were not only unafraid of doing songs that changed time signatures radically, but reveled and thrived in such unusual structures, as demonstrated by "Il Banchetto," the one song on the album transferred -- at least in terms of lyrics -- intact from the original Italian release. The phonetically sung English lyrics also take on a special eeriness on track such as "Promenade the Puzzle." Oddly enough, the group actually became a better rock band in the year following this release, with a shift in personnel and the addition of bassist Patrick Djivas, and subsequent releases rocked harder and better, but they never had a finer, more consistently rewarding body of music in one place to their credit than this album. The various CD editions have been a major improvement over the fuzzy, indistinct mastering (and accompanying poor pressings) of the original 1970s-era U.S. vinyl release. The 2010 CD re-release also features significant bonus tracks, consisting principally of early mixes and unaccompanied backing tracks from much of the album -- all of which bring the running time up past 70 minutes -- and reveal a wealth of inner detail and instrumental textures that were otherwise masked on the finished album, plus the single edit of "Celebration." ~ Bruce Eder