Ipotesi (1972)
Ipotesi starts off in the grand tradition of Italian prog with some native narration, similar to I Giganti and Pholas Dactylus. Some fluttering flute, organ, guitar, bassoon, piano, and impassioned vocals follow. Oh yea, this is the classic Italian prog sound as we know and love it. The jarring dynamic and meter changes equate to elements of Capitolo 6 and Osanna. There's a bit of underlying folk recalling the pastoral moments of Formula 3 and Premiata Forneria Marconi. There's also a light amount of chamber classical music, leading some to compare it to the not-known-yet RIO movement. I see it more of being a highly creative one-off album that did not follow any particular movement, nor did anyone hold then up as an example to imitate. There's also plenty of loose jamming on Side 2 that I find highly appealing in what one would think to be a highly structured setting.
Interesting to note that the narrative one must follow on RYM is that the vocals are terrible. No idea where that notion comes from. They are of-the-era and of-the-scene. Histrionic and passionate, I wouldn't want to hear it any other way.
There weren't a whole lot of Italian progressive rock albums from the early 1970s that were still relatively unknown going into the current century, but Ipotesi was one of them. The album was completely ignored in the reissue market until 2007. I recall hearing about Gruppo d'Alternativa in the 90s, but the running narrative of the catalogs of the time was that they were "experimental" which has a different meaning to me than what the group were about. No more or less experimental than Pholas Dactylus, an accepted classic even back then. So I too ignored this album, which was an obvious mistake. Acquired the LP some 17 years ago, and never looked back.
Ownership: 1972 Harvest (LP). Gatefold. The stock image from Discogs is brighter than the actual album.
2008 (acquired); 9/8/25 (review / new entry)
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