Odessa

The group’s story begins by the end of 1998 thanks to Lorenzo Giovagnoli (vocals and keyboards) coming from previous experiences in the musical field, as the realization of a demo-tape with the group Oscuri Manifesti reviewied in several magazines and the impersonation of Jesus in the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar” set up by the company 11meno2 which won the prize “Città di Imola” back in 1995.
He called the other musicians (Valerio De Angelis - bass; Boris Bartoletti - guitar; Federico Filonzi - drums) to record the songs for the “Stazione Getsemani” CD, released by Mellow Records in November 1999 and enthusiastically reviewed in several Italians and foreign magazines (among them Psycho, Jam, Il Mucchio Selvaggio, Nobody’s Land, Prog-rèsiste, Reels of Dreams Unrolled). The CD contains nine songs, with a couple of cover (rearranged with personal style) of two groups from the Italian Progressive Rock of the seventies: Trip and Rovescio Della Medaglia.
Their first live appearance is at the “4° Omaggio a Demetrio Stratos”, Finals of the National Progressive Music Contest on July 1999 where they reach the 3rd position and a couple of their songs can be found on the compilation of the night (including a personal version of “Cometa Rossa” originally written by Area) released by Mellow Records in April 2000. Moreover they win the prize as “Best Group” at the musical contest “FaNote”. In the year 2000 they reach the third position at the contest “Pradellona Rock Festival”, they play again (with substitutes on guitar and drums…) at the “5° Omaggio a Demetrio Stratos” where they get the 2nd place, they play at the second edition of “Prog Nite” at Bloom Club in Mezzago (MI) where they’re warmly received by the public and finally on December 20th 2000 they perform at the Teatro della Fortuna in Fano (PS) a tribute to Deep Purple with Ian Paice guesting on Drums!!!
After a sabbatical year, they start again their live performances in 2002 with a new line-up featuring Giulio Vampa on guitar and Marco Fabbri on drums; they start gigging a lot and they win “Pescarock” contest and the “Best Song” prize at “FaNote”. With the new guys in the band they also re-arrange the songs of “Stazione Getsemani”…
May 2003 sees their first appearance abroad as they’re invited to play at ProgSud Festival in Marseille, where they get an incredible response from the audience: their exhibition ends with a jam session with Alain Chiarazzo (Eclàt’s guitar player) and several Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin covers which sets the place on fire!!!
Actually they’re writing material for a second CD of songs that will have to sound "progressively refined" but not "complicated". The new work is hopefully coming out by the end of the year…
The music they play finds its roots in the historical Italian Progressive Rock (Area and PFM are often mentioned as a term of comparison, the first particularly for the voice…) with an eye on harder (Deep Purple) or recent (Dream Theater) references; however, as a recent critic stated, “they’re born in the 70’s”…