snobb Vocalist/voice artist Claudio Milano is a stand-alone figure on the Italian music scene. A singer with wide-range operatic vocals, Claudio works on a fragile soil mixing classical music, free improvisation, Italian tradition and progressive rock aesthetics. Knowing Claudio almost for two decades, I still can't stop wondering about his ability to disappear for years and then return on the scene as a Phenix back again.

Newest Claudio release - double-CD album "ManifestAzioni live 2011​-​2023" contains previously unreleased live music from the last twelve years, recorded by Claudio's different projects and collaborations.

The double set opens with very eloquent music - true rock song, recorded by legendary Rock Progressivo Italiano band Area descendants, Area Open Project, with Claudio responsible for the vocals. In the early 70s, Area was a very popular band led by Greek-Egyptian vocalist Demetrio Stratos, renown by his theatrical vocals and unusual voice improvisations. Claudio obviously pays respect to Stratos, one of his big influences. An excellent piece for fans of progressive rock with original Area bassist Ares Tavolazzi on board.

Six set's tracks come from I Sincopatici - Milanese keys/bass/drums trio, accompanying Claudio singing the songs based on Dante Alighieri's poetry. Six more tracks are recorded with "border music" band Strepitz, with feel-able folklore influences and rock arrangements (Area's original guitarist Paolo Tofani's three-necks guitar soloing on "Aghe Aghe benedete" is impressive).

There are pieces on this set coming from some of Milano's own projects from the previous decade (multimedia NichelOdeon and duo with sounds artist Marco Tuppo InSonar) as well.

Second set's disc opens with a vocal-only composition, based on controversial Bulgarian author Nikolay Rainov (who studied Theology in Russia) "Il Diavolo Creatore". "Pan’s Pot" is a duet with voice artist Arrington De Dionyso and "SenseNonSex" is a vocal duet with Giulia Zaniboni.

Being of very eclectic origin, this album's material fits together quite well, especially on CD 1. With great recording quality considering its a collection of different periods archival recordings, and feel-able Italian progressive rock tradition, this release is probably a bit more framed than many of Claudio's previous works. Those already familiar with Claudio Milano's art will no doubt enjoy this, and probably it will attract some new listeners as well.

snobb Italian seven-octave vocal range singer Claudio Milano, after a seven years gap, returns with an impressive album, released under the NichelOdeon/InSonar & Relatives name. What we got here in fact is a collection of music, recorded with different line-ups in different places all around Italy during 2014-2019.

Extremely eclectic, this album in whole works surprisingly well as if it was recorded at once, according to (mad) scenario. In a few words, what happens here can be described as the soundtrack for (nonexistent) "Picasso's Guernica" movie, recorded by Frank Zappa's XXI century incarnation after his return back to fatherland of Sicily. Quite cinematographic, album's music combines prog rock, metal elements, baroque organs, Gothic darkness, operatic vocals, Weimar Republic operetta, classic strings, bombastic pathetic atmosphere cross-mixed with Diamanda Galas aesthetics and... many many more.

Vocals (and lyrics) are still a king here, so I would recommend to find the lyrics in the language you understand (originally - in Italian),it helps (English translation has been kindly provided to me by Claudio himself). As with many of Claudio's previous albums, the main problem is who the listener is. The album is so radically eclectic, that it's difficult to imagine which musical genre fans will accept it as "music produced for them". Those fearless hearts, searching for something they probably never heard in their life, must give it chance.

siLLy puPPy Both NICHELODEON and InSONAR are projects initiated by the vocal star of the show Claudio Milano who created these projects to be large collectives designed to revolve around a rotating cast of avant-proggers who want to create some most unconventional music. NICHELODEON dates back to 1997 while InSONAR only began in 2010. On this collaborative affair the two collectives merge to bring us some of the most fluid and visceral music i have ever heard. This is one of the most complex albums i have ever listened to and likewise one of the most difficult to review. Everything about this album demands extreme diligence in paying attention to the details. Even the titles are complex! This album is officially a collaborative release called UKIYOE (MONDI FLUTTANTI) / QUICKWORKS & DEADWORKS. The artists are NICHELODEON with InSONAR and FRANCESCO PALADINO. Let me clarify this for you. This is a double release that contains one CD and one DVD. The CD musical journey is performed by NICHELODEON with InSONAR and it is titled UKIYOE (MONDI FLUTTANTI) while the DVD part was created by FRANCESCO PALADINO and is titled QUICKWORKS & DEADWORKS. The theme of the whole project actually revolves around water. Water is the focus because it such a main component of all of life and the main constituent that allows our planet to sustain it. This work is chock full of symbology and once i inquired into the subtler meanings i was bombarded with all kinds of analogies, proverbs and unlikely influences. Worry not for you don't have to understand all of this to enjoy this music but it does allow you to explore as deeply as you wish. Putting that into the context of water, you can either choose to merely skim the shallow shores and only get your feet wet or if you are brave enough you can plunge into the deepest recesses of the the oceanic trenches where only bio-illuminating creatures break the cold abysmal monotony.

Claudio has explained to me that these musical expressions were created in the 2013-14 time continuum when he experienced profound insight and spent an entire month creating the accompanying beautiful paintings and illustrations that grace front, back, the inside and out with a whole little booklet included. Everything on this release is tied to the overall theme starting with the visual art itself. The jellyfish serve as an omen of how beauty can be dangerous, fragile and most of all fleeting, which brings us to the title of the album.

The title of the album UKIYOE comes from UKIYO MONOGATARI which is a concept that was put out in the first works of Asai Ryōi (浅井 了意?, c. 1612 ? January 29, 1691) who was a Bhuddist priest in the early Edo period in Japan. UKIYO is the concept that life is transitory and nothing lasts forever and that one's energy must be put into lasting spiritual matters that would continue on to the next life. I see the jellyfish as representing the beauty of the physical world but the dangers of handling matters in the wrong way can leave you wounded and scarred with precious energies wasted and a spiritual stinging. The imagery of the jellyfish and impressionist artwork lends well to the music at hand with its often ethereal and ability to evoke a sort of liquid conscious response to its fluidity and rhythmic drifting hither and tither like a jellyfish at the mercy of the tides. The music itself seems to follow the same ebbs and flows only in the sonic ethers of music.

The music was constructed in a most ambitious way. Each member created his/her own arrangement for each track with Claudio Milano acting as the conductor as well as avant-opera star. The tracks were mixed with the contributions of the acting members in order to create the larger-than-life kaleidoscope of sound that this music exudes. On board with this project are several musicians with an interactive orchestra that amounts to over 30 individuals. The music is really hard to pigeon-hole into any particular category and is fairly eclectic but there is a strong underlying theme of both Mediterranean cafe music with a heavy use of traditional accordion sounds, classical opera and on the wilder sides can conjure up Henry Cow, early King Crimson and even some jazz, electronica, drones and percussive outbursts that find their way into the mix. The music tends to begin the album on the more accessible side and ends with a kind of Krautrock chaotic ending.

Each track is filled with complex life experiences dealing with all kinds of human experiences that tend to be quite difficult. For example:

1 Veleno (Poison) is a tale of a failed son who wants to die but cannot bring himself to suicide for love of his parents so he turns to the fantasy world to escape life's disappointments

2 Fi(j)ùru d'Acqua (Flower/Son of Water) takes lyrics from a Rilke poem and deals with concept of nature as benign and creator of all beauty.

3 Marinaio (Sailor) deals with the concept of needing to kill in order to survive and how promises can become betrayal.

4 Ohi Mà - Nel Mare che hai Dentro ? (Oh Mother! About the Sea you have Inside) is about the reduction of dreams and dignity to mere economics in order to survive in a world where everything has become a market commodity. This track is sung in a local dialect of Southern Italy.

5 I Pesci dei tuoi Fiumi (The Fish of your Rivers) is taken from Ezekiel in the Old Testament where God is described as the Bringer Of Abundance.

6 MA(r)LE is the agglutination of "Mar (sea)" and "Male (evil)" in Italian and represents the sea as a bearer of death as an uncontrollable fury such as experienced by the shipwrecked people in the short DVD film that accompanies the disc.

Ah, now for the film! It is a short one at just over 26 minutes. It is tied in to the overall theme of the music and is presented in a surreal detached manner. In this regard it reminds me of "Eraserhead" in the fact that there are long dramatic pauses accompanied by TV narration and just plain strangeness! It starts with two couples, one older and one younger staring at the boat that they had to dock because of a reported storm. They decide to wait it out in one section of a castle i presume. The next twenty minutes or so shows them mostly staring at each other but interacting in strange ways. I have only seen this once and it obvious there's all kinds of subtext to it all. The dialogue is minimal with most talk being from a TV narration about snakes! It is very surreal to say the least. Claudio's vocal acrobatics pop in from time to time with some accordion music. I was originally unable to view the DVD because of those damned regional variations that prevent us in North America from viewing European DVDs but Claudio was gracious enough to convert it to a file i could download. Grazie :)

All i can say is this is one strange album but it has more than enough to reel you in instantly and then keep you hooked by constantly unleashing new surprises. It is as murky as the turbulent ocean and as placid as an alpine lake. The interaction of the musicians is impeccable and the orchestral cooperation is on the highest level of professionalism. I will have to count this one as a slow burner and one that gets better the more i experience it. Claudio has the vocal range of Celine Dion but the creative display of Mike Patton. The accompanying vocalists seem to dance together in the sonic dance floor and the instrumentation can create the most pleasant and addictive melodies or act as the musical equivalent of a tsunami crashing against the shores sweeping all life and structures out to sea. While i can't say i comprehend every aspect of the symbology i have learned about this release, i can say that i have been really enjoying this one a lot lately and since this is my very experience of anything by NICHELODEON or InSONAR i have high hopes that there is much more intricate creativity just bursting out in other releases. Highly recommended.

1967/ 1976 Normally a band as Nichelodeon isn't proper my type of bands. Normally I said. Isn't in fact this case. I admit that I'm a good reviewer if Claudio Milano contact my because I read a review about this CD and for DVD. Now It is the time for this review. But I have some problem with my mind because this album is from 2010 and not from 70's...!!! Said this I think that this album is a great example of Dark Avant-Prog. But in my mind this album is also a great example of Free Jazz in Hatfield and The North/ Soft Machime/ Matching Mole style but with more positive mental madness because in this case the use of psychedelic (Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd style) is on the music. More that music in this album I heard good moments of "Creative Solism", i.e. the idea of a performer who is "the author of himself, the performer's of other's writing, or the creator of a parallel score". In this cause the sound that I heard are not part of poetry or lyricism but a mass of chaos, a sort of emotional chaos as the mind would open before me like a blast of an atomic bomb, sweet and gentle. Because of this I have moments of discomforts, without, however, understand the extent to which the human mind can go. Because yes, this music is a modern version of a medieval madrigal or gregorian chants! And, still, because of this I think that a pure essence of this album are the atmospheres. But in truth the atmospheres aren't new. In fact I think that these atmospheres are similar to Goblin or Black Metal atmospheres, also that in this case the instruments are noise machines, field recordings, toy and ethnic instruments, percussions, woodwinds, electric and acoustic instruments and themerin.

Good as example of avant garde and "Creative Solism" "Il Gioco Del Silenzio" is a fundamental album for all who love Free Jazz and other form of psychedelic madness in music. And for who love Opus Avantra.

1967/ 1976 It is not easy to put the feelings in the foreground. Often look far is the first thing I do. Even in love. Fantasizing I try to study situations that could happen. Above all, I happened recently. Also because it is from February to seek an opportunity to declare my feelings for a girl who is half my age. I'm afraid of losing it as a friend, because I do not think she can understand me. Even for just the age difference. Of course, then I know people who married despite 15 years of age difference and feel that I must try. We are advocates of our existence and our actions and we must be to defeat what it is not just moving the pieces correctly. I like to go into a monastery or in a medieval church and try to read the stones, trying to feel the power involved, invoking God and the magic of the place. I like to love and be loved. The sexual act should not, for me, just be the penetration. To me enough caresses, kisses, sharing of feelings. Share with my wife, listening to a CD, watching a flower... The joy and pain. This is, for me, love. I know that Giulia is a girl who has visions similar (and equally certain to me) because I know his family very well and I know that we would complement each other.

Listening to "L'urlo rubato", the first CD of Claudio Milano, I feel really strong pulse. Meanwhile, "Ma le serve di Genet?" is a good start, however I remain imprinted in the mind as it should. Probably because the medley catch my mind most of the first two compositions, which have a very good piano. For me, because of what I wrote above, is "Hamlet" to conquer more my mind. All that is medieval catch me, abducting my soul. There are moments in "Hamlet" I, personally, I do see the scene described, it becomes almost impossible for me to isolate the music from virtual reality built from my mind. I visited many medieval places and I have to admit that see them again when I listen to "Hamlet". And, always listening to "Hamlet" I think Giulia and all the girls that I have not been able to understand and, consequently, I could not love. "Building Up A Cathedral From Me" provokes in me similar sentiments. In this case the music is more modern, baroque, dare I say. Even Rock, what if I may. But, other than as described, equal to the music of "Hamlet"! Why are the sounds, instruments and electronic sounds to be different. There is something Gothic, something locked up in ourselves that we must not explode. What can not explode. But that inevitably explodes. A snowfall... Hot chocolate with our beloved woman in a cold day in winter and spring magically becomes!

Certainly listening to the "stolen The Scream" goes beyond music. it is all a search for an answer that is not there, trying to lift our soul to something that does not exist. That, however, is before our eyes. It is not easy utopia!