No Strange

No Strange was an Italian rock group influenced by psychedelic music that combined elements of rock and cosmic music. It was formed in Turin in 1980 by Salvatore Ursus D'Urso and Alberto Ezzu.

No Strange
Alberto Ezzu and Salvatore D'Urso, members of the musical group no Strange (2013)
Background information
OriginTurin, Italy
GenresPsychedelic rock
Years active1980 today
LabelsToast Records
http://www.areapirata.com/, http://www.psychoutrecords.com/
Websitehttp://www.toastit.com http://www.albertoezzu.net/NoStrange.html
MembersSalvatore D'Urso (vocals), Alberto Ezzu (guitar/vocals, keyboards, sitar)

Discography

Demo Tapes
Year Title Etichetta
1983 Rainbow Autoproduction
1984 Lisergic tomahawk Roller coaster Italy

Albums
Year Title Etichetta
1985 Trasparenze e suoni Toast Records Italy
1987 L'Universo Toast Records Italy
1991 Flora di Romi Toast Records Italy
2011 Cristalli Sognanti Psychout Rec. Italy
2014 Armonia Vivente - tra analogie e contrasti (double LP) Psychout Rec. Italy
2015 Universi e Trasparenze (10") Psychout Rec. - Area Pirata Italy
2017 Il Sentiero delle Tartarughe Psychout Rec. - Area Pirata Italy
2019 Mutter der Erde Psychout Rec. - Area Pirata Italy

Singles
Year Title Etichetta
1986 White bird/Fiori risplendenti Toast Records Italy

CDs
Year Title Etichetta
1998 Medusa Toast Records Italy
2011 Cristalli Sognanti Area Pirata Italy
2014 Armonia Vivente - tra analogie e contrasti (doppio CD) Area Pirata Italy

Albums Compilation
Year Title Etichetta
1985 Eighties colours Electric eye Italy
1987 What exactly is a joke Vinile/Crazy Mennequin Italy
1988 Oracolo Toast Records Italy
1993 Who are them? Face Records Italy
1993 Apocalisse di diamante Toast Records Italy

CDs Compilation
Year Title Etichetta
2006 Electric Psychedelic Sitar Headswirlers Vol 9 Purple Lantern Usa
2012 Welcome Back to the Eighties Colours Psychout Rec.
2012 HOFMANN'S KALEIDOSCOPE: Expiation of the Psychedelic Hunters Vol. I Vincebus Eruptum fanzine n°14

Side project

Alberto Ezzu Lux Vocal Ensemble
Year Title Etichetta
2006 CD Consonanze armoniche, Ostinati Ritmici e Veri Bordoni Immobili Cooperativa Primainsieme Italy
2011 LP Consonanze armoniche, Ostinati Ritmici e Veri Bordoni Immobili (double LP - 3 bonus tracks ) Psychout Rec.
2013 CD Il Fuoco del 6° Armonico sulla Luce della Dominante partendo dalla Madre Fondamentale (con in mente Zarathustra) Hic Sunt Leones e Arte, Cura e Trasformazione
2017 CD Le Litanie di Ra Hic Sunt Leones
2019 LP L'Uscita delle Anime verso la Luce del Giorno Psychout Rec.

AlmaMantra
Anno Titolo Etichetta
2019 CD AlmaMantra Hic Sunt Leones

Alberto Ezzu Lux Vocal Ensemble

It was psychedelia in the beginning. Since the 1970s Ezzu has been following the same dream, the dream of his own generation to expand the borders of the mind. Through the years he has never given up that quest, even though things have changed and today he can say with Socrates “know yourself”. He has consistently followed his path going through all kind of music and sound experiences. “No Strange” experience was “something absolutely original” [1] and it stood apart in the Neo psychedelic Italian scene whose interest was in the sound but also in the hair-cut and clothes of British and American bands of the 1960s and 1970s. No Strange benchmarks included the first Pink Floyd, Brainticket, Soft Machine and Third Ear Band but mainly the early works of Tangerine Dream and Popol Vuh, with whom they shared a common musical and spiritual quest. Twenty years later this new Ezzu project is inspired by the same love for sound, for the winding paths of thought, for the possibility of human mind. His way has changed because his life and his work have changed. After years of Zen meditation he has dedicated himself to music therapy and became a professional therapist. The Benenzon Model and its concept of helping relation has given the possibility to compare his mind, his thoughts and feelings with the mind, the thoughts and feelings of other people –being them patients or colleagues- and to constantly check himself and his progress in a sound filled environment. “Consonanze Armoniche, Ostinati Ritmici e Veri Bordoni Immobili» lives in the stream of popular and learned drone music and of avant-garde music which gets its inspiration into American Minimalism of authors like La Monte Young and Terry Riley, and also Alvin Curran and the duo Cuni-Durand which is particularly influential for Ezzu who studied Dhrupad singing with Amelia Cuni. The study of multi-note singing –whose tradition origins in Siberia Mongolia and Tibet- completes Ezzu’s technical background and gives to his style a personal and unique sound. In this work as in his previous “Il Fuoco del 6° Armonico sulla Luce della Dominante partendo dalla Madre Fondamentale – con in mente Zarathustra” (performed live but still not released) the sound is both avant-garde and ancient, primeval as if generated by the early wave motion of the Big Bang. The synphonia (a forefather of hurdy-gurdy with wheel stricken strings) played by Ezzu, the bass viola da gamba and the lute played by Raffaela Gottardelli e Guido Montegrandi in two out of four compositions in the CD, create a modal frame in which the solo singers weave delicate sound textures like slow spirals of incense smoke fading in the air. The first track, an Indian harmonium solo, and the final vocal duo with the Sicilian Maestro Raffaele Schiavo introduce and reshape the modal core stating and twisting it into an intangible –but dense and physical- intimacy. Music seems to graze an inner landscape of a deep and unsaid land. Maestri of harmonic singing like Marco Garri (a David Hykes student), Alberto Guccione (author of the CD-book Canto Armonico, Red Edizioni), and Raffaele Schiavo alternate short melodies to the long drones of the harmonic choir performed by Marco Buccolo (musicologist and composer), Pino Poclen, Rosella Lancina e Massimo Amelio the original members and backbone of the Ensemble. A recording out of time, suspended in a slow and almost unreal but constant flowing. The first hundred copies, numbered and signed by Ezzu himself are wrapped into fabric folders made by the quilt maker Raffaella Gottardelli – they will probably become collectors item as it is the first record by No Strange (transparent vinyl with a transparent and coloured cover) -. The Centro Musicoterapia Benenzon Italia presents this recording as part of its editorial policy. Together with the book Introduzione alla Musicoterapia by Ezzu - Messaglia, the proceedings of the II Convegno Internazionale “Musica tra Neuroscienze, Arte e Terapia”, the CD by Alberto Ezzu Lux Vocal and Instrumental Ensemble testifies the work done by the Centro in the teaching of multi-note singing to music therapist but also to musician and people who are interested into this technique.

Notes and references
  1. Antonio Bacciocchi, Buscadero, 1985, and Enciclopedia del Rock Italiano, «Arcana», Roma, Fazi Editore, 2006
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