CATALANO & REMIGIO DUCROS, MASSIMO - La Fatica

"Intervallo present Massimo Catalano & Remigio Ducros's La Fatica, originally released in 1971. Massimo Catalano (who died in 2013) enjoyed a brief stint of fame after joining the cast of Renzo Arbore's cult TV show Quelli Della Notte, but he risked to be remembered only for those little, funny sketches he delivered on camera. A few people are aware of Catalano's great skills as a jazz trumpet player (he played with Louis Armstrong in his career), which he first nurtured with a band called Flippers (also featuring Franco Bracardi on piano and a very young Lucio Dalla on clarinet). For him, the step from jazz to library music was short and easy and he started working his friend Remigio Ducros, composer and piano player, husband of Daniela Casa and author of some rare and extremely refined library albums. The joint efforts of Catalano and Ducros produced two albums only: Idee 1 (1972), featuring Casa in a track, and the beautiful La Fatica, a weird, hard-to-file item, mixing avant-garde, prog moods, electro rhythms, jazz and musique concrète. It's almost impossible to guess what Catalano and Ducros were looking for, while making this album, but despite the troubles and difficulties during its recording process, listening to La Fatica is a breeze. It's a continuous surprise, actually, since every track features unexpected tricks and changes. And, exactly like in other Intervallo releases, the title evoke the noise of machinery, the fascination for science and technology and the beauty of factories: "Catena Di Montaggio Rapido" (Rapid Assembly Line), "Sesto Capannone" (Sixth Depot), "Officina Meccanica" (Mechanical Workshop), "Terapia Della Fatica" (Strain Therapy), "Saturazione" (Saturation), "Esperimento 320" (Experiment 320), "Esami Di Laboratorio" (Lab Tests), "Dopo La Tensione" (After The Tension). Edition of 400."