Yugen

Italian avant-prog ensemble Yugen came together at the end of 2004 under the impetus of guitarist Francesco Zago and music festival organizer and ArtrOck label head Marcello Marinone. Zago envisioned a group uniting prog rock and chamber music elements, and began writing compositions for Yugen, whose membership by early 2005 included, in addition to Zago, keyboardist Paolo Botta, reed players Markus Stauss and Peter Schmid, and bassist Stephan Brunner. As the year progressed, Zago continued to write additional music, and the band's lineup expanded to include the diverse instrumentation required to realize the guitarist's vision: percussionist Massimo Mazza, multi-instrumentalist (everything from harpsichord to shakuhachi to theremin) Giuseppe Olivini, pianist Maurizio Fasoli, violinist Elia Mariani, and clarinetist Marco Sorge. By the time Yugen commenced the recording of their first album, Labirinto d'Acqua (Water Maze), in June 2005, the lineup also included drummer Mattia Signò; noted American avant-prog drummer Dave Kerman; and -- on mandolin -- Tommaso Leddi, a member of Stormy Six, one of the original bands that participated in the Rock in Opposition collective during the late '70s. Labirinto d'Acqua was recorded between June 2005 and January 2006, and ultimately featured a total of 14 musicians -- not all playing together on every track, it should be noted. The album was mixed and mastered by Udi Koomran at Ginger Studio in Tel Aviv, Israel, and saw release in late 2006 as the first album on Marinone's ArtrOck label. Two years later, Yugen's second CD, Yugen Plays Leddi: Uova Fatali, was issued as the fifth ArtrOck release; entirely comprised of Tommaso Leddi compositions, the album made an even more explicit connection between Yugen and the Rock in Opposition...