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Museo Rosenbach

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Museo Rosenbach in the 1970s. Courtesy of [1].

Museo Rosenbach is an Italian progressive rock band whose album Zarathustra, in spite of the limited success it scored in the 1970s, is today considered a cornerstone of the genre.

History

Museo Rosenbach was born around 1971 as Inaugurazione del Museo Rosenbach ("Rosenbach Museum's Inauguration") from the fusion of two cover bands in the second half of the 1960s, La Quinta Strada and Il Sistema. These bands played covers by Jimi Hendrix and rock groups such The Kinks, The Animals and Steppenwolf, but also by Rhythm & Blues stars like Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett. As to the name of the band, some say it was inspired by those of Premiata Forneria Marconi and Banco del Mutuo Soccorso: after a bank and bakery (forneria), the band thought it was reasonable to create a "Museum" dedicated to the German publisher Otto Rosenbach. Others point to the eclectic collections of the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia as the inspiration. Either way, the band appears to have been attracted to the poetic name, which means «brook of roses» in German.

Influenced, among others, by Pink Floyd and Banco, they shifted to a solid progressive sound releasing their famed work Zarathustra in April 1973. The songs showed some classical influences with heavy keyboards, mellotron and Hammond passages, as in the best Italian prog style. Vocalist Stefano Galifi showed a harsh, very distinctive voice and keyboard player Pit Corradi added a touch of originality to the band sound. The band had problems for their supposed right-wing inclinations stemming from the all-black cover, the Mussolini image in the LP collage and the Nietzsche-inspired lyrics.

File:Rare and Unreleased.jpg
The weird cover of Rare and Unreleased (1992).

First lineup was short-lived, splitting soon after the album and some live concerts in 1973. The former member who enjoyed the greatest success in his solo career was drummer Giancarlo Golzi, who enrolled in Matia Bazar pop band.

Their second album of new material, Exit, was published only in 2000, with a new formation including only Alberto Moreno and Golzi of the founding members. It showed a more commercial mood than the previous one. In 2002 Museo Rosenbach accepted the Finnish magazine Colussus proposition to take part the experiment of translating the Nordic poem Kalevala into rock music. The short suite "Flower of Revenge" was therefore composed, the dark and gloomy tale of hatred between brothers, sung in English. Museo Rosenbach is currently preparing a new album that will be on the market by the end of 2005.

Lineups

1973 lineup

  • Stefano Galifi - vocals
  • Enzo Merogno - guitar, vocals
  • Pit Corradi - keyboards
  • Alberto Moreno - bass, piano, mellotron
  • Giancarlo Golzi - drums, percussion, vocals

Current lineup

  • Alberto Moreno - bass and mellotron
  • Giancarlo Golzi - drums
  • Marco Balbo - classical and lead guitar
  • Andrea Biancheri - vocals
  • Marioluca Bariona - keyboards

Discography

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