Celeste: Mellotronheaven

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Celeste is a very rare band from Italy, the music features not by virtuosity or intricate compositions, rather, by melodic lines and dramatic passages. They were founded in 1972. PFM could be underlined as a strong influence. Celeste have released albums in 1976, 1991 and 1992. Their self-tittled debut have majestic mellotron passages and restrained power, Principe Di Un Giorno(aka Celeste) is one of the best so called pastoral albums in progressive rock. Be prepared to listen to something soft and beautiful.

The music on the debut is mellow, full of mellotron, flute, piano, violin, alto & tenor sax, spinet, xylophone and nice acoustic guitars, it makes you feel better when you listen to it, simply beautiful. Lack of drums doesn’t take away too much from the music due to the increased interaction between flutes, acoustic guitars, piano and mellotron. This is probably the most beautiful album I have ever heard. The arrangements are impeccable.

Totally unexpectedly so releases Celeste on October 30, 2018 a new album, l Risveglio Del Principe. Translated to English The Prince’s Awakening. A very appropriate title hopefully. Celeste has some similarity to the fine Canadian band Harmonium.

Along with Museo Rosenbach, Celeste were born from the ashes of the legendary Il Sistema, a band from Sanremo whose only posthumous released recordings don’t give a real idea of what they were. Celeste was formed by drummer Ciro Perrino and sax player Leonardo Lagorio, who had played with Museo Rosenbach in their early days.

A second album, recorded in 1977, was released in 1991 with the obvious title of Celeste II. The music was closer to jazz-rock and very far from their debut album, this suffers from poor quality and unfinished recordings. Another album, born as a soundtrack and called I Suoni In Una Sfera was also released in 1992, more similar to their first work and including two songs also on the debut album.