News: Sensations' Fix to release a 2 CD archival album

Thanks to a note from Wayside Steve on Progressive Ears, we learned that Sensations' Fix plans on issuing a 2 CD set called "Music is Painting in the Air". The release date is set for September 24th.

Here's the press release: "Music Is Painting In the Air is a collection of new mixes and unheard music from Sensations' Fix's prolific output between 1974 and 1977. Revered as one of the great articulations of progressive music, Music Is Painting In the Air offers guide posts to those familiar with Sensations' Fix's amorphous catalog and an approachable primer to those just journeying on the sensational trip.

The story of Sensations' Fix begins - and never quite ends - with Franco Falsini. Born in Florence, Italy in 1948, Falsini became a teenage rock 'n' roll convert through a steady supply of 45s sent home by his London-based sister. Following his sister's footsteps to swinging 60s London, Falsini put his love of music into practice, fronting a space blues trio that riffed its way from the UK back to Italy in a Ford Transit.

Falsini became smitten by Vinnie Sherman, an American woman working as a waitress at a nightclub in Florence where Falsini was holding down a residency. The newlywed lovers made their way to Alexandria, Virginia in the summer of 1969. Arriving on August 15th, the first day of Woodstock, a spirit of freedom filled Falsini and fueled his creative proclivity.

Falsini blazed a trail for home recording that has impressed upon inward resourcing and reflecting musicians and DIY enthusiasts in the decades since. A technology stalwart, Falsini employed a floor model MiniMoog and a tricked-out Teac 4-track machine to transform the Virginia basement of the house shared with Sherman into a cosmic conduit and launch pad for Sensations' Fix.

The reach for space from a personal place is nowhere more apparent than on Fragments of Light, early basement recordings solicited by Falsini as deal demos and surprisingly flipped into the first of six Sensations' Fix albums released over the next five years. The up-close fidelity of Fragments - coupled with Falsini's emotive guitar leads and sparse, sentimental vocals - creates a private quality that separates the album from other extravagant progressive rock productions contemporary to its 1974 release.

Relocating back to Italy on the heels of Fragments' release, Falsini, alongside drummer Keith Edwards and bassist Richard Ursillo (both American expats), charged through another two Sensations' Fix albums, Portable Madness in 1974 and Finest Finger in 1976, and a stunning solo album Cold Nose (Naso Fredo) in 1975. Without marketing or tour support to expose Sensations' Fix to a wider European audience, Falsini and his band of psychedelic renegades left Italy for the golden shores of California and their possible salvation. In 1977, Sensations' Fix released Vision's Fugitive on an independent label and fulfilled their major label obligation shortly after with Boxes Paradise.

Falsini spent the next couple decades between New York City and Paris, creatively contentedly creating above par electro-pop (The Antennas) before returning to Florence to launch the Interactive Test dance music label. Meanwhile, the legend of Sensations' Fix grew. On his 2002 album, The Private Press, DJ Shadow sampled from two Sensations' Fix songs. More recently, Sonic Youth curated a career retrospective titled Sensational Fix at Life Gallery in Saint-Nazaire France.

For Music is Painting in the Air, Falsini and his son Jeyon set forth on a year-long voyage to restore and revisit the original Sensations' Fix analog tapes. Honoring Falsini's tradition of autonomy, this collection, as with the majority of the Sensations' Fix catalog, was mixed solely by Falsini. The sequence is chronologically defiant, encouraging the listener to free associate the recurring themes' origins and immerse in the body of music as its own universe.

Once this celestial body suit is occupied, it becomes apparent why the forward-thinking yet emotionally-accessible quality of Sensations' Fix's music is still finding the universal audience for which its intended. Falsini's disregard for time and insistence on reinvention provides an infinite reach for his music. The end-goal was seemingly unmarketable by the industry then, but perfectly harmonious with a culture constantly evolving now.

Sensations' Fix's Music is Painting in the Air is released September 24th, 2012 on 2xLP, 2xCD, and digital formats. Physical formats come housed in elaborate packaging, including a unique reverse bound record jacket and full color liner notes by Franco Falsini and Joshua da Costa."


A contributor to the site further took a stab at the source of the tracks:

"Just based on song titles, it looks like up to 40 minutes of this material was previously unreleased. But of course, they might have just edited and renamed material from the old albums.

Disc 1
01. Barnhause Effect (4:46) (presumably from "Vision's Fugitives" album)
02. Cold Nose Part 3, 4th Movement (3:23) (presumably from "Cold Nose" album)
03. Leave My Chemistry (3:37) (presumably from "Portable Madness" album)
04. Acudreaming (3:02)
05. Grow On You (4:17) (presumably from "Vision's Fugitives" album)
06. Scraping Delay (1:10)
07. Warped Notions Of A Practical Joke (Instrumental) (1:37) (presumably from "Vision's Fugitives" album)
08. Dark Side of Religion (3:28)
09. Cosmic Saudade (4:39)
10. Cold Nose Part 3, Movement 2 (1:29) (presumably from "Cold Nose" album)
11. Fragments of Light (3:07) (presumably from "Fragments of Light" album)
12. Into The Memory (3:11) (presumably from "Finest Finger" album)
13. Cold Nose Part 3, Movement 5 (1:01) (presumably from "Cold Nose" album)
14. C'e Nessuno (4:02)
15. Map (4:57) (presumably from "Finest Finger" album)
16. Moving Particles (2:24)

Disc 2
01. Cold Nose Part 3, Movement 3 (0:42) (presumably from "Cold Nose" album)
02. Music Is Painting (2:55) (presumably an edit of the track from "Fragments of Light" album)
03. Left Side Of Green (4:12) (presumably from "Finest Finger" album)
04. Chelsea Hotel (Room 625)(2:07) (presumably from "Vision's Fugitives" album)
05. Fix A Water Fountain (Instrumental) (2:31) (presumably from "Vision's Fugitives" album)
06. Leave My Chemistry (3:36)
07. Overflowing Ashtrays (1:13) (presumably from "Vision's Fugitives" album)
08. Strangelands (1:54)
09. Cold Nose Story (4:03) (presumably from "Cold Nose" album)
10. Slow Motion Movie (1:59)
11. Fortune Teller (1:43) (presumably from "Vision's Fugitives" album)
12. Fortune Teller Coda (2:43) (presumably from "Vision's Fugitives" album)
13. Crossing Berlin (5:14)
14. Darkside 1 & 3 (3:06)
15. Darkside 2 (3:30) "
 
Looks interesting to me!

I don't have a cover for this one yet.

Sensations' Fix / Franco Falsini ~ Italy ***REISSUED***

**All of these are now available as part of 6 CD sets (Vol. 1- Vol. 6) of various Italian progressive rock albums. Not ideal, but technically they've been reissued

Sensations Fix. 1974 Polydor
Portable Madness. 1975 Polydor
Finest Finger. 1976 Polydor
Boxes Paradise. 1977 Polydor

Franco Falsini - Cold Nose. 1975 Polydor

UMR review

Priority: 1

8/5/09 (new entry); 6/11/10 (complete)

News: Next two batches of Italian box sets (Vol. 5 and Vol. 6)

Last year, we covered the first two box sets coming out of Italy. The primary interest was the first time reissues of Sensations Fix "Portable Madness" and "Finest Finger". These boxes have been widely panned by the progressive rock buying community, for the poor mastering job: heavily compressed and very loud. I bought them both anyway, and I have no issues with the sound. I own the original vinyl of almost all of these albums (at least of the first two boxes), and many of them just aren't that great to begin with, and I have mintish copies in most cases. It's a subjective argument of course, and I tend to stay out of the discussion, because I'm sure technically those that are complaining have a good point. I didn't even bother to listen to the Jumbo's, Latte E Miele's etc, because I already own them on CD and I had no intention of selling them. I bought them for the Sensations Fix, and I was pleased (though I would have chosen they were issued separately).

I didn't report Box 3 or 4, as nothing of interest really caught my eye.

Thanks to a tip from reader Mike, Volumes 5 and 6 are coming out on June 24. Volume 5 has a bunch of obscurities that we've reported here (and I need to update). But the real gem here is Volume 6, that has the rare first Sensations Fix as well as Franco Falsini's "Cold Nose". I will be certain to buy that volume.

Progressive Italia Gli Anni '70 Vol. 5 (6CD) - available from June 24

CLAUDIO PASCOLI – NAIFUNK
MAURIZIO ARCIERI – TRASPARENZE
SENSATIONS’ FIX – FLYING TAPES
CLAUDIO DENTES – PANTAREI
MAURO PELOSI – IL SIGNORE DEI GATTI
MADRUGADA ‐ INCASTRO
Digital remastered sound!

Progressive Italia Gli Anni '70 Vol. 6 (6CD) - available from June 24

FRANCO FALSINI – COLD NOSE
MAURIZIO FABRIZIO – MOVIMENTI NEL CIELO
PANGEA – INVASORI
CARLO SILIOTTO ‐ ONDINA
PUEBLO – PUEBLO
SENSATIONS’ FIX – SENSATIONS’ FIX

Update: Italian box sets are out

Earlier in the month we had been a bit dismayed by the fact that the only way to buy the new Sensations Fix CDs, is to buy the box sets with 5 other releases, most of which have been already reissued (many times).

Well, the good news is that the box sets are only $45 each. At that price point, they make more sense, especially considering that all of these have been newly remastered. They do come with sleeve inserts, as suspected, so they aren't something one would sell or buy individually.

News: Sensations Fix to be reissued (sort of)

The good news: We are finally going to have an opportunity to own two of the best Sensations Fix albums on CD! The bad news: In what can only be considered aggravating, you can only get them with albums that have ALREADY BEEN AVAILABLE FOR MANY YEARS. I cannot even imagine the thinking behind this. Sensations Fx would sell well enough without the assistance of other albums. And anyone who already has the others, aren't going to buy these to obtain 1/6 of the package price. I suppose the second box set isn't as bad, since you can also pick up the rare Carnascialia album, that has been OOP on CD forever.

So here are the packages:

"Boxset Vol. 1: Featuring 6 CDs among the best known names in italian progressive rock of the seventies. For some of the titles this is the first release on CD.
All masters have been digital remastered by Maurizio Biancani at Fonoprint in Bologna.

Balletto di Bronzo - YS
De De Lind - Io non so da dove vengo
Jumbo - Vietato ai minori di 18 anni
Sensations' Fix - Portable Madness
Latte e miele - Passio secundum Mattheum
Mauro Pelosi - Al mercato degli uomini piccoli"

(I'll say this for it - WOW, what a package!! The first 5 in this list are in my Top 10 of Italian prog albums! I think the Pelosi is making its debut on CD as well. (Nope! Nobuhisa is keeping me honest here - turns out Si-Wan reissued this in the late 1990s))

"Box Set Vol. 2: Featuring 6 CDs among the best known names in italian progressive rock of the seventies. For some of the titles this is the first release on CD.
All masters have been digital remastered by Maurizio Biancani at Fonoprint in Bologna.

Locanda delle fate - Forse le lucciole non si amano più
Sensations' Fix - Finest Finger
Ibis - Ibis
Roberto Cacciapaglia - Sei note in logica
G. Vivaldi/P.Minieri - Carnascialia
Stradaperta - Maida vale"

(Definitely a lesser package with only the first two being essential (and the former is easy to find). As mentioned prior, the rare Carnascialia is part of this package, so that's nice. I'm not familiar with Stradaperta).

I believe these are being released in Japan. (As Ken clarifies in the comments, they are being released in Italy and will be available for a budget price. Thanks Ken!)