Nuova Era - 20.000 Leghe Sotto I Mari (2025)

Initially active during the late 80s / early 90s, in that first phase of their career Nuova Era released four albums that are still considered essential for progressive rock fans from Italy… and beyond! After their comeback, several years later, with an English-sung album (“Return to the Castle”, 2016, AMS187CD), Nuova Era have further ‘sharpened their blades’ for what is perhaps their most ambitious album ever, now again with lyrics written in their mother tongue.

“20.000 Leghe sotto i Mari” (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas), in fact, openly inspired by Jules Verne’s literary masterpiece, consists of a single suite of almost 40 minutes in length – divided into two acts in the LP version – that constitutes a sort of summary of everything that Italian progressive rock has always represented: a musical genre often used to describe the complexity and variety of the human soul, thanks to continuous and unpredictable harmonic, rhythmic and melodic changes, all intimately linked by a single thread. Apart from some electric guitar and keyboard sections that clearly sound modern and fresh, “20.000 Leghe sotto i Mari” could well be mistaken for one of the great symphonic prog albums released in the early 70s!

This version also includes another 16-minute long track that was written by keyboard player Walter Pini when he was only 17: “Nautilus” has remained unreleased until now, and it’s not coincidental that it bears the same name of Captain Nemo’s mighty submarine.