Agora - Live in Montreux (1975)

"Live in Montreux" (1975) is the debut album by the Italian band Agorà, recorded during their performance at the prestigious Montreux International Jazz Festival (Switzerland).

The release is unique in that, while virtually unknown outside their home province of Marche, the band's vibrant live performance immediately earned them a contract with the major label Atlantic Records, which released this recording as their first full-length release.

Agorà's music on this album is light, airy, and spacious (the band's name itself translates from Greek as "open square"). The heavy guitar riffs typical of classic rock are virtually absent. Instead, the sound is built on the graceful interplay of soprano saxophone, Fender Rhodes electric piano, delicate acoustic and electric guitar parts, and a complex yet mellow rhythm section.

Stylistically, the band falls somewhere between the American fusion of Weather Report and their compatriots Perigeo, while retaining a distinctly European melancholy and elements of early British Canterbury prog.