Fabio Fabor – Aquarium

If anyone has just a cover to sell please let me know. Thanks!

A well mastered CD reissue would be wonderful, one can only hope

Maybe I have skipped too many moments to make a review on this anonimous labelled Italian library lp, but with this summer going on, this vinyl is strongly making his way into my turntable and personal sound system so many times a week !.

If we always thought that there should/could be some very stranger unknow author in the big limitless music library world that could have done a secret masterpiece LP, this record it is it and without any fuss.
"Aquarium" just makes the head of Fabor "trilogy of non fully electronic library" records, the other two being "Softly Softly" and "Parfums".

This record is clearly one Holy Grail, a bunch of Luscious (Lascivious ?!) tracks wich semplicity let the listeners enjoyment idea grow out so smoothly that after many delightful replay we take it like a Perfect Masterpiece.
The players here are perfectly at their peak and the arrangments totally worth ahead and share the best feeling of the eighties music fused with electronics and electric keyboards skills.
Probably the recording sessions musicians were so focused that they were greatly into the groove and well focused on the final output: only the drums here (in some tracks only) maybe be a little low in the mix but it is enriched on the other hand by its steady play and sensitive jazz touch with a hint of inventive experimentality: listrening to " Angelo Di Mare " we hear that the cymbal multiple fast tickling joins in perfectly with keyboards and synth leading up a percussive shining ingredient to the mood, otherwise would'nt be the same track.
So the main topic in Aquarium is the perfect justaxposition of sound layers, wonderfully crafted and preciously produced by an Italian recording engineer not widely recognized but great at his work, and we thank him here, he is F. Lucci.
Despite Fabor's only is listed as the author we can here only argue who were the other sessions musicians. But a steady prepared ear will do not take too much time to recognize the sound feeling similar of other records published in the same Edizioni Minstrel rooster.
So we came to know Fabor has always collaborated with Oscar Rocchi and Antonio arena but for this library one can consider the first name being the source of the backing sessions musicians: infact Rocchi got his Modern Sound Quartet, incredibly made of some of the best players around, see Discogs reference.
They were the exact same players in "Erbe Selvatiche" and "Floreama" records on Fonovideo label and plus Rocchi was a top keyboardist.
Probably Arena made some electronics programming used by Fabor at recording time only but is not subtle that can be his hands on the elctronic effects side, for wich the record is rich.
So now is easier to divide this library in two main elements: there's a laid-down groovy layer made with bass guitar and drums by musicians, and then all this is topped like an ice cream with bunch of electronic keyboards and synths, with proper in real play time "add-ons" all spread "over the top style" but no overdubs at my ears.
This kind of musical construction makes the strong and fragile point at the same time.
For the first idea, this construction method led to a wonderful series of parallel electronic sound layers that sometimes reach the number of four and together with session players instruments (above mentioned) creates a multi kaleidoscopical bunch of seven or eight different sound ources, this usually being hard to discern even for a trained attentive listener. Many times the instruments palyed just amazingly collide with electronics, making a wonderful arrangments always folding over.
The maybe weakest point of this musical construction method in the studio is that session musicians can be sometimes low in the mix but again a steady work by engineer F.Lucci can show ho to resolve this issue with a masterful production and deep wide output end.

For the story about the musician, now, even being Italian myself i could't find much about Fabor, whose original surname is Borgazzi and was born in Milano, but musically adopted by Roma, and he like every one else i just think he is one of the many talented professional in the Italian background music television business (Colonne Sonore) who was emerging in the early eighties but active in the sixties and seventies togeteher with other big names like Trovajoli, Piccioni, Umiliani, etc.. etc.. and took the chance to make some library lps "a tema" as everyone else was doing, just when TV background music was a promising raising business in television programs in the early 80's.

The fact wants that this music here is always soothing and incredibly luscious, light and warming, subtle progressive spacey and lenghty entertaining with a steady jazz drumming in slow or mid shake tempo,with beautiful electric organ and guitar all topped with fluid synth electronics and mellow (electric) piano, all adding to a final special blend that i had never the chance to listen in other libraries since many years.

The great progressive "Aquarium" tracklisting is such that side A starts with a slow "entering in" mood, making the perfect start for a quiet moment or a candlelight dinner and "Paradiso" is totally soft and easy, just like some relaxant sea waves , so every successive steps puts up the best track after the other so there's a small intro, then we are lifted up and tickled by effects plus there's a deep groove with many as passages wich repetition requires and then a sudden slight intervallo with 5 minutes of "Squalo Azzurro" and a final burst out with "Chanchito" .
So that's why this lp seems to be "physically present" to the listeners mind, wich takes a lomg vacancy into a sensual array of moods, between summer and the midsummer evening quiet.

"Gioello" is totally marine with its spare effects wich resembles moving bubbles and liquid over a flowing surface: here organ, piano and synth are uniquely charming to fullfill the watery sense of cascading sounds in an exotic ambiental mood, with always changing patterns that come and go.
"Torpedine" and "Pompadour" with their escaping melody and abstract flowing of sound recurrent modules gives us an idea of greatness in nature and a total feeling of apnea and being under water with that absolute particular silence, here enriched with imaginative sounds from the sea fantastic life, even with a sense of humour and fun along with the many different instruments sounds that slowly enters in our ears one after the other with such a special touch that shows how Fabio Fabor best composer abilities just makes this Lp a true masterpiece, a hidden gem album in the limitless world of sound Library.

Then "Angelo di Mare" e "Idolo Moresco" are the best tracks of this magnificent yet record: they are fully dreamy and so gently lightly over flowing with soft splashing cymbals and piano plus organ, building up a total imaginery with as many ingredients as the sea is made.
In this latest mentioned, there's a beautiful mixture of guitar and water bubbling synth effects wich gaves the good marine idea and plus it has an astounding melody in the best jazz beat vein of the 70'.
"Martello" has some more trickery effects and is listed as "shake" tempo, infact is more groovy and a bossa nova guitar is interfilled with long deep scaling synth effects wich resembles water bursting, maybe the rhythmic background here is just a bit too low but in the vinyl it has a full display of colors like bubbles above the surface.
"Squalo Azzurro" led us into a big pause of 5 minutes with a circular blues tempo track wich creates a gap into the listening sequence: is made just for us to prepare the end of such hidden submarine world leafing us to the last track, the sad (!) latin disco of "Chanchito" wich introduces for the first time a nostalgic note among the fast danceable vibrations of previous tracks with cyclic long high pitched keyboard waves that resembles depression fits at their artistic best.

The arrangments here are fully luscious and feerique and here lies the magic touch of such music of Fabor: it touches you gently but with many single sounds that you couln't quite number all them at the end!
It is hard to not see a strong erotic feeling due to track sound progression: it fully covers a perfect journey and retains every step of travelling : intro and building up, long entertainment, intermezzo, big suspended 5 minutes pause, and final outro.
It is too strong the idea that the long minutage of Squalo Azzurro is put before the last track just to prepare the listeners to slowly ascending to surface !

So let the old stinky & dusty library vaults in Rome be opened for who wants to buy this record gem and it is going to be the perfect background for a candlelight intimate night supper with your special partner, just when our induments are too much for sucha hot and hard ambient and comes the moment for a take off !!

After many listening music years, and worldwide web digging, and counting, this library remains UNSURPASSED and on my shoulder easily ridiculize many so called "holy grail" by many international library maestris, for his cohesive purpose effect and coherent sequence of tracklisting, together with a "multi minded" collaborative craftmanship and crisp n' bright professional studio mix production, nonchè a beautiful vinyl pressing.

On Italian HARD label Man !