Raised on the coast of eastern Liguria, the Italian band Giant the Vine was born in 2014 from the meeting of two guitarists, Fulvio Solari and Fabio Vrenna, and the multi-handed arrangement of 12 songs composed by the latter.
The ambitious and gently calibrated music, between virtuosity and scratchy melancholia, is well received by critics, national and international, who list "Music for Empty Places" among the 10 best progressive-rock albums of 2019, and echoed by the Canadian publication Italian Progressive, which includes Giants among the best post-prog bands.
In 2019, bassist Antonio Lo Piparo joined the group, but the following year's pandemic forced Giant the Vine into a standstill. With a few live shows, in Italy and Canada, postponed until a later date, the band gets back to work composing new tracks.
Thus took shape "A Chair at the Backdoor," an instrumental like its predecessor, released in May 2023 by Luminol Records and distributed by KY Publishing.
The album features a powerful and nostalgic sound to whose definition Ronan Chris Murphy, an American producer known for collaborations with the likes of King Crimson, Ulver and Aurora, contributes.
If with the previous Music for Empty Places Giant the Vine had been well received by national and international critics, with A Chair at the Backdoor the quartet realizes a more mature sound, ready to win over an audience, albeit a niche one.
Glass refers to the certainties and promises of love that are often more fragile than we would like, and can shatter at any moment.