Album review: Presence - Them

I have to confess that until this summer I’d never heard of Presence and it was therefore something of a surprise to discover that the band formed in the early 90s, when Neapolitan session musicians Sophya Baccini, Enrico Iglio and Sergio Casamassima joined forces to record and self-release THE SHADOWING, a limited edition concept EP made available only on vinyl. It’s been reported that at the time the music wasn’t easy to categorise, intelligently arranged heavy rock with symphonic and progressive flourishes and Baccini’s amazing operatic voice. Thirty years later they’ve just produced their eighth original album THEM, having perfected their symphonic-operatic dark prog sound via MAKUMBA (1992), THE SLEEPER AWAKES (1994), BLACK OPERA (1996), inspired by the works of Giuseppe Verdi, concept album GOLD (2001) inspired by a short story called RED MOONS written in 1932 by Dora Winifred Russell under the nom de plume Virginia Stait, an ardent supporter of women’s suffrage who was married to the philosopher Bertrand Russell, THE EVIL ROSE (2008), the first of their albums to include cover versions of songs by other artists, and MASTERS AND FOLLOWING (2016); during the lengthy process they experimented with an orchestral string section and adopted a more straightforward metal sound. They also reissued an expanded edition of THE SHADOWING which included some live performance and contributed to compilation albums celebrating horror movies and the 70’s British dark prog band Black Widow.
The impressive musical background of the three members makes the group stand out. I’ve met remarkable vocalist and accomplished piano player Baccini on a couple of occasions and I know that music runs in her family but I was previously unaware that both Iglio and Casamassima had similar backgrounds. Iglio attended an Academy where he studied percussion, composing and orchestration and Casamassima studied classical guitar, graduating from The Guitar Institute of Technology (now Musicians Institute) in Los Angeles, California.
The cover of THEM suggests the sort of music you’ll find on the CD inside; a depiction of Prague’s C14 Karlův most, frequently rated the most beautiful gothic bridge in the world, bedecked with statues of saints along with a murder of crows, birds associated with a broad range of symbolism, both negative and positive (death, the afterlife, wisdom, prescience, transformation), which conjures images of esoteric tropes you find in dark- or heavy prog and it’s the sounds of crows and human labour, possibly from a graveyard that first emerge from opening track THE UNDEAD. This is the second longest composition on the CD and every second is used to the full. It’s heavy, with lots of classic Hammond-sounding organ work and for most of the piece the guitar provides staccato rhythmic patterns. An early piano break of scattered notes, resolving into a different mood gives way to one of my favourite, some might say defining elements of dark prog, cello-string Mellotron. The lyrics seem to relate to two topics: the futility of war (and our inability to learn the lessons of war) and more generally, the passage of time. Baccini delivers the lines with operatic theatricality and though the drama conveyed through her vocals is well-suited to the music, one of my very few misgivings about the album is that the printed lyrics sometimes don’t make sense and I’m unsure if the words are sung as written or if they’ve been transcribed from the singing. It’s a personal thing, but I prefer listening to Italian bands who sing in Italian and I can see no advantage to producing music of this nature with English lyrics where the rhyme or the scan is forced.
Though THE UNDEAD ends with an extended guitar solo, AFTERMATH features much more guitar and the composition is more melodic than rhythmic. It’s still dark and heavy and the keyboard-led instrumental sections are sonically dense. According to the band the track is about how chance circumstances influence conscious decisions and external factors.
DANCE MACABRE is the first of two short instrumentals and would be well suited to accompanying a scene from a horror film. The orchestration, with some excellent Mellotron, creates a tense atmosphere and the sparse percussion, mostly comprised of snare rolls and floor toms, is particularly effective.
TO EACH OTHER is another long-form piece and starts at a pace. The lyrics describe political manoeuvres leading to war and though the song doesn’t sound like Yes – ELP’s KARN EVIL 9 would surely be a more appropriate touchstone when you reference the organ and piano – I am reminded of the idea of conflict described on GATES OF DELIRIUM. This analysis isn’t perhaps as far-fetched as it initially appears, because Presence have performed a Yes tribute and later on there’s some guitar work which seems to have been inspired by Steve Howe’s playing. There’s a lot of variation with a sudden burst of orchestra, dissonant piano and a great end to the track where a dark, spaced-out section precedes the final Mellotron-backed verse.
Title track THEM is a 23 minute long suite presented in eight sections and it is here you can most easily tell Iglio’s playing style has been influenced by Keith Emerson although the inspiration for the composition probably owes more to Stravinsky. Baccini speaks many of the words though she does sing, and there’s more emphasis on rhythm; on part V her style reminds me of Dagmar Kraus of avant rock band Slap Happy. Much of the orchestration verges on the primal, similar to the percussive movement on RITUAL – NOUS SOMMES DU SOLEIL by Yes and the overall effect is very satisfying, although the resolution includes a melodic guitar solo.
The shortest track on the album is the medieval-sounding DRAWBRIDGE 1501, an instrumental with Baccini’s vocalisation, where the title references Anne Boleyn’s year of birth.
STIGE is a relatively straightforward rock instrumental, making it difficult to decipher the title of the track, which could be a town in Denmark, a Norwegian ladder or a Norwegian scale. Casamassima takes centre stage, relying on blues scales which help prepare the listener for the last track IF YOU DARE, an anthemic, melodic song which follows a traditional rock structure and concerns having the courage to grasp the life you dream of.
The last two tracks are the most accessible on the album but I prefer the challenging nature of the other music on the CD, title track THEM in particular. The music is dark, but the arrangements prevent it from becoming gloomy or oppressive. After multiple listens, my personal opinion is that Italian vocals would have been a better choice because I don’t believe singing in Italian would diminish the accessibility of the album.

Presence were at the vanguard of the dark prog genre and with THEM they remain trailblazers.

'Them' by Presence is on the Black Widow Records label BWR 2722

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