Delirium IPG – Sesta strada lungo il tempo (2026)

Like many Italian bands, Delirium IPG is more of a family than a simple group of musicians. With a history going back to 1970 when the young Genovese band were called I Sagittari, the reconstituted Delirium (Ivano Fossati vocals, flute, guitar; Mimmo Di Martino guitar, vocals; Ettore Vigo keyboards, vocals; Marcello Reale bass, vocals; Peppino Di Santo drums, percussion, vocals) released a successful single in 1971, Canto di osanna, followed by their first LP, Dolce acqua that same year, presented in a stunning triple gatefold sleeve, a loose concept album written by Fossati and Mario Magenta concerning human feelings, represented by the track subtitles Paura (Fear), Egoismo (Egoism), Dubbio (Doubt), Dolore (Sorrow), Ipocrisia-Verita (Hypocrisy-Truth), Il perdono (Forgiveness), Libertà (Freedom), and Speranza (Hope). It was a predominantly acoustic affair of romantic, pastoral ballads with simplistic lyrics, pleasant melodies mixing folk and jazz, and bursts of Ian Anderson-inspired flute, ingredients that helped to establish the band as having their own style.
Dolce acqua remains one of the best and most loved Italian pop albums of the 1970s thanks to an uncanny combination of experimentation and marketability, and has cemented its place as one of the most extraordinary and important albums in the annals of progressivo italiano. Two titles had been proposed for the debut LP, ‘Dall'osanna... all’iesael’ and ‘Dal delirio... all’iesael’, but the exclusion of Jesahel from the album, protecting the rights for the upcoming Sanremo music festival, and the absence of the Fossati/(New Trolls guitarist) Nico Di Palo-penned Canto di osanna resulted in an album of material that the band had tried out in concert under the title Dolce acqua. Two months later, Jesahel was another huge success for the band at Sanremo, winning the festival’s Premo della critica award, reaching the top of the Italian charts and selling over a million copies. To capitalise on the success of both the album and Jesahel, record label Fonit signed up the group to participate in the traditional summer festivals with Haum!, a song aimed at the audience who liked Jesahel and Canto di osanna. Fossati was interested in musical experimentation, not chasing after hits, and after his call-up for military service in 1972, he decided to leave the group to pursue a (successful) solo career.

Fossati‘s replacement, the Englishman Martin Grice, joined in time for the band’s second LP Lo scemo e il villaggio, which was released in November 1972 to unwarranted indifference from critics, although it proved a hit with the record-buying public. Lo scemo e il villaggio lacks the vocal authority provided by Fossati, but it was a conscious effort to move away from hit singles and repeat the more experimental formula of the first album. The musicianship is of a higher technical standard and the compositional complexity has increased, with all the music and lyrics written by Mario Magenta and Mauro La Luce respectively, who were not band members. Grice’s jazzy woodwind playing providing the LP’s highlights, especially on Gioia, disordine, risentimento.

The second album was somewhat overshadowed by Delirium III (Viaggio negli arcipelaghi del tempo) which came out in 1974. This was a more mature release leaving almost all vestiges of the acoustic song-based format behind, with electric guitar making its first appearance. Most importantly, the musicians seemed to have reached a greater degree of symbiotic understanding, possibly because the music was written by the group’s keyboard player Vigo. The lyrics were once again provided by La Luce, describing an inner journey into the essence of humanity, creating a concept album based on the idea that the gift of eternity is granted to man at key historical moments by the Gods, so that he can satisfy his desire to know Mankind’s core being. This 'gift' allows him to live centuries of history in a few moments, and on his journey in search of human truth he comes in sight of an archipelago where a battle is taking place, noting that it’s only the armour of the combatants that changes over time and it's always the same men who stolidly perpetuate their bloody madness: the common denominator of millennia of history is therefore the violence of man against man.
Despite being released at a time of peak popularity for progressivo italiano and being considered by many to be the most accomplished of the early albums, it didn’t fare well enough to ensure the future of the band, so they split up, briefly resuming live performance in the 1990s following the success of a remix of Jesahel. The next incarnation, with original members Vigo, Di Santo and Grice supplemented with new recruits Roberto Solinas (vocals, acoustic and electric guitars) and Fabio Chighini (bass, vocals), released a 2LP live set Vibrazioni notturne in 2007, followed two years later by a studio album of new material, Il nome del vento (The name of the wind) regarded by many as being better than Delirium III, with the public response to the two albums reaffirming the historical importance of the group to the progressivo italiano genre, underlined by the guest appearance of original member Mimmo Di Martino on Il nome del vento, which is also supplemented with a small string section and guest vocalists Stefano Gallifi and Sophya Baccini. In 2009, the suffix ‘IPG’, International Progressive Group, was applied to the band name for the first time.
Delirium’s 40th anniversary was marked with the release of a retrospective DVD, Il viaggio continua: La storia 1970-2010, featuring a complete series of RAI TV clips filmed between 1971 and 1975 and a live recorded at the Politeama Genovese on 13th February 2008.
Another personnel change in 2014 involved the recruitment of vocalist Alessandro Corvaglia, guitarist Michele Cusato and drummer Alfredo Vandresi, joining long-term members Vigo, Grice and Chighini, and this line-up released L'Era della Menzogna (Age of lies) in 2015.
I’ve seen Delirium perform live on two occasions, at the 2017 and 2022 Porto Antico Prog Fests in Genoa, a ‘home town’ show for the band, and on both occasions material from Dolce acqua featured heavily in the set. In 2022, Sophya Baccini joined the band on stage and helped out with vocal duties, joined by Osanna’s Lino Vairetti for a crowd pleasing rendition of Jesahel.

The band’s sixth studio album Sesta strada lungo il tempo (Sixth Road Through Time) was released in May this year, with a line-up similar to that responsible for L'Era della Menzogna, Enrico Tixi replacing drummer Alfredo Vandresi. It’s not a concept album but references to the band’s previous output, snapshots of time, characters and places, all create a series of linked stories embellished with a sense of Liguria and the sea.
Opening with a multipart side-long track Schiavo della viltà (Slave of Cowardice), it’s obvious that the group are in full-on prog mode. The piece concerns itself with the morals of warfare through a protagonist who witnesses, and takes part in the horrors of war, knowing the acts are evil but is unable to speak out against them out of fear for what would happen to him. He reflects on leaving his lover behind as he sets off for war, and on the futility of conflict, the lives lost, never to dream, love or be free again. He finds his deeds shameful while his fellow soldiers seem to revel in the bloodshed in the name of the national flag. Musically, it fits together really well; different moods correspond to different sections and the lyrics, which recall Tremori antichi (from Lo scemo e il villaggio), are delivered with Corvaglia’s dramatic vocals.
Io clochard (I’m a Homeless Person) begins ‘beyond the snow’, blood-stained snow having featured in Schiavo della viltà. A few bars of plaintive strings reflect the hardships of the protagonist; the dusty road and stale, mouldy bread that still tastes good, an indication that the perceived tribulations aren’t unbearable. He’s got his dog as a companion, time to rest and reflect, and a destination: the sea. The music primarily consists of a dense repeated phrase with a bubbly bass adding some colour, overlain with short saxophone breaks and a brief guitar solo, and guest vocalist Alice Vigo repeats the final verse in French.
Il riposo del pirata (The Pirate's Rest) begins with ambient seashore sounds. Electric piano is employed in a rhythmic context, and saxophone and synthesizer weave around the vocal melody describing an old pirate in an old hammock, cradling a tankard of rum and listening to a song he can hear on the wind. Martial music indicates the final rest of the pirate and there’ll be no more looting of treasure. The voices of the pirate crew can be discerned underneath Corvaglia’s announcement, speaking in English: “I don’t know what to do” and “I’ve had enough of this”. Short organ sax and solos precede the final spoken verse, describing the crew celebrating the valour of the pirate on the sand where the waves bring in light foam reminiscent of freshly poured beer.
Della strada il ritorno (On the Road Back) is a jazzy instrumental, beginning with string bass and piano. The piece has a real swing and there’s a pleasing rhythmic complexity with Grice’s saxophone soloing over the drums, bass and piano. A series of solos, energetic guitar, slower paced bass, flute, piano and sax complete the tune.
Parole nel vento (Words in the Wind) has a fairly straightforward opening, before a flute riff, backed by hard rhythmic intervals, leads the song into Jethro Tull-like territory. I’m reminded of Corvaglia’s track Il cerchio del comando on S.E.I. by La Maschera di Cera, which I described as being like a Delirium song! Vigo shines on a lead synthesizer line that could have been performed by Keith Emerson, and following the last two vocal lines the band indulge in a blues blow out until the end of the song. While the lyrical content seems to reference both Il nome del vento (“The words thrown into the wind, who will listen…”) and L'Era della Menzogna (“An ageless story made of a few lies and illusions mixed with fake freedom”), the track feels like it’s pulling the strands of the four preceding stories together, creating a perfect ending.
The whole album makes an enjoyable listen. It’s well-crafted with a very high standard musicianship and production, expertly blending a distinct feel of past Delirium albums with an updated sound.

Highly recommended.

Delirium IPG - Sesta strada lungo il tempo (2026)
Black Widow Records BWR 290-2