Latte e Miele

1972-75
Oliviero Lacagnina (keyboards, vocals)
Marcello Giancarlo Dellacasa (guitar, bass, vocals)
Alfio Vitanza (drums, flute, vocals)

1975-76
Mimmo Damiani (keyboards, guitar, vocals)
Luciano Poltini (keyboards, vocals)
Massimo Gori (bass, guitar, vocals)
Alfio Vitanza (drums, acoustic guitar, vocals)

Another group from Genova, this young three-piece was one of the italian bands with the strongest classical influences.
They were formed in 1971 by guitarist Dellacasa, that had collaborated with I Giganti in their Terra in bocca, with the drummer Vitanza only 16 year old! A keyboards trio in the same style as ELP or Le Orme in Italy, their first album was Passio secundum Mattheum, with Bach-inspired music and lyrics on the Gospel. An ambitious work, it has its moments but can be boring at times.
The band members had a good technique but their keyboard/bass/drums formula was repetitive and mixed with a melodic voice with a result that's not too convincing.

A second album, Papillon, came the following year in a similar style, but the production was much better. The album contains two side-long tracks with the Beethoven's derived Patetica on most of side two being a nice example of their style. An english version of it was also recorded but only saw the light in 1992 on CD.

The band had a good live activity, and even supported Van der Graaf Generator in one of their italian tours. A good 1974 live recording was made available by Mellow with their Latte e Miele Live CD.

After a couple of singles in 1974, the last of which was melodic and far from the albums' level, the group disbanded, and was reformed in 1976 by drummer Vitanza with three new recruits.
The new line-up released an album for Magma, Aquile e scoiattoli, a very good album, maybe their best and most original work, containing a rendition of Beethoven in Opera 21 and the nice 23-minute long Pavana, composed with help from former band member Lacagnina and also released in edited form on single (but curiously this appeared on Grog label).

The band kept playing until the beginning of the 80's with an always more commercial sound but the singles released were not successful. Their last single from 1980, Ritagli di luce, even took them to the Sanremo italian song contest. The group included in its latest days bassist Dario Carlevaro and drummer Enzo Barbieri.

An album recorded in 1979 was not released until it was released on CD by Mellow in 1992. Called Vampyrs, and played by the three-piece line-up of Gori, Poltini and Vitanza, it's mostly pop-rock and not comparable with the band's previous works.

Drummer Alfio Vitanza has collaborated with Vittorio De Scalzi in a revised New Trolls' line-up at the end of the 90's and is still playing nowadays with the recent De Scalzi's New Trolls incarnation called La Storia dei New Trolls. He is planning to reform the original Latte e Miele three-piece line-up for a one-off CD.

A commercial single released on Grog in 1976 by LM Special was in fact by Latte e Miele in disguise.

LP
Passio secundum Mattheum	Polydor (2448 011 A)	1972	textured gatefold cover with inner
	Akarma (AK 1041)	2003	reissue of the above
Papillon	Polydor (2448 015 A)	1973	textured gatefold cover with 4 page insert
Aquile e scoiattoli	Magma (MAL 01)	1976	single cover
CD
Papillon (english version)	Polydor/Mellow (517 537-2)	1992	recorded in 1973 and never released
Live	Mellow (MMP 110)	1992	1974 recordings
Vampyrs	Mellow (MMP 131)	1992	1979 recordings
Passio secundum Mattheum	Polydor (523 694-2)	1996	reissue of 1972 album with bonus track from 1974 single, Mese di maggio
Trilogy: The complete works	Akarma (AK 1041/4)	2003	4-CD box with booklet: includes the three official albums along with the english version of Papillon - also includes three bonus tracks from singles
Papillon	BTF/Vinyl Magic (VM085)	2003	reissue of 1973 album with mini gatefold cover
SINGLES (with picture sleeve)
Getzemani Il re dei Giudei	Polydor (2060 050)	1972	both tracks from Passio secundum Mattheum
Rimani nella mia vita Patetica	Polydor (2060 067)	1974	B side from Papillon
Mese di maggio Tanto amore	Polydor (2060 085)	1974	both unreleased tracks
Un silenzio diviso in due Per poter vivere	Magma (MAG 06)	1976	both unreleased tracks
Un mattino Pavana	Grog (GR 02)	1976	B side from Aquile e scoiattoli
Sto volando con te Restiamo insieme	RCA (PB 6250)	1978
Fiore di strada Severamente proibito	RCA (PB 6350)	1979
Ritagli di luce Metro	EMI (006-18470)	1980
PROMO-ONLY AND JUKEBOX SINGLES (with blank cover)
Getzemani	Polydor (AS 192)	1972	yellow label promotional single - backed with Ekseption/The 5th
Rimani nella mia vita Patetica	Polydor (AS 239)	1974	white label promotional single
Un mattino	Grog (???)	1976	juke box single - backed with a track by another artist

All the Latte e Miele original albums are not particularly rare to find, though not cheap.
The first two on Polydor came in a textured gatefold cover, Papillon having a 4 page giant lyric and photo insert glued to the inner gatefold.
Aquile e scoiattoli had a single cover and came on the black second Magma label.

The three albums have been also issued in Korea (Si-Wan SRML 0001, SRML 0002 and SRML 2007), and in Japan (Polydor 23MM0146, Polydor 23MM0147 and King/Seven Seas K22P182 respectively) with the original cover designs.
Also from Japan, a mini-LP compilation called Italian rock single compilation (Polydor/Edison DMI 23134) released in 1987, included both sides of the 1974 single Mese di maggio along with Balletto di Bronzo and Locanda delle Fate singles tracks unreleased on LP.
An italian unconfirmed CD reissue of Papillon was available for a short time by Polydor and soon deleted, a japanese CD issue was released by Edison (ERC 32003) in 1989. Also Aquile e scoiattoli was issued on CD in Japan by Crime/King (KICP 2388) in 1992 and also by Subterranea (SUB 01), again in 1992 (nation unknown).


Passio secundum Mattheum - front cover

Papillon - front cover

Papillon - inner gatefold and booklet

Aquile e scoiattoli - front cover

Rimani nella mia vita - 7" single	Mese di maggio - 7" single

Un silenzio diviso in due - 7" single	Un mattino - 7" single

Sto volando con te - 7" single	Fiore di strada - 7" single

Ritagli di luce - 7" single

Live CD	Trilogy: The complete works CD box set

LM Special - Funky prugna 7" single

LM SPECIAL SINGLES (with picture sleeve)
Funky prugna Avventura	Grog (GR 03)	1976