Artista

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.

Latte e Miele have reunited in 2008 for a series of concerts as a quartet, with Oliviero Lacagnina, Marcello Dellacasa and Alfio Vitanza from the original group and Massimo Gori, who played in the second line-up. From one of these concerts, held in Canada, a nice live CD has been taken, entitled Live tasting.

A new studio album by the reborn group has been issued in 2009, entitled Marco Polo - Sogni e viaggi.

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 and Papillon have newly been reissued on CD in Italy by Universal in 2009 and 2010, respectively as part of the box sets Progressive Italia - Gli anni '70 vol.1 (no. 0602527121765 - with 1 bonus track, Mese di maggio) and vol.4 (no.0602527319346).

No counterfeits exist.

The name of the group has been written in many different times on the covers and labels of their records, starting with the initial "Latte e Miele", which was changed to "Lattemiele", "Latte Miele", "Latte & Miele", "I Latte Miele".

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
Live tasting - CD
LM Special - Funky prugna 7" single

The MySpace page of Latte e Miele is www.myspace.com/lattemieleprog
Alfio Vitanza has a website at www.alfiovitanza.com

Thanks to Maurizio Fulvi for the scans of most singles