Artist

LYDIA E GLI HELLUA XENIUM
SCORPYO

LYDIA E GLI HELLUA XENIUM
Lydia (vocals)
Piero Giavini (guitar)
Claudio Ferrario (keyboards)
Giovanni Lomazzi (bass)
Claudio Belletto (drums)

SCORPYO (LA CORTE DEI MIRACOLI)
Piero Giavini (guitar, vocals)
Chicco Conti (keyboards)
Piero Caccia (mini-moog)
Gigi Pariani (sax)
Alfredo Pagani (bass)
Mauro "Bobo" Salmoiraghi (drums)

Two bands from Lombardy, from the Legnano/Busto Arsizio area, that had in common one of the founders (guitarist Piero Giavini) and the fact that they released some great singles that are in every high-level Italian prog collector's dreams. The composers of these singles were the same (Fernando Lattuada and Complex, the nickname of Rinaldo Prandoni).

Both issued around 1973, the Hellua Xenium singles have a distinct dark prog style led by the voice of Lydia, with intense and dramatic atmospheres that few groups could reach. Guai a voi and Invocazione, from their Rusty label single, deserve a high rank in the top Italian prog tracks.
Due to the similarity of the female voice and some doomy atmospheres with Jacula/Antonius Rex works, added to the fact that their second single was released on Radio label (as Antonius Rex's Zora), some thought that the singer Lydia could be Doris Norton. In fact this girl, whose identity remains unknown, was a backing singer found by producer Lattuada, who gave her the name Lydia.

The only single by Scorpyo, issued in 1977 again by Radio Records, was in the same style, two mainly instrumental compositions with choral voices and dark atmospheres.
Both tracks had been in fact recorded in 1974/75 at Milan's Regson studio by a group called La Corte dei Miracoli (no relations with the well-known group from Savona), whose line-up is reported here. According to one of the musicians it seems that Destinazione infinito and Visioni were first issued on a single under this group's name and reissued in 1977 under the name Scorpyo, a group formed by guitarist Giavini around a year before after the break of the previous band.

Among the rarest and most researched singles in the whole Italian production, both Lydia singles command incredibly high prices, having been released on small labels. 
Both sides from the first single were included in the Meteora CD compilation, privately released in 1997.

The single Diluvio was only released with a company sleeve. The tracks were registered at Siae (Italian Copyright Society) in December 1972, so the single may have been issued around that time. A reissue of this single has been included as bonus with the 300 copies special edition of the book Terzo grado-Indagine sul pop progressivo italiano by Alessio Marino and Massimiliano Bruno (Tsunami 2015).

The Scorpyo single is also very rare and never reissued.

Guai a voi (Lydia & gli Hellua Xenium) - 7" single cover - front and back
Guai a voi (Lydia & gli Hellua Xenium) - label
Lydia & gli Hellua Xenium/Diluvio - 7" single
Lydia & gli Hellua Xenium/Diluvio - label
Destinazione infinito (Scorpyo) - 7" single cover
Destinazione infinito (Scorpyo) - label

Thanks to Rockground (www.rockground.it) and Marco Silvestrini for scans and information on these groups.
The history of Scorpyo and some of the pictures here are published thanks to JJ Martin of the John's Classic Rock website,