Artist

TRIADE

Vincenzo Coccimiglio (keyboards)
Agostino Nobile (bass, acoustic guitar, vocals)
Giorgio Sorano (drums)

A trio formed in Florence in the early 70's by keyboardist Vincenzo Coccimiglio along with bass player Agostino "Tino" Nobile, that had previously played in Noi Tre, a legendary band that also included guitarists Franco Falsini of Sensations' Fix and Paolo Tofani that was in Area and later known as Electric Frankenstein. 
After trying various drummers, they found a suitable one in Giorgio Sorano and Triade was born.

Signed to the Derby label, the group only released an album and a single in 1973, and had a good live activity supporting the likes of Banco del Mutuo Soccorso and Premiata Forneria Marconi and even playing some dates on their own (like a couple of memorable concerts at Pierlombardo in Milan). 

1998: La storia di Sabazio includes a totally instrumental first side with strong classical influences (much in the ELP direction) and a three-track second side with vocal parts, the result is a good album but a bit disjointed and not completely representative of the genre. 
The album was the result of the different tastes of the two composers, first side being almost completely composed by Coccimiglio, while the second side (that's sometimes compared with Le Orme) was more song-oriented and composed by Nobile.
Two tracks from this vocal second side, Caro fratello and 1998, with very good acoustic guitar playing, were also released on single.

The group disbanded not long after the album release, due to some internal friction and little interest by their management. 
Both Coccimiglio and Nobile have remained in the music biz, playing around the world for years.

(the trolley icon lets you order the CD from BTF website)

LP
1998: La storia di Sabazio	Derby (DBR 65801)	1973	golden foil gatefold cover
CD
1998: La storia di Sabazio	Vinyl Magic (VM038)	1994	reissue of 1973 album
	BTF/Vinyl Magic (VMCD 105)	2005	as above, with mini-gatefold cover, obi and booklet
SINGLES (with picture sleeve)
1998 Caro fratello	Derby (DBR 1855)	1973	both tracks from 1998: La storia di Sabazio

Very rare and expensive in its original issue, 1998: La storia di Sabazio was housed in a nice mirror golden foil gatefold cover, and is very hard to find in perfect condition due to the delicate design.
Much easier to find are the korean (Si-Wan SRML 5001) and japanese (King K25P 414) repressings in a standard brown/golden coloured gatefold cover. 
Also two japanese CD versions, King K32Y 2120 and Strange Days 1005, the latter with mini-LP cover, exist.
The original italian CD reissue by Vinyl Magic, deleted since long, has finally been replaced by a nice one in the BTF "Italian progressive rock" with gatefold cover, obi and illustrated booklet.

No counterfeits exist.

As many other albums at the time, 1998: La storia di Sabazio was also released on cassette tape and 8-track versions, the last one carrying the date 1974.

A conversation with Vincenzo Coccimiglio, by Augusto Croce, march 2003

1-How was Triade formed?

I used to go at the Space Electronic in Florence, where many foreign bands like Canned Heat and Van der Graaf Generator played, and I met Tino Nobile there, who had played with Noi Tre. He was 24 at the time, and I was just 18, but we played together and we liked the material each of us had written and decided to form a band.
We auditioned many drummers, but the music was too difficult to many, one of them even threw away the sticks saying "What kind of music is this?". Then we found Giorgio Sorano, and he played all the drum patterns we had written.

2-Who was the main composer in the group?

Both me and Tino, we were credited as composers for all the tracks on the album, but it was me who wrote the suite on the first side, while the songs on side 2 were written by him, and I just did the arrangements.

3-How did the deal with Derby and the album come out?

We were contacted by producer Elio Gariboldi and in just three days we had a recording deal. They had thought to contact Crepax [popular italian comics designer, who also made the cover for Nuda by Garybaldi] to make the cover, but in the end it was designed by Giorgio Sorano's wife Florinda. It was a very expensive cover, with that golden foil.

4-How come the musicians' names don't appear on the cover?

I don't know, it was probably the record company's decision, but me and Tino appeared as composers for all the tracks.

5-Did you promote the album with concerts?

Yes, we played many support dates to Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, and these were very good, every time we were called for an encore. We even supported PFM, I don't remember where, and played with some other artists at Pierlombardo in Milan, I just remember Battiato among them.
Again at Pierlombardo I can remember some very good concerts we made on our own, and the album had a lot of airplay on Radio Montecarlo.

6-What happened after the LP release?

One of our managers left us, and another wanted to take us abroad, in Germany, to play a more commercial kind of music. There were contrasts in the band, so after a while we decided to split. Someone asked me to join Dik Dik who were looking for a keyboardist at the time, but I didn't accept and Joe Vescovi [from The Trip]was taken in.

7-What have you done after Triade?

I never gave up playing, I graduated at DAMS [University of Bologna, the Arts and Music Department] and worked as a teacher for some years. Then I became a professional piano bar musician, and played all over the world, just like I know Tino Nobile has been doing.

8-Any plans of reforming Triade?

Well, I've been contacted by Giorgio a couple of years ago, and even Tino asked me many times if I wanted to do it, but I don't think we'll ever do something again.

Many thanks to Vincenzo Coccimiglio for the precious information given and to Enrico Rosa (http://www.enricorosa.com) from Campo di Marte, whose good memory helped us to unveil the musicians' names after a long research.
Thanks to Mauro Degrassi for info and picture of the 8-track version.