Trident

A small, little documented label, active in Italy between 1973 and 1974, releasing two of the most representative albums in the Italian prog scene of the 70's with Biglietto per l'Inferno and Semiramis.
Trident was initially born in Milan as a management, in January 1973, and its founders were Angelo Carrara and Maurizio Salvadori, but it soon transformed to a small independent record company for the artists connected to the music agency. The record label's short life ended in early 1975.

Trident's name has been registered again in 2000 by Angelo Carrara and his Target Music agency, that along with BTF has re-released most of the old albums on CD.

LP number	Band/Artist(s)	Title	year	notes
TRI 1001	Dedalus	Dedalus	1973	gatefold cover also on 8-track TRE 1001
TRI 1002	The Trip	Time of change	1973	gatefold cover also on 8-track TRE 1002
TRI 1003	Eneide	Uomini umili popoli liberi	1973	never released
TRI 1004	Semiramis	Dedicato a Frazz	1973	gatefold cover also on 8-track TRE 1004
TRI 1005	Biglietto per l'Inferno	Biglietto per l'Inferno	1974	single cover
TRI 1006	Opus Avantra	Opus Avantra (Introspezione)	1974	gatefold cover
TRI 1007	Claudio Fucci	Claudio Fucci	1974	single cover also on cassette TRD 1007
TRI 1008	Dedalus	Materiale per tre esecutori e nastro magnetico	1974	single cover

SINGLES number	Band/Artist(s)	Title	year	notes
TRN 1001	Dedalus	CT 6 Brilla	1973	probably only issued with blank cover
TRN 1002	The Trip	Corale Formula nuova	1973
TRN 1005	Biglietto per l'Inferno	Una strana regina Confessione	1974
TRN 1006	Opus Avantra	Il pavone Ah doleur	1974
TRN 1007	Claudio Fucci	La tua vita Loro sanno dove?	1974
TRN 1009	Biglietto per l'Inferno	Vivi lotta pensa L'arte sublime di un giusto	1975	probably never released

The third album, by Eneide, was recorded but never released, and only had its official release in 1990 on the band's own label. Even the second 7" single by Il Biglietto per l'Inferno, which had already been given a catalogue number, was never commercially issued, and probably only exists as a test pressing.
Another missing number in the singles' list, probably TRN 1008, was presumably assigned to a single by Le Mani, never released.

Album label has the Neptune logo on Side A and titles on Side B. Both sides have an electric blue background with silver writing.
Singles have a black label with silver logo and writing.

Some of the records were also released on cassette, with catalogue prefix TRD, and 8-track cartridge, with code TRE.

Lookout for counterfeits!!! Most of the albums on this label were reissued in the late 80's by an Italian dealer, and the reissues are so similar to the originals that many collectors are not aware their much expensive copies are fake!! The quality of these reissues is very good and presumably they were obtained from the same masters used for the CD reissues, but no one knows whether they have to be considered legal repressings or not.
Spot the differences in the scans, they are summarized in the following table:

	Original	Counterfeit
1	rough paper	smooth paper
2	electric blue background	darker blue
3	machine stamped cat.number and date	hand stamped details on run-off groove
4	SIAE blue stamp, taking an almost red/purple colour	No SIAE stamp
5	embossed label border	flat label
6	thinner silver circles around Poseidon's image	thicker silver circles
7	smaller "33 giri Stereo" writing on B-side label	bigger type on same writing


Original LP label - side A	Original LP label - side B

Counterfeit LP label - side A	Counterfeit LP label - side B

Original LP label with SIAE stamp and outer embossed edge visible

Original LP with machine stamped matrix number and date visible

Single

Thanks to Claudio Fucci, whose website www.claudiofucci.com was a helpful source of information.

A page dedicated to Trident can be found on Target Music website, www.targetmusic.it