Released February 15th 2008
LMC228
EAN6419922002285
01. Still Hurts
02. Andromeda
03. Seven
04. There’s Hope
05. Spread The Disease
06. Farewell
07. Sunset Lights
08. Genius
09. Never Forgive Me
10. Memories
11. Texas BBQ
Marco Sfogli: all guitars, bass on tracks (5-6-7-11), keyboards on tracks (1-2-3-7)
Salvyo Maiello: drums on tracks (1-2-7-8-9)
Ennio Giannone: drums on tracks (5-6)
John Macaluso: drums on tracks (3-4)
Raffaele Natale: drums on track (11)
Andrea Casali: bass on tracks (1-2-4-8-9)
Dino Fiorenza: bass on track (3)
Emanuele Casali: keyboard solo on track (2)
Alex Argento: keyboards on track 8 and keyboard solos on tracks (3-5-8)
Matt Guillory: keyboard solos on tracks (1-7), piano on track (10)
Fabio Tommasone: piano on track (3)
John Macaluso & Union Radio
The Radio Waves Goodbye
Marco Sfogli is arguably the world’s hottest guitarist of the next generation. With a style equally at home in almost every genre, from full on shred to straight pop tunes to mind blowing fusion songs, its little wonder that Marco was the guitarist of choice when Dream Theater vocalist James LaBrie went looking for a guitarist to perform and then tour for his “Elements Of Persuasion” album.
Marco has more recently been heard on the critically acclaimed John Macaluso & Union Radio debut “The Radio Waves Goodbye” and it’s now that guitar fanatics worldwide have the chance to hear what Marco can do when given free reign in the instrumental realm.
His debut “There’s Hope” is 11 tracks with a mix of influences Marco has absorbed since he took up the guitar at age 9. On the album Marco comments, “There are plenty of shred records out there and sounds like many guitarists are losing the melodic component. My goal was to make it very melodic with the right amount of fire!”
“There’s Hope” delivers Marco’s aims with stunning precision, detail and emotional content sure to make it a “must own” release for fans of quality music and virtuoso guitar work.
Still Hurts: This is my tribute to the 80’s influences that I listened many years ago. I was born as hard rock guitar player, listening to bands like Europe, Winger, Danger Danger, Def Leppard and so on and this track reflects my earlier passion. In fact I choose it as opening track for its majestic “in style” intro.
Andromeda: When I started writing this record my goal was to be as much spontaneous as possible. Wouldn’t have been “my” record without a modern, progressive tune...and there it is! Odd times, crazy runs, absolutely the most difficult and tricky song I recorded so far. Main verse in 13/16.
Seven: Early traces of Seven can be found back in 2002 I guess, when I first heard it from my former keyboard player. The main theme was so strong that I decided to pick it up again and give it a new fresh “Methenyan” middle part (with a beautiful synth solo courtesy of Alex Argento). One of my favourite moment of this record.
There’s Hope: I wrote this one as soon as I came back from the recording sessions of James Labrie’s “Elements of Persuasion”. I was lock and load and in the right mood to pop out a metal tune and here it is. John Macaluso did a great job on it! The title reflects my feelings I had after getting the Labrie gig.
Spread The Disease: One of my dad’s favourite. I always liked the blues players “tastiness” and this is my humble tribute to this beautiful music.
Farewell: Probably the earliest song (and my dad’s favourite...). When I was 6, after the Van Halen binge, I discovered Joe Satriani who’s been (and still is) one of my favourite guitar players. I wrote this one back in 1999 and recorded a demo just later. The lead on the demo had so much fire in it that I decided to keep it instead of trying to go for a “good one”. I love this one, has so many memories in it.
Sunset Lights: The 7th track of an album is generally the “ballad” track. Originally intended to sound more folk-prog than now (think about The Corrs who meet Genesis). Later on was heavily modded to sound more guitar oriented than folk (Matt Guillory provided some cool tradeoffs in the middle). It’s one of my favourite tunes if not my favourite one
Genius: I discovered fusion music very late (and I thank my buddy Alex Argento about this). I wrote Genius around 2004 but wasn’t satisfied enough about the arrangement. So I asked Alex to put his hands on it and ended up being our first collaboration. The same tune (with different sounds and solo) can be found on Alex’s solo record as well.
Never Forgive Me: I wasn’t sure about this tune at first. To my ears might have sounded good if I had to put vocals on it. Since I’m a poor singer I decided to give it a try and record a very vocal oriented melody on the guitar. It worked for me and ended up on the record?
Memories: Whereas Genius reflects my first collaboration with Alex Argento, Memories marks my first collaboration with Matt Guillory. Was originally written before leaving for the “Elements of Persuasion” world tour (and we actually played it during the tour as our solo spot). Very intimate and sweet, it shows how good guitar and piano can match
Texas BBQ: One of my many passions...country? I admit it, I’m not a country player (and probably I’ll never be), but I love the happiness that country music spread. Instead of saying “bye” with a sad tune I decided to put this one as the ending track to leave the listener with a big smile on his face. It works for me, I wish it’ll work for you aswell!!!
