Maxophone are one of the great hidden treasures of Italian progressive rock — a Milan sextet whose sole 1975 album, dense with French horn, clarinet, trumpet and vibraphone, ranks among the most richly arranged records the genre ever produced. Overlooked when it appeared, it has since become a cult classic, beloved for its intricate, horn-driven beauty.

The short version

Formed in Milan in 1973, Maxophone brought together rock musicians and classically trained players in a six-piece of unusual instrumental range. Their only album of the era, the self-titled “Maxophone” (1975), is a lush, intricate masterpiece of horns, woodwinds, vibraphone and strings woven into complex symphonic prog. It arrived too late to find an audience at the time, but is now treasured as one of the finest one-shot records in all of RPI.

Milan, 1973: classical meets rock

Maxophone took shape in Milan in 1973, when an avant-garde rock trio of singer-bassist Alberto Ravasini, guitarist Roberto Giuliani and drummer Sandro Lorenzetti set out to expand their sound by recruiting three conservatory-trained musicians: keyboardist Sergio Lattuada, woodwind player Leonardo Schiavone and horn-and-vibraphone player Maurizio Bianchini. The result was a band with a “twin-fold soul” — half rooted in rock, half in classical music — and a remarkably wide instrumental palette. After roughly two years largely shut away rehearsing, playing only the occasional concert, they recorded their album in 1975.

Horns, vibraphone and intricate arrangements

Maxophone’s music was unlike almost anything else in Italian prog. To the usual guitar, keyboards, bass and drums they added French horn, trumpet, clarinet, saxophone, flute, vibraphone, harp and strings, giving their symphonic prog a lush, orchestral richness rarely heard in the genre. Their arrangements were intricate and multi-part, shifting swiftly from soft pastoral passages to heavy guitar or keyboard attacks, and drawing on classical music, jazz, folk and the Canterbury sound. The wind instruments often led the way — recalling King Crimson’s use of horns — while Roberto Giuliani’s Fripp-esque guitar and Genesis-like vocals completed a sound of real sophistication and detail.

If this is your scene, the books go deeper →

Maxophone

The band’s only album, “Maxophone” (1975), gathers six medium-length tracks of dense, inventive symphonic prog, from the opener “C’è un Paese al Mondo” — also released as a single — to the choral close of “Antiche Conclusioni Negre”. Beautifully arranged and packaged in a striking gatefold sleeve, it won unusually warm reviews for a debut, even from notoriously hard-to-please critics. Yet by late 1975 the Italian prog scene was already in decline, and despite an English-language version recorded for foreign markets — in the manner of PFM — the album went largely unnoticed. In the decades since, it has been rediscovered and rightly celebrated as one of the great cult albums of RPI.

Album by album

One lush, horn-rich masterpiece of Italian prog. Tap the title for its guide.

The players and afterwards

Maxophone were a sextet of considerable talent: singer-bassist Alberto Ravasini, guitarist Roberto Giuliani, keyboardist Sergio Lattuada, woodwind player Leonardo Schiavone, horn and vibraphone player Maurizio Bianchini and drummer Sandro Lorenzetti. The band disbanded in 1977, but were revived decades later by founders Lattuada and Ravasini with new members — touring as far afield as Tokyo and, in 2017, releasing a long-belated second studio album. The story closed in 2018 with the death of Sergio Lattuada, who had driven the reunion. It is their 1975 album, though, that secures their place in the genre.

Where to start

There is only one album, and it is essential: “Maxophone” (1975) — and the original Italian version is the one to seek out, generally preferred to the English. Its lush horn arrangements, intricate writing and sudden shifts of mood reward repeated listening, revealing one of the most distinctive records in all of Italian prog. For lovers of the genre, it is a must.

Why they still matter

Maxophone matter as proof of just how inventive Italian prog could be. Where many bands leaned on keyboards and guitars, Maxophone built a whole orchestra of horns, woodwinds and strings into their music, creating textures few others in the genre could match. That they did so on a single album, released just as the scene was fading and overlooked at the time, only makes its rediscovery the sweeter. For anyone exploring the richer, more orchestral corners of RPI, Maxophone are an essential and rewarding find.

Browse the bookshelf in the footer →