New Trolls are among the founding fathers of Italian progressive rock — a Genoa band who, having started in the beat era and supported the Rolling Stones, went on in 1971 to create one of the genre’s true landmarks. Their “Concerto Grosso per i New Trolls”, fusing a rock band with a baroque chamber orchestra, helped lay the very foundations of Italian prog.

The short version

Formed in Genoa in 1967, New Trolls began as a beat group before becoming pioneers of Italian prog. Their masterpiece, “Concerto Grosso per i New Trolls” (1971) — written with composer Luis Bacalov and uniting rock with a classical string orchestra — was a huge success and is widely regarded as a cornerstone of the genre. Across beat, prog, hard rock and pop, and through endless line-up changes and feuds, they remained one of the most important and best-loved bands in Italy.

Genoa, 1967: pioneers of Italian rock

New Trolls grew out of an earlier Genoese group, I Trolls, taking their new name and a new line-up in 1967: Vittorio De Scalzi and Nico Di Palo (both on guitar and vocals), bassist Giorgio D’Adamo, keyboardist Mauro Chiarugi and drummer Gianni Belleno. Such was their early reputation that they were chosen to open for the Rolling Stones on the band’s 1967 Italian tour. They began in a beat and psychedelic vein, and in 1968 released their debut album, “Senza Orario Senza Bandiera”, with lyrics written by the great singer-songwriter Fabrizio De André — often cited as Italy’s first rock concept album. From there, they moved steadily toward progressive rock.

Rock meets the orchestra

New Trolls were defined by ambition and craft: elaborate arrangements, technical virtuosity and richly structured, polyphonic vocal harmonies. In Nico Di Palo they had one of Italy’s first guitar heroes, a player steeped in Hendrix, while Vittorio De Scalzi brought a melodic, multi-instrumental versatility. Over their career the band ranged across beat, psychedelia, progressive rock, hard rock and, later, melodic pop — but their defining contribution was the fusion of a rock band with a classical chamber orchestra, an idea that would echo throughout Italian prog. Few bands of the era were as adventurous, or as commercially successful.

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Concerto Grosso and beyond

After the De André-penned debut “Senza Orario Senza Bandiera” (1968), New Trolls created their masterpiece: “Concerto Grosso per i New Trolls” (1971). Composed with the Argentine maestro Luis Bacalov and born from the soundtrack to a film thriller, it set the rock band against a baroque string orchestra inspired by Vivaldi, its suite moving from classical elegance to a blazing, Hendrix-flavoured finale sung in English; the album’s second side gave the band room to stretch out and improvise. A huge seller and the first experiment of its kind in Italy, it is widely seen as a foundation stone of the genre. The following year’s “UT” (1972) ranks among their finest, heavier records. The band then fractured — splitting into the hard-rocking Ibis and the symphonic New Trolls Atomic System — before reuniting in 1976 for “Concerto Grosso N. 2”, a sequel that revisited their greatest success, if never quite matching it.

Album by album

Four albums spanning their beat roots and their orchestral-prog landmark. Tap any title for its guide.

The players and afterwards

New Trolls were founded by Vittorio De Scalzi, Nico Di Palo, Giorgio D’Adamo, Mauro Chiarugi and Gianni Belleno, with keyboardist Maurizio Salvi joining for the first Concerto Grosso. Theirs was one of the most turbulent stories in Italian rock — marked by feuds, lawsuits and a bewildering array of splinter groups using variations of the name. From the late 1970s the band leaned into a more mainstream pop-rock sound, scoring many hits, and over the decades its leaders reunited again and again, returning more than once to their beloved Concerto Grosso. Bassist Giorgio D’Adamo died in 2015, and founder and guiding spirit Vittorio De Scalzi in 2022; their music endures through the musicians who carry it on.

Where to start

There is one obvious place to begin: “Concerto Grosso per i New Trolls” (1971), a landmark of Italian prog and the perfect introduction to their rock-meets-orchestra vision. From there, “UT” (1972) shows the band at their most adventurous, while the De André-penned debut “Senza Orario Senza Bandiera” (1968) reveals where it all began. Together they trace the rise of one of Italy’s founding prog bands.

Why they still matter

New Trolls matter as pioneers — one of the bands who, at the very dawn of the Italian scene, showed what was possible. In “Concerto Grosso per i New Trolls” they created a work that fused rock and classical music with a boldness few had attempted, sold it in huge numbers, and in doing so helped lay the foundations on which the whole of Italian prog would build. For all the feuds and detours that followed, that achievement is secure. For anyone exploring the roots of RPI, New Trolls are essential.

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