Sensations’ Fix were the great cosmic outlier of Italian progressive rock — a Florence-based project led by the singular guitarist and synthesist Franco Falsini, who, far from the symphonic mainstream, made pioneering electronic and space-rock music closer in spirit to German Krautrock. Their early-1970s albums, all analog synths, spacey effects and Falsini’s unmistakable treated guitar, sound startlingly ahead of their time.

The short version

Formed around 1973 by the much-traveled Franco Falsini, Sensations’ Fix stood apart from almost everything else in Italian prog. Where their peers reached for orchestras and Mellotrons, they explored electronics, space and ambient drift, recording mostly instrumental music in their own studio near Florence. Their albums — among them “Fragments of Light” and “Portable Madness” (both 1974) — are now prized as early landmarks of progressive electronic and space rock.

Florence, 1973: a cosmic outlier

The story of Sensations’ Fix is really the story of Franco Falsini. A restless musician, he had played in the 1960s power trio Noi Tre, formed a band in England with future Hawkwind and Amon Düül II bassist Dave Anderson, and then, around 1970, moved to the United States with his American wife. There he built a studio, taught himself multi-track recording and the synthesizer, and met drummer Keith Edwards. When Polydor heard the electronic demos he had been making, they offered him a contract — and so Falsini assembled a band to realise them, with Edwards on drums and Italo-American bassist Richard Ursillo (formerly of Campo di Marte) on bass. Based on a farm miles outside Florence, where they could record at full volume undisturbed, the trio became Sensations’ Fix.

Electronics, space and Falsini’s guitar

Sensations’ Fix made a kind of music almost no one else in Italy was making. Built on analog synthesizers — Moog and Eminent — spacey effects and Falsini’s instantly recognisable, heavily filtered guitar, theirs was a mostly instrumental, cosmic rock with a clear kinship to the German scene of Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel and Klaus Schulze, and to Pink Floyd and Fripp and Eno. Self-produced and a little lo-fi, it traded symphonic grandeur for drift, pulse and atmosphere — and proved remarkably prophetic, anticipating much of the ambient and electronic music that followed. Falsini, a devoted admirer of Robert Fripp, even printed a fan letter to him on one album’s back cover. Few records of their day sound less dated.

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Fragments of Light to Finest Finger

The band’s first album, “Fragments of Light” (1974), was assembled by Polydor from Falsini’s solo demos — eleven brief instrumental vignettes and a couple of vocal tracks, among them the soaring, almost PFM-like “Music Is Painting in the Air”, arguably their signature piece. Later that year came “Portable Madness” (1974), their first true album as a working trio: entirely instrumental, flowing continuously across both sides, it is widely held to be their most cohesive and strongest record. By “Finest Finger” (1977), with keyboardist Stephen Head now aboard, the band had moved toward shorter, more vocal, more accessible songs — the beginning of a more commercial direction that would eventually see them relocate to the United States under the name Sheriff.

Album by album

Three albums of pioneering electronic and space-rock prog. Tap any title for its guide.

The players and afterwards

Sensations’ Fix were Franco Falsini, Richard Ursillo and Keith Edwards, later joined by keyboardist Stephen Head. As the 1970s wore on the band drifted toward a more commercial sound and, by the end of the decade, had reinvented themselves in America as Sheriff. Falsini went on to work in electro-pop and, later, techno, producing music around the world; Richard Ursillo kept playing in the Florence area; and the American drummer Keith Edwards, who later died in the United States, is fondly remembered. In recent years — helped by the likes of DJ Shadow sampling their music — interest in the band has surged, and their once-obscure albums have become sought-after the world over.

Where to start

Begin with “Portable Madness” (1974), the band’s most consistent and fully realised album and the best showcase for their cosmic, instrumental vision. From there, “Fragments of Light” (1974) offers their earliest and, for many, most beloved electronic experiments, including “Music Is Painting in the Air”. Together they reveal one of the most forward-looking acts the Italian scene produced.

Why they still matter

Sensations’ Fix matter as true pioneers — an Italian band who, while everyone around them looked to the symphony, looked instead to electronics and outer space, and in doing so anticipated whole genres of music to come. Unique in their time and increasingly celebrated in ours, their early albums stand as landmarks of progressive electronic and space rock, the work of a guitarist and a sound entirely his own. For anyone exploring the more adventurous fringes of Italian prog, they are essential.

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