The Valley Of The Temples
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Album Summary
Perigeo, the Rome-based jazz-rock fusion outfit, laid down 'La Valle dei Templi' — known to the wider world as 'The Valley of the Temples' — in 1976 on RCA Italiana, during what was unquestionably one of the most inspired stretches in the band's storied run. Conceived as a meditation on the ancient Greek temples of Agrigento in Sicily, this record carries the weight of centuries in its grooves, with the group channeling the spirit of that timeless Mediterranean landscape into something utterly modern and alive. The result was a deeply atmospheric and compositionally adventurous album that showcased the full firepower of a band at the height of their creative powers — saxophonist and bassist Giovanni Tommaso, the brilliant Franco D'Andrea on keys, and a rhythm section that could swing hard one moment and float like smoke the next. It arrived at the peak of Italy's progressive and fusion movement, standing as one of the most ambitious statements that scene ever produced.
Reception
- The album landed with considerable warmth among Italian jazz and progressive rock circles, with critics singling out its rare combination of technical brilliance and genuine emotional depth — no small feat in a scene full of players who had chops to burn but not always the soul to match.
- Reviewers praised the conceptual unity of the record, recognizing in its arc from 'Tamale' through to 'A Yellow Circle' a thematic coherence that elevated the album beyond mere showcase and into the territory of genuine artistic statement.
- Though 'The Valley of the Temples' never cracked mainstream commercial territory, it cemented Perigeo's standing as one of Europe's most vital fusion acts and built the kind of devoted cult following that only deepens with the passing decades.
Significance
- This album stands as one of the true landmarks of Italian jazz-fusion, weaving together Mediterranean folk sensibility, classical architecture, and avant-garde jazz improvisation into a sound that was wholly and unapologetically its own — something no Anglo-American act of the era could have produced.
- By rooting its musical vision so deeply in the ancient cultural landscape of Sicily, 'The Valley of the Temples' helped define a distinctly Italian identity within the broader European fusion movement, proving that the genre had room for history, mythology, and a sense of place.
- For collectors and historians of progressive music, this record remains an essential document of Italy's most creatively explosive decade — a testament to what happens when serious jazz musicians decide to dream bigger and dig deeper.
Tracklist
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A1 Tamale 140
4:32
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A2 The Valley Of The Temples —
6:15
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A3 Looping 159
3:06
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A4 The Firefly Mistery —
6:00
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A5 Thoughts —
2:15
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B1 Periplus —
5:05
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B2a Eucalyptus 97
3:53
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B2b Dawn Of A New World —
-
B3 Sing-Song —
3:57
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B4 2000 And Two Nights —
5:36
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B5 A Yellow Circle —
4:31
Artist Details
Perigeo was a blazing Italian jazz-rock fusion outfit that came together in Rome in the early 1970s, cooking up a sound that blended the fire of American jazz with progressive rock textures and a deep, earthy funk sensibility that was wholly their own. Led by pianist Franco D'Andrea and featuring the brilliant Tony Sidney on bass, these cats released a string of albums through the mid-70s — records like Abbiamo Tutti Un Blues Da Piangere and Genealogia — that put Italian jazz on the international map and proved Rome could groove just as hard as New York or London. Their cultural significance lies in how they bridged European artistic sensibility with the raw, exploratory spirit of jazz fusion at its peak, leaving behind a legacy that still moves the souls of serious listeners who dig deep into the records.
