Zauber -

Zauber was an Italian symphonic-folk band that released a 1978 self-titled album on Mu. After their early Nineties resurrection, their lost 1977 album Phoenix appeared on Kaliphonia/Drums Edizioni Musicali.

Members: Liliana Bodini (lead vocals, chimes), Massimo Cavagliato (drums, percussion), Mauro Cavagliato (bass, guitar, keyboards, xylophone, backing vocals, glockenspiel), Gianni Cristiani (flute), Oscar Giordanino (piano, synthesizer)

Background

Zauber emerged in Turin in 1975 and settled into its first working lineup in 1976 around Mauro Cavagliato.

Cavagliato began formal music study in 1970 with classical guitar and later took a short course in electronic organ. In 1972, he formed Habeas Corpus, which evolved into Traumerei and performed a small rock opera titled Natale 1974. Traumerei included singer–guitarist Liliana Bodini, keyboardist player Paolo Clari, pianist–flutist Anna Galliano, drummer Claudio Bianco, and guitarist–bassist Cavagliato.

The band renamed itself Zauber, the German word for magic. Their early live-set included classical pieces and numbers by Banco, Gentle Giant, and Genesis. Cavagliato soon developed an originals set with Clari, and Galliano. They demoed an album’s worth of songs and then signed with Mu for an album of fresh material.

Phoenix

In 1977, Zauber recorded their first album, Phoenix, which remained unreleased until its 1992 CD appearance on Kaliphonia.

Phoenix unfolds with extended keyboard passages, soft vocal placement, and a prominent ostinatos. Zauber weaves flute and short acoustic interludes between dense textures from an arsenal of organ, electric piano, harpsichord, Mellotron, Polymoog, and Eminent 310 synthesizer.

“Uomo” stretches into a long instrumental passage with slow electric-piano figures and a subdued nightclub feel. “Dalla Finestra” sinks to a slower tread and holds a grave, requiem-like atmosphere across its longest sections.

1. “Est” [East] (4:26)
2. “Antares” (3:52)
3. “Dalla finestra” [From the Window] (6:43)
4. “Invito” [Invitation] (4:44)
5. “Adagio” (2:30)
6. “Uomo” [Man] (6:05)
7. “Antaras” (3:26)
8. “Sogni” [Dreams] (3:51)
9. “Il povero Piero” (4:30)

Phoenix presents a sepia-toned fantasy landscape with rock forms, small trees, circular motifs, and scattered birds under calligraphic Zauber lettering and blackletter album text.

– Paolo Clari / organs, electric piano (3, 4), synthesizers
– Mauro Cavagliato / bass, guitars, mellotron (6), synthesizer (6), el. vibes
– Liliana Bodini / vocals
– Claudio Bianco / Polymoog (2), eminent, chimes
– Anna Galliano / flute, harpsicord

Guest musicians:
– Oscar Giordanino / synth solo (3), el. piano, clavinet, el. harpsicord
– Ettore Grattino / drums
– Boris Poziakov / clarinet

Zauber [aka Il Sogno]

Zauber released their second-recorded album in 1978 on Mu. Later CD editions retitled the album Il Sogno.

“Valzer Su Bach” unfolds in suspense, with near-atonal turns and loose metric emphasis that keep the line in suspension. “Liliana” settles into a lightly marked pulse, where interwoven figures and wide spacing give the line a calm contour. “Canzone Per Un’amica” slows the pace and places Liliana Bodini’s measured lead inside a soft, sustained texture. “Glockenturm” narrows the motion to a quiet repeating figure, with small accents around the edge of the arrangement.

“Dietro La Collina” breaks the calm with clipped meter, cycled figures, and a central shift that recasts both cadence and harmonic pattern before the closing vocal return. “Spleen” sets an off-center pulse under Bodini’s line and tightens toward a denser closing passage with layered voices. “Id” traces interwoven figures through a gentle rise and fall that settles into a light chiming cadence. “Deimos” opens in broken time, eases into a calmer middle stretch, then restores its fractured rhythmic pattern for the close. “Il Sogno” ends the set with a brief pastoral theme and a short closing cadence.

A1. “Valzer su Bach” [Waltz on Bach] (3:49) – with classical cellist Giulio Arpinati.
A2. “Liliana” (3:02)
A3. “Canzone per un’amica” [Song for a Female Friend] (3:46)
A4. “Glockenturm” [Bell Tower] (3:26)

B1. “Dietro la collina” [Behind the Hill] (6:42)
B2. “Riflessioni” [Reflections] (3:22)
B3. “Spleen” (5:59)

Bonus tracks:
8. “Id” (3:25)
9. “Deimos” (5:10)
10. “Il sogno” [The Dream] (2:27) – with classical cellist Boris Poziakov.

Il sogno uses a stark black field, a large angular Zauber logo, and a high-contrast white image that reads as a blurred floral burst or abstract cluster.

– Mauro Cavagliato / bass, guitars, keyboards (on “Id”)
– Liliana Bodini / lead vocals, percussion, guitars
– Claudio Bianco / drums, organ (on “Glockenturn”), harmonica
– Paolo Clari / keyboards, acoustic guitar (on “Glockenturn”), percussion
– Anna Galliano / piano, electric piano, flutes, metallophone

Postlude

After the 1978 album, Liliana Bodini and Mauro Cavagliato reconfigured Zauber with three new members: drummer Maurizio Di Salvo, guitarist Max Casacci, and pianist–singer Oscar Giordanino, a longtime auxiliary player. Meanwhile, Paolo Clari and Gianni Cristiani formed Clarion, which cut an instrumental album later released on Mellow Records.

In 1982, Zauber resurfaced with the single “Dentro me” (b/w “Periferia”) on Drums Edizioni Musicali.

Zauber recorded songs with young detainees at Ferrante Aporti, a Turin juvenile prison. The project spawned two CDs (Profumo di rovina, Viva la libertà) and the prison group Black Deal, which later cut the Cavagliato-produced disc Escape.

In 1984, Zauber issued Gente 1981/84., a cassette-only album of demos. They also began a long association with with the Turin theater group Teatro Zeta.

Zauber returned with the 1991 Kaliphonia CD Est, followed by the long-awaited 1992 release of Phoenix. Their fourth proper album, Aliens, appeared in 1993 on Mellow.

Discography: