Sithonia are another early Italian styled band with modern equipment who do a job better than the usual. On Lungo Il Sentiero Di Pietra the music is a richly melodic and soft symphonic progressive with excellent Italian vocals that do much to remind one of PFM, Le Orme or even contemporaries Calliope. With lush arrangements with flute, guitars and keys, this isn't a mind blower but much more progressive and inventive than you'd expect from the short song lengths.
Spettacolo Annulatto (Mellow MMP-115) is a much more mature sophomore effort with a great production. While the music is slighty neo styled, due to some of the keyboard sounds, Sithonia try out all kinds of intresting ideas, including some distorted Italian vocals and some really weird East European rhythms. There are some more pop-styled cuts on the album, but for the most part it's a diverse and good step up and certainly worth checking out.
(originally reviewed as part of The New Italian Progressive Rock
Scene - Part 2, Exposé #4, p. 11, Edited for Gnosis 4/28/01)
