Marco Benevento’s Glera is his debut for Big Crown Records, and it sounds like a keyboard player making records with a producer’s ear. Piano and synth lines dart, double back, and lock into grooves drawing on jazz fusion, soul, reggae and dance rock. “Frizzante” starts the album at full tilt, with Benevento trading melodies with himself over a hard-driving beat, while “Houdini” turns jazz fusion into a dancefloor rush. “Sprezzatura” pushes the pace again, all narrow-street pursuit and sudden turns. The writing began with Italian film scores and melody, and that cinematic pull shows up in the shifts between chase scenes, slow dissolves and open-ended improvisation.
The guest list keeps changing the colour. Marianne Mirage brings a cool vocal presence to “Turandot”, Dream Crease adds lo-fi dream-pop haze to “I Can’t Control This Bliss”, and Elizabeth Steiner’s harp floats above the reggae-leaning “Miss Neptune”. There are stranger touches too, including voice memos and peacock calls on “Big Top”. Chiara Civello’s vocal on “Quattro Passi” helps bring the record down to a saunter after the faster material. Fans of adventurous piano-led jazz, groove-heavy instrumental rock and records that refuse to stay in one lane should find plenty to follow here, though its constant motion may be a lot for anyone after a settled mood.
