The Roving Magpie is the acoustic project, under the sign of a fascinating dark folk, by Peter, a Mantuan musician also known for his work with Vollmond and Blaze Of Sorrow. The definition of folk maybe is useful mainly to provide a general idea, since here we are in the presence of a series of songs with a singer-songwriter imprint, albeit covered with a particularly dark aura, and characterized by a vocal timbre that can bring to mind a cursed singer like Serge Gainsbourg or even better Leonard Cohen. But, beyond the fascinating game of cross-references, which inevitably pushes us to dust off even the most introspective Nick Cave, Seven Sad Songs keeps faith with the title by offering a series of beautiful songs characterized by a rare emotional intensity, with Peter’s crooner voice to lean on carpets of acoustic guitar and minimal keyboard t ouches, the ideal combination to attract the most melancholy souls to listen. The work has the merit of not indulging in a single scheme composition and so, along with songs from the structure properly folk, we find the bare desolation transmitted by tracks like The Rime Of The Drunken Rook or Weeping Willow, even if the highest point is found in the last two songs, the magnificent The Last Song, the penultimate place in the setlist despite the deceptive title, and the final Thulean Chant: in the first one the voice, if possible with darker tones than usual, is accompanied by precious acoustic arpeggios and light key strokes, while in the second one a darker imprint prevails, also for the tone used by Peter that in this case goes to discomfort the Peter Murphy soloist.
A beautiful record, of rare depth, of undoubted artistic value and, almost superfluous to remark, addressed to a rather restricted group of listeners.
2014 – Pest Productions
Mournful Sounds 
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