LatteMiele

The group was formed in 1971 by guitarist Dellacasa, who had collaborated with Giganti in their Terra in bocca, and drummer Vitanza was just 16 years old. A keyboard trio, in the style of Emerson Lake & Palmer or Le Orme, their first album was Passio secundum Mattheum in 1972, with music inspired by Bach and lyrics based on the Gospel. An ambitious work, with good moments but slightly monotonous at times.
The band members were technically gifted, but the keyboard/bass/drums formula was repetitive and combined with a melodic voice with a not entirely convincing result.
A second album, Papillon, was released a year later, in a similar style, but with a better production. The album contains two tracks that occupy an entire side each, with Patetica in the style of Beethoven, on much of the second side which is an excellent example of their style. An English version of the album was also recorded, but it was only released on CD in 1992.
The band also performed several concerts, playing alongside Van der Graaf Generator on one of their Italian tours. A good live recording from 1974 was released by Mellow on the CD Latte e Miele Live.
After a couple of singles in 1974, the last of which was melodic and below the LP level, the group disbanded, and was reformed in 1976 by drummer Vitanza with three new members.
The new line-up recorded an album for Magma, Aquile e scoiattoli, very good, perhaps their best and most original album, containing a remake of Beethoven in Opera 21 and the beautiful Pavana, long suite of over 23 minutes, also released as an extract on single (but curiously on the Grog label).
The group continued to play until the early ’80s with an increasingly commercial sound, but the singles were not particularly successful. The last one in 1980, Ritagli di luce, even took them to the Sanremo Festival. The line-up included bassist Dario Carlevaro and drummer Enzo Barbieri.
Drummer Alfio Vitanza collaborated with one of the various New Trolls in the late 90s, and still plays with the recent formation La Leggenda New Trolls led by De Scalzi and Di Palo. His intention is to reform the original trio of Latte e Miele for a new CD.
Latte and Miele got back together in 2008 for a series of concerts (including the great successes in Korea), with the original members Oliviero Lacagnina, Marcello Dellacasa and Alfio Vitanza, and Massimo Gori, who had played in the second line-up. From these concerts was taken the live CD Live tasting.