It’s Prog time, folks!  Airbridge man, Lorenzo Bedini proudly takes his cue from Floyd, Genesis and Crimson as he charts his own development – from child to senior citizen – on his debut solo album, Who Never Was.

Release Date:  28^th March 2025

Label: Voon Records

Formats: CD / Digital

CHARTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF A HUMAN BEING

He’s been around for a long, long time.  Indeed, Lorenzo Bedini has been active in music since 1980 when he teamed up with fellow guitarist/keyboardist Edward Percival, bassist Sean Godfrey and drummer David Beckett to form the first lineup of Airbridge, esteemed and unashamed Norwich prog rockers.  And now, at last, here comes his debut solo album – and it’s quite something!

Who Never Was is a solo album in the truest sense of the phrase.  Not only does Lorenzo play every instrument, sing every note and utter every word – he even handles all the production duties.  Over twelve tracks, Lorenzo charts his own development, from expressions of his earliest childhood memories and ambitions to the reflections in which he’s now able to indulge as a 60+ year-old man of experience.  And his story is told in words and with music that will resonate deeply with many, particularly his contemporaries – and I should know; I’m one of them.

PROUD AND VIVID INFLUENCES

Lorenzo notably brings influences that include King Crimson, Jethro Tull and, particularly, Barclay James Harvest to the music and repertoire of Airbridge.  With the exception of Tull, those influences are present and correct here, too, on Who Never Was, and I’d also suggest that Lorenzo was listening quite a lot to late-period Pink Floyd and Nursery Cryme-era Genesis as he honed these songs.  In fact, the whole package is pervaded by a Genesis feeling that reaches as far as the album cover art and the bizarre/surreal pen-sketches that adorn the CD booklet.

CHILDHOOD REFLECTIONS

There’s a deep, rich Floydian feel to opening track, Could Have Been.  Lorenzo describes the song as: “An affectionate look at the small child I once was, who was convinced he’d grow up to be an amalgam of all those TV heroes he believed were all quite real,” and his lyrics duly relive those long-ago days when he dreamed of becoming a spaceman, a spy, an airman or a detective.

And Lorenzo stays with his early childhood memories for The Walrus and the Carpenter, this time reflecting upon the influence of the writings of Lewis Carroll – a ubiquitous presence in the lives of those of us who underwent our formative education in the 1950s and 1960s.  Lorenzo adopts the words of Carroll’s poem as his lyrics for the song and, this time, it’s Genesis influence that comes across in the smooth keyboards, clangy bass, tinkling percussion, the pastoral passages of the music and the slow-building crescendo of the closing instrumental passage.

ADOLESCENT ANGST, THE DEVIL AND A LOSS OF INNOCENCE

Lorenzo wrote the reflective Images aged just 16 and the song has been a regular feature in the live repertoire of Airbridge.  He describes the song’s lyrics as: “…neatly [reflecting] the arrogance, confusion and sense of inadequacy that plagued me – and maybe many others – in my adolescence” and he renders them to a backing of tasteful orchestral keyboards and a funky, engaging bassline.

Things take a jazzy turn for Snake in the Grass, a song in which Lorenzo considers the outcome and implications of summoning Ol’ Beezlebub to live amongst us.  His vocals take on a suitably demonic edge, as keyboards sweep and guitars soar and crackle, and I love the song’s “…fish as mad as the spoon” punchline!

Next, Lorenzo reflects upon the loss of the innocence and eager anticipation of youth with In Flight.  The music is mellow and, whilst there is a degree of anguish in the song’s lyrics, Lorenzo’s vocal delivery exercises control.  Guitars and keyboards share the driving and, if I was to suggest an inspiration to this song, it would be Supertramp and Crime of the Century.

LARKS’ TONGUES IN SPACE…

Personally, I’m a huge fan of King Crimson’s 1973 Larks’ Tongues in Aspic album and so, it seems, is Lorenzo Bedini.  In fact, he’s keen to point out that A Brighter Flame – one of the album’s real highlights, maybe even its centrepiece – was inspired by that very album.  And it definitely shows…  Everything’s here: the acoustic guitars, the jingly psychedelic percussion, the tight, poppy, poetic self-righteous reflections and the bursts of heavy guitar – all combine to create an excellent, absorbing piece of music.

Lorenzo likes his synths and he takes his first venture into electronica territory with Make the Silence.  Interesting lyrics consider the oppression that can often accompany solitude before guitars, bass and drums kick in to bring the electronic adventures back to Earth.  And, in complete contrast, August Storm, Lorenzo’s self-confessed “Mid-life crisis song,” is the closest thing on the album to straightforward heavy rock.  Lorenzo’s soft-porn (definitely tongue-in-cheek, he assures us) lyrics are enjoyable in a blokey, ‘nudge-nudge’ kind of way, and the music is exhilarating.

A SPACE VOYAGE AND A (MAGICAL) MYSTERY TOUR

He’s already dabbled in electronica but for Voyager, Lorenzo goes the whole hog, as he “…road tests his new synthesizer.”  In an instrumental piece that borrows liberally from Dvorak and Tomita, Lorenzo pays tribute to the ongoing adventures of the Voyager space probe.  It’s spacy, sometimes thoroughly weird and, alternately, warm and disconcerting.

Speaking of his inspiration for the marvelous Psweet Psychedelic Psychosis, Lorenzo says: “There’s a school of thought that suggests very strange things are happening all around us the whole time, but our minds blank them out because we can’t make sense of them.  Whether or not this is true, I thought it was an apt concept for this tribute to The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour album.”  In the best Beatle tradition, backward-sounding guitars are detectable and I just love the psychedelic lyrics that include lines like: “…Phyllis has her slippers on to protect her from the fog.”  And the mix is loaded with strange noises that no listener could ever expect – it may be the album’s shortest track, but it’s utterly fantastic.

SAD, WISE AND CONTENT…

And, so, to close this thoroughly engaging album, Lorenzo returns to his childhood for another study of the person that he once wanted to become, but didn’t for the album’s title track.  His voice takes on a Peter Gabriel tone as he sings the album’s closing lines: “Time takes us all by surprise, but we are as we seem to each others’ eyes.  We’ve all come a long way from innocence, so don’t try to remember my name.”  It’s true, it’s hauntingly sad and it’s wisely observed and, as the guitar/synth coda brings the album to its close, there’s also a sense that Lorenzo isn’t really too dissatisfied with the person that he eventually turned out to be.

Listen to the single mix of Who Never Was, the album’s closing track – and its title track – below:

Lorenzo Bedini: Official Website (Airbridge) / Bandcamp

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