No Strange was an Italian rock group influenced by psychedelic music that combined elements of rock and cosmic music. The group was born in 1980 in Turin with the name of No Strani, on the initiative of Salvatore D'Urso (better known as Ursus) and Alberto Ezzu.
In 1984, the collaboration with the producer and record producer Giulio Tedeschi of Toast Records began. These years also saw the production of the tapes Rainbow (self-produced, 1983) Lysergic Tomahawk (Roller coaster Italy, 1984) and the participation in the 1985 compilation Eighties Colors edited by Claudio Sorge and published by Electric Eye. Also in 1985, their first self-titled album was released.
In addition to D'Urso and Ezzu, many other musicians will alternate over time, including Franco "Franz" Presutti, Gilberto Richiero, Loris Canalia and Antonio "Tony" D'Urso.
The band has always favored study activity and musical research. Live appearances have been rare. Preferably on special occasions, such as the "Bom Shankar Event" held in La Loggia (Turin) on 20 March 1988, performed with Laura Tommasi on wind instruments and Sandro Becchis on guitar, the recording of which was published in the compilation Oracolo. With the entry into the band of Lucio Molinari, percussionist, and his brother Pino Molinari on keyboards, No strange will also record the album "Flora di Romi" released at the beginning of 1991.
The group ends its regular activity in 1993, to reform in the spring of 2008, with the participation of Salvatore "Ursus" D'Urso, Alberto Ezzu, Pino Molinari, Lucio Molinari, Tony D'Urso, Laura Tommasi and Paolo Avataneo. In practice a fusion between the different formations that operated in the eighties to which the backing vocalist Rosalba Guastella was later added.
In November 2011 Cristalli Sognanti was released in double format (digital and analog).
In 2014, Armonia Vivente was released on a double CD and double LP, again for the Area Pirata and Psychout Rec record companies.
In June 2015, the 10-inch 33 rpm Universi e Trasparenze was released, in which the band paid homage to some names and groups that have inspired them over the years: Popol Vuh, The Nice, Le Stelle di Mario Schifano, Terry Riley and La Monte Young. Change in the live line-up with the addition of Matteo Martino to the synthesizer and sampling. In May 2017, Alberto Ezzu, Salvatore D'Urso "Ursus" and Fabrizio Della Porta published the book "No Strange e Sogni Correlati" for Area Pirata. Artists, musicians and poets of various nationalities and from different eras take part in the volume, to reconnect a common path starting from the 60s, up to the present. The central theme of psychedelia also passes through languages such as comics and graphic composition.
At the end of 2017 the new work on vinyl "Il Sentiero delle Tartarughe" is released, again for the record companies Area Pirata and Psychout Rec., with the new three-piece formation to which the contralto Paola Scatena is added on vocals.
Another LP in 2019, again for the record companies Area Pirata and Psychout Rec., "Mutter der Erde", dedicated to Jutta Nienhaus, with the four-piece formation, Alberto Ezzu, Salvatore D'Urso "Ursus", Matteo Martino and Paola Scatena with some notable collaborations, including the singer of Armenian origin Rita Tekeyan, the singer/performer Simona Colonna, the violinist Stefania Priotti, the bassist Riccardo Salvini and the drummer Gabriele Maggiorotto. Meanwhile, still in 2019, two more works by Ezzu are released with two of his parallel projects: Alberto Ezzu Lux Vocal Ensemble "L'Uscita delle Anime verso la Luce dl Giorno" in LP for Psychout Rec.; and a new work with the newly formed ensemble AlmaMantra, with Alberto Ezzu on vocals and various instruments, Anna Siccardi soprano and flutes, Stefania Priotti on viella and Paola Scatena contralto and percussion. Repertoire of medieval music revisited in a meditative key for the record company His Sunt Leones.
In 2021 the LP "…e continuarò ad esistere" is released again with the record companies Area Pirata and Psychout Rec. The absence of Matteo Martino, busy with other solo electronic projects, and the increasingly important collaboration of the singer Paola Scatena is noticeable on the album.
In 2022 Alberto Ezzu's solo work "Quaderno delle Poesie Elettroniche Ultraterrene" was printed in double CD containing only electronic music, for Rubber Soul Records Turin. In 2023 the double CD "Universi, Sovrapposizioni e Risonanze" was printed, which contains four unreleased tracks in addition to the 10" Universi e Trasparenze, the LP Il Sentiero delle Tartarughe and the LP Mutter der Erde, previously released only on vinyl.
In October 2023 Alberto Ezzu, again for Rubber Soul Records Turin, published a CD together with the singer, cellist and flautist Simona Colonna which is entitled "Le Vie Dei Canti" and is Ezzu's first work other than No Strange in which songs appear.
On November 4, 2024 the vinyl "Chiedilo a te stesso" was released with the lineup that includes, in addition to the historic Alberto Ezzu and Salvatore D'Urso "Ursus", Paola Scatena on contralto vocals and Simona Colonna on flute and cello. On the B side of the LP a Renaissance organ recorded in a Piedmontese church.
In May 2025, the record company Onde Italiane (www.ondeitaliane.it) released a 45 rpm from the "No Strani" period (1981). The album contains three songs composed and played by Alberto Ezzu and Salvatore D'Urso: 1) Psycho Dream; 2) Dance Joy; 3) Uomo scimmia. Also in 2025 and again for Onde Italiane, "Demos 1983" was released, an LP that collects songs released on the cassette attached to the fanzine "Roller Coaster" and on the cassette "In-formazioni".
In July 2026, the double LP *Il Sogno di Prometeo* by Alberto Ezzu will be released on Psychout Rec. It is a work for solo organ derived from the 2022 installation *L'Antro dell'Eterno Ritorno del Diverso*, which has expanded over time to include numerous subsections.
Discography
Demo Tapes Year Title Etichetta 1983 Rainbow Autoproduction 1984 Lisergic tomahawk Roller coaster Italy
Albums Year Title Etichetta 1985 Trasparenze e suoni Toast Records Italy 1987 L'Universo Toast Records Italy 1991 Flora di Romi Toast Records Italy 2011 Cristalli Sognanti Psychout Rec. Italy 2014 Armonia Vivente - tra analogie e contrasti (double LP) Psychout Rec. Italy 2015 Universi e Trasparenze (10") Psychout Rec. - Area Pirata Italy 2017 Il Sentiero delle Tartarughe Psychout Rec. - Area Pirata Italy 2019 Mutter der Erde Psychout Rec. - Area Pirata Italy 2021 ...e continuerò ad esistere Psychout Rec. - Area Pirata Italy 2024 Chiedilo a te stesso Psychout Rec. - Area Pirata Italy 2025 Demos 1983 Onde Italiane Italy
Singles Year Title Etichetta 1986 White bird/Fiori risplendenti Toast Records Italy 2025 No Strani Onde Italiane Italy
CDs Year Title Etichetta 1998 Medusa Toast Records Italy 2011 Cristalli Sognanti Area Pirata Italy 2014 Armonia Vivente - tra analogie e contrasti (double CD) Area Pirata Italy 2023 Universi, Sovrapposizioni e Risonanze (double CD with 4 unreleased songs and the 10" Universi e Trasparenze + LP Il Sentiero delle Tartarughe + LP Mutter der Erde) Area Pirata Italy & Psych-Out Records
Albums Compilation Year Title Etichetta 1985 Eighties colours Electric eye Italy 1987 What exactly is a joke Vinile/Crazy Mennequin Italy 1988 Oracolo Toast Records Italy 1993 Who are them? Face Records Italy 1993 Apocalisse di diamante Toast Records Italy 2022 Le Forbici di Manitù & Friends INCREDIBILE?! 2LP / 2 CD, Sussidiaria Italy
CDs Compilation Year Title Etichetta 2006 Electric Psychedelic Sitar Headswirlers Vol 9 Purple Lantern Usa 2012 Welcome Back to the Eighties Colours Psychout Rec. 2012 HOFMANN'S KALEIDOSCOPE: Expiation of the Psychedelic Hunters Vol. I Vincebus Eruptum fanzine n°14 2022 Le Forbici di Manitù & Friends INCREDIBILE?! con il brano "C'è una musica" Sussidiaria
Side project
Alberto Ezzu Lux Vocal Ensemble Year Title Etichetta 2006 CD Consonanze armoniche, Ostinati Ritmici e Veri Bordoni Immobili Cooperativa Primainsieme Italy 2011 LP Consonanze armoniche, Ostinati Ritmici e Veri Bordoni Immobili (double LP - 3 bonus tracks ) Psychout Rec. 2013 CD Il Fuoco del 6° Armonico sulla Luce della Dominante partendo dalla Madre Fondamentale (con in mente Zarathustra) Hic Sunt Leones e Arte, Cura e Trasformazione 2017 CD Le Litanie di Ra Hic Sunt Leones 2019 LP L'Uscita delle Anime verso la Luce del GiornoPsychout Rec.
AlmaMantra Anno Titolo Etichetta 2019 CD AlmaMantraHic Sunt Leones
Alberto Ezzu Anno Titolo Etichetta 2022 CD ALBERTO EZZU: Quaderno delle Poesie Elettroniche UltraterreneRubber Soul Records Torino 2023 CD SIMONA COLONNA e ALBERTO EZZU: Le Via Dei CantiRubber Soul Records Torino2026LP ALBERTO EZZU: Il Sogno di PrometeoPsychOut Rec.
Alberto Ezzu Lux Vocal Ensemble
It was psychedelia in the beginning. Since the 1970s Ezzu has been following the same dream, the dream of his own generation to expand the borders of the mind. Through the years he has never given up that quest, even though things have changed and today he can say with Socrates "know yourself". He has consistently followed his path going through all kind of music and sound experiences. "No Strange" experience was "something absolutely original" Antonio Bacciocchi, Buscadero, 1985, and Enciclopedia del Rock Italiano, «Arcana», Roma, Fazi Editore, 2006 and it stood apart in the Neo psychedelic Italian scene whose interest was in the sound but also in the hair-cut and clothes of British and American bands of the 1960s and 1970s. No Strange benchmarks included the first Pink Floyd, Brainticket, Soft Machine and Third Ear Band but mainly the early works of Tangerine Dream and Popol Vuh, with whom they shared a common musical and spiritual quest. Twenty years later this new Ezzu project is inspired by the same love for sound, for the winding paths of thought, for the possibility of human mind. His way has changed because his life and his work have changed. After years of Zen meditation he has dedicated himself to music therapy and became a professional therapist. The Benenzon Model and its concept of helping relation has given the possibility to compare his mind, his thoughts and feelings with the mind, the thoughts and feelings of other people –being them patients or colleagues- and to constantly check himself and his progress in a sound filled environment. "Consonanze Armoniche, Ostinati Ritmici e Veri Bordoni Immobili» lives in the stream of popular and learned drone music and of avant-garde music which gets its inspiration into American Minimalism of authors like La Monte Young and Terry Riley, and also Alvin Curran and the duo Cuni-Durand which is particularly influential for Ezzu who studied Dhrupad singing with Amelia Cuni. The study of multi-note singing –whose tradition origins in Siberia Mongolia and Tibet- completes Ezzu's technical background and gives to his style a personal and unique sound. In this work as in his previous "Il Fuoco del 6° Armonico sulla Luce della Dominante partendo dalla Madre Fondamentale – con in mente Zarathustra" (performed live but still not released) the sound is both avant-garde and ancient, primeval as if generated by the early wave motion of the Big Bang.