Antonius Rex 
Ralefun
(1979)
 
The fourth album from Antonio Bartoccetti's international magic group Antonius Rex, is the only one of their albums that went more or less "mainstream" and had good sales. After the more "light" album (then their first Neque Semper Arcum Tendit Rex) Zora, and the death of drummer Albert Goodman (in 1978), Antonius Rex didn't really want to record more albums. But when RCA contacted the band, and it was clear that the basic core was Bartoccetti and Norton with guests, the band asked an exaggerated advance. The label accepted and after 40 days in the Osthoff recording studio's, Ralefun was released. The first edition of 12.000 copies was burned out in just a few days.
 
 
 

 

 
It seemed to be Antonius Rex's moment: interviews, commercial pages, radio, TV, contracts for concerts, tempting proposals, sponsors a 60 minutes super video and a super European tour that touches cathedrals, ancient villas and castles of Oslo, Berlin, Lods, Praga, Ostrava, Brno, Budapest, Ankara, Istanbul, Baku ending in Milan the 20th of April 1979. But just like all legends... all this (incredibly) didn't satisfy the two founders of the band anymore who in an interview for the international press and the Milanese radio - Radio Popolare, said: "We are now running a big risk... that of becoming commercial therefore before risking to fall in absurd compromises of the music business, we say... enough". 

Definitely much less dark than anything else they made, Ralefun is more listenable then much of their previous work (probably causing the venture into the more "mainstream" market). It was more varied and the sound was richer with the addition of flute and bass guitar (with guest appearences by Marco Ratti and Hugo Heredia), but some ventures into different music styles don't always work very well. Filled with good compositions but recorded in too much of a hurry and without much care, with a lousy sound and poor mixing (Colin Coldweis was not at the controls)..... the final mixing was done without the knowledge of the group. They were not satisfied with the fact that their quickly recorded Ralefun, an album full of good compositions but badly release, was their only work that had good sales, thanks to the RCA marketing team and Sidet promotion. Bartocceetti later stated in an interview in 2002 that Ralefun was a ridiculous album both on the conceptual and the artistic-technical side, and that all of their albums (including Jacula's) except Ralefun could be described as limited editions, musical emotions for a selected group, to accept or refuse as a whole. And so, this is the concept album that has carried the group to the notoriety and the collectors to search for all the other Antonius Rex/Jacula albums.
Their single "Agonia Per Un Amore" was released with the B side "Witch Dance", but as different versions of the tracks from the album.
Ralefun came with numbers over the letters on the front cover, R = 5, A = 6, L = 7, E = 4, F = 1, U = 2 and N = 3. If you combine these numbers in the right order (1-2-3 and so on), the name of the album is suddenly: Funeral...

After this album, Antonius Rex produced one last album - Praeternatural (1980) before dissappearing. It is often regarded as their best album (but since it is from another decade it is not included here). In 1992 a small 12" single entitled Pig in the Witch by Antonius Rex surfaced, described by Antonio Bartoccetti as a "techno experiment", and mostly sold in England. This was a short joy, but in 2005 Antonius Rex re-appeared completely and surprised fans with the combined album and video Magic Ritual. This time they came back for good, proven by the release of yet another album; Switch on Dark the following summer! Antonius Rex is the only band from the "occult rock wave" of the 60's/70's that is still active and records new material. Long live the Rex...



Tracks:
1. Magic Sadness (3.46)
2. Agonia Per Un Amore (4.56)
3. Witch Dance (4.13)
4. Incubus (4.08)
5. In Einsteinesse's Memory (5.27)
6. Enchanted Woods (12.21)

(No lyrics yet)
 
 
 
 

 

Band Members:
Antonio Bartoccetti - Guitars, vocals 
Doris Norton - Keyboards 
Jean-Luc Jabouille - Drums 
Collaboration::
Marco Ratti - Bass guitar 
Hugo Heredia - Flute 
--- 
Recorded at: Osthoff Studios Munchen 
Engineer / mixer: Doris Norton 
Cover / photography: Martin Elwood 
Production: SI DET Edizioni s.r.l.
Licensed by TICKLE s.r.l. - Rome 
except track 2 and 3 licensed by PEER - Southern productions 


Release info:
Released by RCA subsidiary Radio Records 1979 - Ralefun (LP) (ZPLRR 34048)
Also released: Spark 1979 - Agonia per un amore / Witch dance  (7") (SR 848)
Reissued on CD Mellow records MMP 232 1994.
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Source: Album sleeve, Internet, emails, and the Jacula/Invisible force/Antonius rex homepage. All tracks, lyrics etc. is copyrighted to Antonius rex.