Hero-same, LP, 1974, Italy(realesed in Germany)(NWW list!)

Robert Deller (keyboards, vocals)
Massimo Pravato (guitar, bass)
Umberto Maschio (drums)

Guitarist Massimo Pravato, from near Venice, had played since the late 60's in various groups in the Padova area, The Bart's Group and I Delfini. Around 1970 he joined a group from Udine, Upupa, that included the english born keyboardist Robert Deller, and he played with them for a couple of years, until the two of them split and formed a trio with drummer Umberto Maschio, also from Padova.
The yet unnamed group moved to Germany, having a residency in a Munich club thanks to Deller's father, and they recorded their album in 1972 having had a contact with the Poliband music group (that was specialised in children music) that owned the Pan label. Despite the death of Massimo Pravato in a car accident in 1973, the album was released a year later, but went largely ignored.
A nice album by a little known group, the LP was only released in Germany, but unlike the Atlantide album Francesco ti ricordi, it's very hard to find even from german dealers.
Hero is a very long album, over 46 minutes, and contains nine songs in the 4-5 minute range, with the only exceptions of the 9-minute Clapping and smiling and the 7-minute long Dew-drops, in a rural hard prog style with english lyrics, well sung by Deller. The sound is not particularly original but a very pleasant listen overall.
An Umberto Maschio playing percussion with guitarist Jacopo Gianninoto from Vicenza is Hero's drummer's son.
http://www.italianprog.com/a_hero.htm

Excellent one-off progressive rock LP from this Italian band, released in 1974. Hero took a more song-oriented approach than many Italian bands of the period, with clever arrangements and a tasteful minimum of noodling, their overall sound being similar to Van der Graaf Generator.
http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2006/01/adventures_in_t_1.html

Very rare and very nice gem from the NWW list!