Artist History 1984 - In a small garage in Rome a new band is born -"Royal Flowers". In the beginning, they compose and play mostly progressive music, clearly similar to that of "Genesis". The members of the band are: guitarist Marco Fedele, (today the composer for DUO-J), keyboard player Stefano Cretarola (currently part of DUO-J, also composer-inventor of several experimental music/photography music/poetry multi-media projects), on the bass Andrea Galluzzi (currently with Virtual Dream, an experimental Roman jazz-rock band), on the electric guitar Gianluigi Rossi (today an untiring teacher of virtuoso technique on the electric guitar) and drummer Francesco Bonanni. The band decides to follow the path of extreme creativity and composes numerous pieces of music inspired by that style so in vogue in the 70's (Genesis, Yes, Mike Oldfield, Jethro Tull, EL&P, etc.). It is immediately obvious that the band tends toward instrumental pieces and long ones at that. During this first year, they often perform in their own high schools and the fact that their music is much appreciated encourages them to continue. 1985-1990 - During these five years, the band composes a great quantity of music and gives very many concerts, above all in nightclubs in Rome. In the meantime the composition of the band changes often and rapidly with the entering and exiting of drummers and singers and finally stabilizes, after a transition period, with the arrival of Adriano Sutera, a "funky" drummer. At the end of the 80's the musical production of the Royal Flowers moves towards a more immediately usable rock style, abandoning the baroque-like style of the past and concentrating on an easier, more direct music. This move is favored by the use of technology (drum machine and sampler). The new pieces, energetically sung by Marco Fedele, obtain the promotional support of some radio stations and of the television station "Teleroma 56" which chooses "Fusion Time" as the musical theme for its sports show. All these hours of work, trying out, giving concerts, meetings, record labels dealings, newspaper ads, etc. take their toll on the band and push them to decide to take a "leave of absence"; a year to straighten out their thoughts. During this year, Marco and Stefano, the group's more active members, lay the foundations, on a multi-track Fostex 260, for a four part instrumental suite that lasts approximately one hour. After a year the band gets back together under the name "Poetra" and tries out the piece, making its own and reaching new heights of expressiveness and creativity. The suite is called "Metamorfosi della Natura" (Nature's Metamorphoses) and when performed live has an incredible impact (the band was judged "Best Musical Group" at a festival held in Latina in the spring of 1990). 1991 - Always self observant and critical, the members of the band notice a flagging of interest among their ranks and realize that perhaps, from certain points of view, the "chapter" entitled "group" has come to a close. Marco, Stefano, Gianluigi, Andrea and Adriano no longer recognize themselves in the tastes and enthusiasm that they shared for so many years. Their individual musical tendencies have changed and it becomes more and more difficult to work together; how can ambient have anything in common with heavy metal?? For this reason the band definitely breaks up after an intense concert at Melvin's. 1992-1995 – After the intense and unrepeatable "Royal Flowers" adventure, all the members of the band begin to actively pursue their own individual musical work, each in an attempt to rediscover a dimension that is more defined and more suitable to their own musical tendencies. Stefano Cretarola records his personal works: "Affreschi", "Favole Notturne", "The Frog While Eating Its Deck Of Cards". 1996 - DUO is created; ex-members Marco Fedele and Stefano Cretarola are back together again. The two, following years of study of classical guitar (Marco) and experimentation (Stefano), decide to go back to composing together. They record a double CD entitled "Relatività Doppia" (Double Relativity) containing more than one hundred minutes of instrumental music. The effort is immediately performed live in the Hall of Culture of Guidonia (a town near Rome) and raises considerable interest on the part of the public. The CD is privately pressed in a limited edition. In the same year, the two work on revamping some old Royal Flowers tapes which, once re-worked, are then computer processed and re-masterized. Thanks to this effort, today the music of Royal Flowers lives again in a four album set with more than four hours of music, available from Duo-J. Stefano Cretarola, together with photographer Stefano Bianchini bring to life a photographic/musical experiment; an exploration of the highly imaginative, between color, black and white and quite enthralling music. The results can be found in the CD "The Black and the White and the Colours". 1997 - In '97, DUO actively collaborates with photographer/artist Massimiliano D'Affronto on a multimedia exhibit (first shown in Rome in November 1997) whose theme was the world of the oneiric. A short CD entitled "Music for Oneiros" was the theme song for the exhibit and was also sold there. In the same year Stefano Cretarola presses his very personal CD "Sex". 1998 - During the first few months of the year Marco and Stefano are very busy working with the TV station Teleroma 56 on the composing and realization of the musical themes for the sports program "Meeting" broadcast every Sunday and conducted by Giulio Galasso. The result is a CD called "Sigle" (Themes) having pieces of pop, funky and some jingles. In the same year, Marco Fedele collaborates with keyboard player Corrado Sardella, stage name "Doracor", and they come up with an acoustic piece that becomes part of the new CD "Antiche Impressioni" produced by Mellow Records. 1999 - Throughout 1998 the desire to create music different from anything they had ever done before continued to grow. They were looking for something new, to be brought about thanks to the fascinating and ever greater use of samplers, computers, and Internet files that have truly revolutionized the concept of making music. DUO becomes DUO-J. So, by mixing a large dose of creativity together with the latest trance, hip hop, jungle and techno tendencies, DUO-J, in March 1999, creates their turning point CD: "Equals". The two musicians collaborate with a group of avant-garde painters and join forces in "Studio Zero", which that spring organizes a multimedia exhibit in Paris and Brussels using the music of Equals as the musical theme for the entire exhibit. 2000 - In 2000 Marco Fedele (MARFE) record his first solo guitar cd, titled "Monnamoon". It contains very beautifull songs composed through the passed years. Stefano Cretarola appears with his keyboards in the arrangements. In the meanwhile DUO-J works to a compilation of some old Royal Flowers songs, taked back from the triple cdbox. 2001 - In 2001 MARFE appears in "transizione", the new DORACOR'S cd produced by Mellow Records. 2002 - Throughout 2001 and 2002, DUO-J works to a new music and video project to be stored in a cd-rom. Certainly a new very change in their music conception. Finally, "Movinpower" is born, a project casually inspired by Paul Auster book, a cd-rom containing 8 video clips: a lot of rap, hip-hop and new american underground atmospheres.

Group Members Stefano Cretarola, Marco Fedele

Location Roma, Roma - Italy

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