Press Kit

Barock Project was founded in 2003 by keyboardist and composer Luca Zabbini, with the aim of fusing classical music, mainly baroque, rock and touches of jazz into a sound of its own, treating progressive rock not as a tradition to preserve but as a language to push forward. Zabbini’s passion for Keith Emerson is one of the band’s founding influences. In the summer of 2004 bassist Giambattista Giorgi, drummer Giacomo Calabria and singer Luca Pancaldi joined the project.

In January 2007 the band performed in Bologna with a string quartet, in a concert released on the DVD Rock in Theater. The debut album Misteriose Voci followed on Musea Records, then Rebus (Mellow Records, 2009). Coffee in Neukölln (Musea Records, 2012), the band’s first album written entirely in English, established Barock Project on the international symphonic prog scene and earned a nomination at the Prog Awards 2012. That same year drummer Eric Ombelli and guitarist Marco Mazzuoccolo joined the band.

Skyline, released in January 2015 with the support of a fundraising campaign, features Vittorio De Scalzi (New Trolls) and cover art by Paul Whitehead, known for his early Genesis covers. Francesco Caliendo joined on bass and, in November 2015, Alex Mari became the band’s singer. The double live album Vivo (2016) was followed in March 2017 by Detachment, which took the band to Prog Dreams Festival in Holland and to the Symphonic Night Festival at Tsutaya O-East in Tokyo.

In 2018 Barock Project toured Holland, played RosFest in the United States, returned to Tokyo at Tsutaya O-West and closed the year at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome. In 2019 the band signed with Immaginifica (Aereostella) and released Seven Seas, followed in February 2021 by The Boxset, a remastered collection of the band’s complete studio discography.

In 2022 the band returned to the stage in England, played the Night of the Prog Festival at Loreley, Germany, and opened for P.F.M. on their Italian autumn tour. Time Voyager, the band’s latest studio album, was released in 2024: twelve tracks and over seventy minutes of music. It was followed in 2025 by Live Voyager, a double live CD featuring fifteen tracks.

Today Barock Project are Luca Zabbini (keyboards, vocals, guitars), Alex Mari (vocals), Marco Mazzuoccolo (electric guitars), Edoardo Gamberoni (bass, since 2026) and Eric Ombelli (drums).