Biography

Italian prog band Circus 2000 brought together the messy brilliance of late-'60s West Coast psychedelic rock with more precisely organized progressive rock and stood out due to singer Silvana Aliotta's powerful voice and equally strong vision for the band. They made only two albums in their brief existence, but became a point of obsession for future generations of prog fans as well as the subject of compilation releases like 2023's I Am the Witch: The Anthology. Circus 2000 formed in Northern Italy city Turin around the beginning of the '70s. Led by Aliotta, the band also included guitarist Marcello Quartarone, drummer Roberto Betti, and bassist Gianni Bianco. Their songs were sung primarily in English (though some singles were sung in Italian), and their self-titled 1970 debut was a mixture of Bay Area psychedelic rock and experimental sounds, with hints of prog peeking through at times. Betti was replaced by Franco Loprevite for the 1972 album An Escape from a Box, a more prog-leaning effort that also proved to be the band's final LP. A few more singles were released, and the band took part in some soundtrack work, but they went their separate ways not too long after the release of An Escape from a Box. Their Americanized sound was fascinating to prog enthusiasts who discovered the band in the coming decades, and their records soon became sought-after collectors' pieces. In 1999 Akarma released a 10" vinyl-only collection of rare and unreleased tracks called Boxing Circus, and in 2023, a complete studio discography, I Am the Witch: The Anthology, was finally released on the Grapefruit label. ~ Fred Thomas, Rovi