But by then Gustavo Moretto gave the announcement he was stepping aside from Alma y Vida to pursue new musical horizons (he would form prog-rock act ALAS).
In April they performed at Baja Prog festival in Mexico and the Prog-Résiste Convention in Belgium.
Banksville Records is a recording company founded in 2005 by producer Paolo Baltaro, awarded as winners of the 12th “ Tribute to Demetrio Stratos”, the “ Darwin award for Italian non-conventional music in 2008 and, as producer, he was awarded as winner of the 2010 edition of the Prog Award as BEST 2010 PRODUCTION for Weather Underground.
During a piano bar evening he befriended the Genoese musician Bob Callero, the bass player of the 1970s prog bands (Osage Tribe and Duello Madre, and played with the artists Lucio Battisti, Patty Pravo and Loredana Berte, Callero offered Madonia a chance to go to Milan and start a tour as keyboard player for Eugenio Finardi in 1982.
They go on tour in Europe along with Evergrey and After Forever, at the Hirson festival and Trophées « hard rock » broadcast on MCM, as well as on acoustic show cases… At the end of 2003, they go on tour from Amsterdam to Grenade and all around Europe with the American band Symphony X. The last promotional date of « Duality » is at « Tournai Prog Event Festival » in Belgium, at the beginning of 2004
The band's style, a blend of styles such as Symphonic rock, neo-prog, Album-oriented rock (AOR) and traditional Progressive rock, is heavily influenced by a large variety of progressive rock groups from both sides of the Atlantic and several decades, including the likes of Spock's Beard, Genesis, Porcupine Tree, Pink Floyd, Dream Theater, Kansas and many more.
"Downhearted" was covered by Dutch prog rock band Solution and appeared on their 1982 album Runaway, while they added a 'bridge' to the song; Australian pop singer John Farnham sang it on his 2005 covers album I Remember When I Was Young.
Moving to London, he worked as a drummer for Jess Conrad and then as a booker for John Sherry Artists, finding work for a number of prog-rock/college bands - including Wishbone Ash - and frequenting showcase venues such as the Speakeasy.
Electric Love Muffin was a Philadelphia-based hard rocking quartet of the late 1980s that spiked the melodic thrash-pop of The Replacements, Soul Asylum and other indie bands of the period with touches of country/western, classic rock and prog-rock.
The prog purists of the day, who were still in raptures about the recent Digweed and Sasha GU mixes were a little phased by this one, however Darren holds his own superbly over both CDs, introducing the likes of Speedy J and Dave Clarke to new ears.
Highly regarded by prog fanatics as one of the top albums from Quebec, Canada in the 1970s alongside with Si on avait besoin d'une cinquième saison by Harmonium, and Les Porches by Maneige.
By the mid-to-late 80s, when he was beginning to play in bands, he was listening to maverick American art-rock heroes such as Captain Beefheart, Tom Waits, Frank Zappa and also to British progressive rock from the 1970s (as well as contemporary prog-inspired bands - most notably Cardiacs).
Slamer started his career playing in the UK prog-rock band City Boy.
In Spain, the group appeared at the Prog Metal Fest, a multi-venue festival that visited four cities: Madrid, Palencia, Barcelona and Girona.
Their next production was Prog Family, under the name of Osanna/Jackson, featuring notable figures of progressive rock history, such as Van der Graaf Generator's saxophonist David Jackson (as per name), King Crimson's David Cross, Balletto di Bronzo's Gianni Leone and others.
Paolo went back on stage with Arcansiel, jazz-prog-rock band as producer, singer and songwriter on the occasion of their fourth album Swimming in The Sand (Musea), that gathers their best songs (plus an unpublished work), all re-recorded in 2003.
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With the experimental jazz combo Società Anonima Decostruzionismi Organici he was awarded awarded as winner of the 12th “Tribute to Demetrio Stratos”, the "Darwin award for Italian non-conventional music" in 2008 and, as producer, he was awarded as winner of the 2010 edition of the Prog Award as best producer of the year for Weather Underground.
He was the vocalist and a founder member of a locally-popular R&B band Second Thoughts whose lineups included future record producer Chris Thomas, Thunderclap Newman founder/drummer Speedy Keen and two future members of prog-rock band Jade Warrior (Jon Field and Tony Duhig).
On the first one, Magneettimiehen kuolema (1970), he collaborated with Tasavallan Presidentti, a renowned Finnish prog band of the time.
In 2012, SPoT hosted its 20 year anniversary event with performances from Aerosmith, prog-rocker Geoff Tate and punk-rock band Sum 41.