I) Ivo Bernasconi and his Swiss-Italian multi-deacade jazz-rock and progressive path with more or less known bands like Brainstorm, Zenith and Pravritti. In the 70's and 80's he wrote tons of musical material, performed live for decades but
never made it on to record.
II) Changes was the most known progressive rock formation where Gigio Pedruzzi played drums together with bass player Scandy (Paolo Scandella) more known for his worldwide success with the Shakary albums produced with former Clepsydra
guitar player Lele Hofmann.
III) Andy Thommen was co-founder and bass player of Clepsydra together with Lele Hofmann.
In 1993 Ivo Bernasconi played a keyboard solo on Changes' second album "The Growing Number"
In June 1994 Clepsydra with Andy Thommen on bass guitar and Changes with Gigio Pedruzzi on drums both present their second album (Clepsydra's "More Grains Of Sand") in a live show in Ascona, Switzerland.
In 1995 Clepsydra were called for a second tour where Gigio Pedruzzi and Ivo Bernasconi toured with the band temporarily replacing the original drummer and keyboarder.
The birth of Zenit
Andy left Clepsydra in July 1998 after the last concerts of the "Fears" tour in Canada and Italy with Neil Otupacca (ex-Gotthard) on keyboards.
A few months earlier Andy founded Zenit together with Gigio and Ivo.
Frank Di Sessa (guitars) and Lorenzo Sonognini (vocals and acoustic guitars) joined the band shortly after.
Zenit 1999
The band name was chosen between the multitude of names used by Ivo's bands in the earlier two decades.
A few concerts led immediately to the decision to produce an album: "Pravritti" was released in February 2001. The mixed lyrics in both Italian and English was a brave decision that caused mixed feeling in most of the reviewers.
Zenit 2003
After another few live performances Frank Di Sessa leaves the band and is replaced by Luigi Biamino who made is first live appearance with Zenit at the Progsol festival.
After the release of the successful second album "Surrender" (2006), the band is now working with the new drummer Gabriele Schira, from Lausanne, on the third album planned to be released eraly 2012.
Management
See our official band web page: www.fragile.net
Influenced by
Genesis, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Toto, The Beatles, J. S. Bach, Area, Chet Baker, Bobby McFerrin, Sainkho Namtchylak, Steve Reich, Full Circle, Jan Hammer, Andreas Vollenweider, Spock's Beard, Flower Kings, E.L.P., Led Zeppelin, Larry & Lee, Larry Carlton, Saga, Boston, Kevin Gilbert, King Krimson, Marillion, Peter Gabriel, Yes, Rush, Richie Blackmore, Neil Peart, Vinnie Colaiuta
ZENIT was found in 1998 by Andy Thommen (ex bass of Clepsydra), Ivo Bernasconi and Gigio Pedruzzi. We are a Swiss based Progressive Rock band.
ZENIT's music is often called "neo-retro-progressive rock".
Two records released:
Zenit - Pravritti
(CD 2001)
Zenit - Surrender
(CD 2006)
Currently we are working on our 3rd album and on some live shows we'll stage in autummn/winter this year. We'll perform a couple of new songs during our upcoming concerts.
