Caution Radiation Area

Caution Radiation Area is the second album of the Jazz fusion band Area and was released in 1974. This is the first album that contains the better known line up, with Ares Tavolazzi replacing Patrick Djivas on bass. This album is notable also for being the first one in which experimental music is introduced. For example "MIRage? Mirage!" contains a part in which the whole band can be heard whispering readings (for example a negative review of "Arbeit Macht Frei", a TV guide...), and "Lobotomia" (which means "lobotomy") is constructed using loud synth noise, with the clear intention to disturb the listener (as pointed out on the booklet). Quotes of opening themes of Italian TV programs are heard during the track. The lyrics for "Cometa Rossa" are sung in Greek. "Brujo" means "wizard" in Spanish.

Track listing

Side one

Side two

Personnel

Area

Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a two-dimensional figure or shape, or planar lamina, in the plane. Surface area is its analog on the two-dimensional surface of a three-dimensional object. Area can be understood as the amount of material with a given thickness that would be necessary to fashion a model of the shape, or the amount of paint necessary to cover the surface with a single coat. It is the two-dimensional analog of the length of a curve (a one-dimensional concept) or the volume of a solid (a three-dimensional concept).

The area of a shape can be measured by comparing the shape to squares of a fixed size. In the International System of Units (SI), the standard unit of area is the square metre (written as m²), which is the area of a square whose sides are one metre long. A shape with an area of three square metres would have the same area as three such squares. In mathematics, the unit square is defined to have area one, and the area of any other shape or surface is a dimensionless real number.

Demetrio Stratos

Efstratios Dimitriou (Greek: Ευστράτιος Δημητρίου; April 22, 1945 – June 13, 1979), better known as Demetrio Stratos, was a Greek lyricist, multi-instrumentalist, music researcher, and co-founder, frontman and lead singer of the Italian progressive rock band Area – International POPular Group.

Born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt, of Greek parents, he studied piano and accordion at the "National Conservatoire". In 1957 he was sent to Nicosia, Cyprus, and, at the age of 17, moved to Milan, Italy, to attend the Politecnico di Milano University at the Architecture Faculty, where he formed his first musical group. In 1967, Demetrio Stratos joined the Italian beat band I Ribelli, and in 1972, founded Area.

Stratos recorded many records, and toured festivals in Italy, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Netherlands, Cuba, U.S. with Area, as well as a solo artist and in collaboration with other artists. He worked together with musicians, singers, writers, poets, directors, men of learning such as Mogol, Lucio Battisti, Gianni Sassi, Gianni Emilio Simonetti, Juan Hidalgo, Walter Marchetti, John Cage, Tran Quang Hai, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Grete Sultan, Paul Zukofsky, Nanni Balestrini, Claude Royet-Journoud, and Antonio Porta.