In the early 1970s, Garybaldi was one of Italy's most popular rock bands, attracting attention even outside their home country, for example in Germany, Switzerland and Japan. They were not only a fixture at the most important Italian music festivals, they also opened for big names such as Uriah Heep and Santana on their Italian tours. Astrolabio was after Nuda the second and last official album by the ex-Gleemen band Garybaldi after they changed their name in 1971. Before the recordings, bassist Angelo Traverso left the band and was replaced by Sandro Serra, while keyboardist Lio Marchi was officially only a guest musician. The LP was released in 1973 on the Fonit label and contains two suites, each over 20 minutes long, which take up an entire side of the original vinyl LP and are musically very different. The first side-filling track is pure progressive rock with a less guitar-heavy sound, while the second is pure Hendrix-oriented psychedelic blues rock with Bambi Fossati's virtuoso guitar playing in the forefront, recorded as an extended jam session in a small studio with few listeners. The band continued to play as a trio until the end of 1973 and then officially disbanded. What remained was another sought-after, very rare collector's item of Italian progressive rock.