Ennio Morricone

Few copies coming from a dead stock. For a late-'60s Morricone soundtrack this is a little on the bland, easy listening side. But it's at the very least pleasant, and there are the occasional streaks of eccentricity to be heard here and there. The majority of the tracks are dainty and sunny, if lushly orchestrated, sometimes decorated with Edda Dell'Orso's female vocal scatting, as if to suggest the dawning of a new romance as the curtains are raised on a sparkling Mediterranean day. Some oddball stuttering organ pokes its head out on "Terrazza Vuota," and "Alla Luce Del Giorno" sounds like generic go-go party music, with callow, innocuous, wordless harmonies. "Ric Happening" takes a left turn into faux Indian-Asian ambient sounds; "Nina" has light jazz ballad colors. The CD is padded out to a 41-minute length with three previously unreleased tracks, including the main theme, "Hurry to Me," with Euro-jet-set male-female vocal duetting, and a couple of alternate versions. This is one for the Morricone completist rather than the listener collecting highlights of his massive discography.