Piero Umiliani
Although most of his work straddled the gap between jazz and lounge, prolific Italian composer Piero Umiliani also had a yen for electronic music, and he was one of the first in Italy to experiment with the Moog and other electronic keyboards. Like many of his Italian colleagues at that time, he composed the scores for many exploitation films in the 1960s and 1970s, covering genres such as spaghetti western, Eurospy, Giallo, and soft sex films. Although not as widely regarded as, for example, Ennio Morricone or Riz Ortolani, he helped form the style of the typical European 1960s and 1970s jazz influenced film soundtrack.
Although most of his work straddled the gap between jazz and lounge, prolific Italian composer Piero Umiliani also had a yen for electronic music, and he was one of the first in Italy to experiment with the Moog and other electronic keyboards. Like many of his Italian colleagues at that time, he composed the scores for many exploitation films in the 1960s and 1970s, covering genres such as spaghetti western, Eurospy, Giallo, and soft sex films. Although not as widely regarded as, for example, Ennio Morricone or Riz Ortolani, he helped form the style of the typical European 1960s and 1970s jazz influenced film soundtrack.
Requiem per un agente segreto
A groovy little soundtrack by the great Piero Umiliani! The score is for a b-grade spy film from the late 60s – starring Stewart Granger as (according to the notes) "a seasoned secret agent, but always ready to kiss and to bang!" A lot to live up to, we know – but Umiliani more than does the job, with a wonderful mix of tunes that run from Barry-esque Bond to swinging Milan, blending electric guitar, bubbling organ, and exotic themes into a 17 track package that sparkles with the best o…
Continente Nero + Africa
**very last copies around** This is a dream come true. First time available since their original release, remastered sound, 500 copies only for these two Piero Umiliani gems exploring not only the traditional African music but also several other musical branches (jazz, funk....), with raw percussions, marimbas and a sunny vibe overall. The two albums sound like a spooky documentary that invites you to an unforgetable adventure: the music is completely wonderful throughout, and a great mix …
Studio Umiliani
Four Flies Records strikes again, releasing their first archive compilation of Piero Umiliani’s work and the first compilation focussing on the Maestro’s legacy in years. “Studio Umiliani” is a collection of sunken treasures and hidden beauties yet to be re-released, and of stunning unpublished works surprisingly unknown for quite some time. The project, born from the initial effort of Andrea Fabrizi, who has far and wide been exploring Umiliani's soundtracks before anyone else, led Four Flies …
Produzione
“Produzione”, originally released in 1973 on Piero Umiliani’s LP “Problemi d’oggi”, is an amazing mix of acoustic percussion and electronic experimentation, considered by some as the first example of techno trance music ever recorded. This song, along with “Attività”, another excerpt from “Problemi d’oggi”, has been ‘reworked’ by Gerardo Frisina, who cleverly extends the original content by mixing it with contemporary electronic sensations. The result, packaged in an artwork inspired by the ori…
Storia E Preistoria
Esteemed composer Piero Umiliani released scores of music in his lifetime from the famous to the obscure, but his forays into jazz continue to be a delight for diggers the world over. Here Galaxy present Storia E Prehistoria, recorded under his alias Rovi and originally released in 1972. It's a stirring collection of music that touches on soundtrack themes throughout, capturing the sound of the era impeccably while sporting Umiliani's inimitable touch in the same breath. The album is full…
Smog
The long-forgotten soundtrack to a hip early 1960s Italian cult movie, with music by Piero Umiliani and the legendary Chet Baker. Helen Merrill's vocal theme is just outstanding, rarely bettered -- the jazz is playful, mysterious and charming. This is just inspired and incredible music. Limited edition of 500 copies.
Gli Italiani e L'Industria
In stock now! From the legendary Omicron label secret archives, one of the rarest and nearly impossible to find album signed by Piero Umiliani. Awareness of Piero Umiliani’s genius is widespread nowadays,not least on this incredible Gli italiani e l’industria, a soundtrack of a mysterious TV documentary by Romolo Marcellini broadcasted in 1967, and never appeared again from then, which was focused on virtue and vice of Italian post-economic boom industrialization. The music perfectly reflects th…
Percussioni ed Effetti Speciali
**CD version** The long and prolific career of Piero Umiliani, also consisting of dozens of collaborations for television and cinema, has given (and is still delivering, given the amount of material that is finally coming back to light) a long series of experimental albums and music libraries that showcase his songwriting skills, as well as a natural curiosity towards avant-garde and more ‘difficult’ sounds. We can attribute to the second category this “Percussioni ed effetti speciali”, a title …
Suspense
**CD version** Among all the aliases used by the great Piero Umiliani, M. Zalla is perhaps his richest and surprising: mainly used to produce experimental records that had little commercial appeal, this ‘nom de plume’ (along with Moggi) is tied to memorable episodes of his career, releases such as “Problemi d’oggi” (literally “Today’s Problems”), “Mondo inquieto” (i.e. “An Unsettling World”), and also “Suspense”, now reissued by Schema Records.
And if titles such as those mentioned above may som…
Audace Colpo Dei Soliti Ignoti
First ever issue in its entirety for this indispensable score by Italian cinematic jazz- father Piero Umiliani, obtained by having access to the original reels with the complete soundtrack's recording. Top class Italian crime jazz composed for a 1959's comedy directed by Nanni Loy (sequel of "I Soliti Ignoti", realized by Mario Monicelli just the year before, with almost the same artistic cast of "Audace"). Chet Baker, who was at that time in Italy, joined Umiliani's octet with his unmistakable …
Switched On Naples
Sonor is glad and proud to announce the reissue of a very underrated Piero Umiliani's masterpiece. "Switched On Naples", originally released in 1972 on OmiCron LP 0023, is an outstanding library with pure touch of genius: Maestro Umiliani revisits Naples popular songs in an electronic way with the use of synthesizer. The record is entirely carried out with electronic sounds.
Edition of 500 copies.
I Piaceri Proibiti
**blue vinyl** A beautifully jazzy soundtrack from the great Piero Umiliani – one that features solo work by some of the key members of the Basso Valdambrini sextet! The style here is very much in the mode of the best jazz soundtracks used during the French new wave years – simple themes that burst out boldly, and allow plenty of space for jazz improvisation – often along highly rhythmic lines! The music would be very much at home in a Roger Vadim film – and includes plenty of trumpet and tenor …
Due Temi con Variazioni
Many words were spent on the long and fruitful collaboration between Piero Umiliani and the director Luigi Scattini: new light has been shed recently on some of their works, in lieu of the reissue of soundtracks such as “Angeli bianchi... angeli neri”, “Questo sporco mondo meraviglioso” along with “La ragazza fuoristrada”, “Il corpo” and “La ragazza dalla pelle di luna” (the famous trilogy starring Zeudi Araya as a main character).In 1977 Scattini, a world famous Mondo Movie author, directed “Bl…
L'uomo nello spazio
MILESTONE!!!!Fantastic space themed music from the great Piero Umiliani, released in 1972 on his own Omicron record label and finelly reissued in a limited edition of 500 copies on transparent clear blue vinyl. These tracks, which utilise a range of electronic instruments are generally claustrophobic and tense and experimental. "I have dedicated these compositions to the spaceman, this new, modern Ulysses going adrift on the galaxian oceans..." ~ P. Umiliani, 1972. The words of the great Pi…
5 Bambole per la Luna d'Agosto
5 Bambole per la Luna d'Agosto" (5 Dolls for the August Moon), directed by the Italian master of thriller Mario Bava, is today considered a great cult film of Italian cinema. Underestimated by many, due to unconvincing screenplay and dialogues, the work has to be rediscovered thanks to its chromatic and photographic techniques, on which at the time - and in many ways still today - Bava was second to none: the same horror Maestro Dario Argento paid homage to him several times in many of hi…
Genti e Paesi del Mondo
The mid 70s presented mature, fertile grounding for maestro Piero Uimiliani’s Sound Workshop Studio, exploring side ways explorations in to gravitational soundscapes and beyond.... Released in 1975 via his prolific Omicron imprint, Genti e Paesi Del Mondo (‘Peoples and Countries of the World’) is a return to the ethnic flavours so beloved of Umiliani’s zeitgeist.
Umiliani turns anti-clockwise launching a left field mental audio pad to uncharted territories. On Genti e Paesi Del Mondo spa…
Mondo Inquieto
Maestro Piero Umiliani returns in the alter ego guise of M. Zalla for the 1974 compositional library piece Mondo Inquieto (‘Restless World’) via his far reaching, experimentalist imprint Sound Work Shop. Ambient tensions are represented via a dramatic cross fertilisation of orchestral strings, layered synths and primeval percussion with the Maestro on moody, reflective compositional duties. Stand out cut Strategia (‘Strategy’) harnesses the dopest Wu Tang Beats alongside swathes of high end …
Tensione
The comparable Piero Umiliani (under his mysterious Moggi moniker) weighs in with another AWOL library gem of 1979. Maestro goes resolutely left field and off track with an intra-personal exploration of the disturbed inner psyche within the human condition. Distressed electro beacons are unleashed as de-tuned predatory Carpenter-esque synth patterns come to the fore (check Clavinet Suspence for primal audio blastings to a lost unnamed 80’s slasher movie).
With the electric eighties buzzing on …
The Folk Group
**CD version** Piero Umiliani’s rich and diverse discography got us used to bold experimentalism, to excursions into popular music as into avantgarde. Nonetheless, while “The Folk Group” makes no surprise, it still represents a peculiar work within Umiliani’s seemingly endless career. Originally published under the name of M. Zalla, an alias he especially used for those albums that were difficult to classify – and among which we must mention the extraordinary “Mondo Inquieto” and “Problemi d’ogg…
Questo Sporco Mondo Meraviglioso
**CD version** “Questo sporco mondo meraviglioso” is one of the numerous collaborations between the director Luigi Scattini and Piero Umiliani, and one of the most interesting and varied soundtracks within the composer’s repertoire. Produced in collaboration with Piero Loy, the picture falls into the Mondo Movies genre, documentaries dedicated to controversial and shocking topics (without aspiring to be journalistic or adhering to scientific evidence). In this case, Scattini’s direction focuses …