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.
Paranoia
**300 copies, to be released in mid June** "To complete the Orgasmo / Paranoia soundtrack set, Four Flies adds two songs to the cake (both not included in the LP version). An alternate take of Lydia MacDonald's Fate Had Planned So, more rhythmical and dynamic than the one used for the titles sequence, and the soul hit Just Tell Me, sung by the American Wess, and performed by his Airedales. The song is heard repeatedly in Orgasmo, but it’s also used in the following film, A Quiet Place to Kill, w…
Baba Yaga
The music composed by Piero Umiliani for Baba Yaga / Devil Witch (1973, Corrado Farina) – the film inspired by the ultra pop comic books of Guido Crepax, Valentina – is one of the most mysterious and fascinating works to be found in the corpus of the Maestro. Of this maudit work that experts considered lost only two tracks survived, those that we present here for the first time in a single 45 RPM: Open Space, a blazing up-tempo acid jazz with psychedelic insets and galloping bass tones that was …
Bollenti Spiriti
Cinedelic Records present a reissue of Piero Umiliani's sound track for the 1981 film Bollenti Spiriti. Bollenti Spiriti is a film by Giorgio Capitani, one of the most prolific directors of the Italian sexy comedy genre, starring Johnny Dorelli and Gloria Guida.
Maestro Piero Umiliani recorded the soundtrack in his innovative Suono
Work-Shop Studios in Rome, fusing his love for jazz -- a genre that
since the '50s has been a leading figure in Europe -- and his
unmistakable arrangements. Cined…
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 …
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…
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…
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 …
Psichedelica
**CD version** Before talking about Psichedelica, one of the many and rare library albums signed by Piero Umiliani, we must step back in time, until June 1968, when Umiliani was working on the score of Svezia Inferno e Paradiso (Sweden Heaven and Hell), one of the many collaborations between director Luigi Scattini and the Maestro. In fact, a large part of the music recorded for that movie, one of Umiliani's most popular works, would be later selected for this library release. Originally issued …
Synthi Time
**CD version** Synthi Time is perhaps one of the most suitable albums - within Umiliani's incredibly vast discography - to fully appreciate the composing and experimental genius of the Maestro. For once away from the classic soundtracks that made him popular, this project veers away also from refined works of library music such as Genti e paesi del mondo (People and countries of the world) or Problemi d'oggi (Today's issues), released under the moniker of Zalla. In this case, we like to imagine …
Fischiando in Beat
**CD version** Due to a perhaps too buoyant and unfitting title and to a ridicolously limited distribution (even at the time of its original release), Fischiando in beat (Whistling in beat) has often been ignored despite being one of the most entertaining works signed by Piero Umiliani (here accompanied by his orchestra). Originally released in 1969, Fischiando in beat presents twelve gems of instrumental beat music, fabulous specimen of that music genre often labelled with the much-abused term …
Il Corpo
**CD version** “Il corpo” is the last movie of Luigi Scattini’s trilogy, which started with “La ragazza dalla pelle di luna” (1972) and then continued with “La ragazza fuoristrada” (1973), all skillfully orchestrated by maestro Piero Umiliani. Here we are dealing with an erotic-noir film which has many elements in common with movies like “Ossessione” (“Obsession) or “I diabolici” (Les Diaboliques) and it centres on the relationship between Enrico Maria Salerno and the sensual Zeudi Araya. Inevit…
Il Mondo dei Romani
Restocked!! "Il mondo dei romani" is one of Maestro Piero Umiliani's most atypical sound library/synch albums, recorded in 1972 during a period of great electronic experimentation (partly because of production reasons, partly responding to an immense desire to express his creative skills). Unique in his discography, the album joins paradigmatic Roman classicism with the most genuine electronic experimentation, which in some parts reminds us of Kraftwerk. A great follow-up to the electro-synth so…