Music from Italy

Back in print with new artwork !

*2024 reissue. 300 copies limited edition* In January 1999, after years of continuous daily rehearsals, Zu entered the studio to record Bromio. The album was released in October of the same year to immediate and enthusiastic feedback from the press and the public, and a few months later Zu began to play on stages all over Europe. But the band's inexperience in recording work weighed on them, because the impact they had live was not present in the sound of the CD at all. So it was that during the…

*300 copies limited edition* Since 1995, orphaned by their previous project, the three founding members of Zu (Jacopo Battaglia, Luca Mai and Massimo Pupillo) had been hanging out in the historic small room in Piazza Degli Zingari in Rome, every day, all day long, working nights and sometimes sleeping directly in the basement so as not to waste time. Looking for their own voice, without excluding any direction: electronics, tapes, sequencer (Film Nero) cello (played by their friend Francesco Chi…

**Original 1988 copies of this obscure classic, few copies in stock** First LP album by these Italian post industrial legend (of Broken Flag fame), published by the Milanese label ADN, this is their praise of Marquis de Sade, entitled Boudoir Philosophy and inspired by the book of the same name: this is ritual dark electronica at their best. Formed in Milan, Italy on 23 December 1985 by Paolo Bandera (Sshe Retina Stimulants), Eraldo Bernocchi, and Luca Di Giorgio. Their unique sound is derived f…

Tava Tava Rare is pleased to announce the first release on 7" of Franco Micalizzi's main theme to the film “Delitto Sull'Autostrada”, directed by Bruno Corbucci and starring the Italian-Cuban-American actor Tomas Milian. Eclectic, innovator, full of life and energy, out of the ordinary, the composer is best known for his scores in poliziotteschi films such as “Roma A Mano Armata”, “Napoli Violenta” or “Italia A Mano Armata”, whose theme was used also in Quentin Tarantino's “Death Proof”. The mus…

"Stridulum (aka. The Visitor) is a 1979 sci-fi horror that featured a star-studded cast including Mel Ferrer, John Huston, and Shelley Winters. The score was written by Italian composer Franco Micalizzi and while the movie wasn't a huge commercial success, the soundtrack became a favourite amongst collectors even if Micalizzi is still best known for his Poliziotteschi scores and collaborations with director Umberto Lenzi. His trademark sound was still there for all to hear and now three key cuts…

The music composed by Micalizzi undeniably emerges for its adherence to the narrative of the story adding dynamic and lyrical value to the various scenes, all the more reason this to consider it an absolutely successful soundtrack in terms of interplay between sound and images. The means used by the Maestro to achieve this result are the classics of the period: Tight hard-funk rhythms, guitars effected with wha-wha, woodwinds in great relief, piano played in the medium-low register, clavinets po…

Tomas Milian as an actor, Umberto Lenzi as director and Franco Micalizzi to take care of the soundtrack in a 1977 poliziottesco classic.  "La Banda Del Gobbo" is the third installment in the saga where Milian plays the legendary Er Monnezza, along with that of the most famous mechanic in Italian cinema here he doubles up to also play that of his brother: Il Gobbo, of whom Er Monnezza is very proud because he is seen as a winner (although a bandit regularly involved in robberies). Here at the wor…

For the first time on 7’’, the two grooviest tracks from the soundtrack composed by Riz Ortolani for “Confessione di un commissario di polizia al procuratore della Repubblica” (aka, “Confessions of a Police Captain”), the renowned 1971 crime drama by Damiano Damiani, starring Franco Nero at the peak of his career. On Side A, “Serena e Lomunno” is a jazzy spell performed by an exceptional quartet - unfortunately uncredited - consisting of bass, electric guitar, drums, and piano. On Side B, the qu…

Restored and remastered from the original tapes, the soundtrack to Storie di Vita e Malavita is being released for the first time on vinyl! Set in Milan, mostly in darkly and oppressively photographed suburbs, the film is the tale of some young girls who end up in prostitution, both on the street and uptown. The music, composed by Ennio Morricone, has a vivid and dizzying flavor.

*2024 stock. *Signed By The Artist* 50 copies limited edition* "LP by Maurizio Bianchi and a CDR by M.B., and that's why a book is such a great idea. Why is that? 'Telmegiddo' (CD) is 'the last cassette tape decomposition' and was previously released as 'Extreme Man 2'. The two pieces on 'Bacterihabitat' (CDR) are from May 1982 and previously released as 'Extreme Man 1' - both of the releases actually released without permission. Its hard to say what the differences would be between both works, …

*2024 stock* "Riz Ortolani, an Italian composer of dozens of film scores, whose Grammy-winning instrumental melody featured in the 1962 film “Mondo Cane” evolved into “More,” the celebrated anthem of love covered by sensuous crooners around the globe, died on Jan. 23 at his villa outside Rome. He was 87. At home in a variety of musical styles and moods — jaunty humor, buzzing suspense, lush romanticism — Mr. Ortolani was among Italy’s busiest film composers for almost half a century, working in …

“Allonsanfàn” is a 1974 historical film written and directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani; set in 1816 in Italy during the Restoration period, its cast features, among others, Marcello Mastroianni, Lea Massari, Laura Betti and Mimsy Farmer. “Allonsanfàn” is the first collaboration between the two directors and Morricone, who would also compose the music for the film “Il prato” (The Meadow, 1979). The soundtrack starts with a main marching theme, “Rabbia e tarantella”, introduced by the piano an…

“Sacco e Vanzetti” is a 1971 dramatic movie directed by Giuliano Montaldo and masterfully starred by the two lead actors Gian Maria Volonté and Riccardo Cucciolla; the film deals with the ever-popular topic of the death penalty by recounting a real event that caused quite a stir at the time: the sentencing to the electric chair of two Italian immigrants who were executed in 1927 after a seven-year trial. For “Sacco & Vanzetti” Ennio Morricone composed one of the most intense scores of his long a…

“Come imparai ad amare le donne” (How I learned to love women) is a 1966 romantic comedy directed by Luciano Salce; the cast includes internationally renowned actors such as Anita Ekberg, Michèle Mercier and Robert Hoffman, as well as a very young Romina Power who was only 14 years old at the time. The beginning of the artistic collaboration between Ennio Morricone and Salce dates back to 1961, with one of the Maestro’s very first soundtracks, “Il federale” (The Fascist); the partnership then co…

“L'arcangelo” (The Archangel) is a 1969 comedy characterised by police and judiciary tones, directed by GIorgio Capitani and starring, among others, Vittorio Gassman, Pamela Tiffin, Adolfo Celi, Irina Demick and Carlo Delle Piane. This soundtrack follows the previous “La notte è fatta per... rubare” (Night is Made for Stealing) which marked the beginning of Umiliani’s collaboration with the director. Mainly displaying a Latin American flavour, it contains several elements typical of the composer…

*200 copies limited edition* "Al-Azif is the second work of Capricorni Pneumatici. Released on tape in 1987, the album was recorded in an underground location containing a group of vitrified cement tanks that created an extremely deep reverberation and amplification of sounds. The tanks were very large, some with a capacity of 500/800 quintals, others smaller. They had openings both above ground level and below the ground at depths of 5/6 meters. Thus, the sound had a very unique and impressive …

Two new solo works by Kieran Daly and Luciano Maggiore ‘Complex envelope functions from nonlinear I/O and feature extraction etc’ and ‘Automatic Love’, sharing one disc. The first instance of these two presenting work in company; they play well together, forming a cohesive ‘split’ disc from beginning to end. Composed in 2023, both pieces deal with electronic and acoustic recorded sound, whilst presenting the distinctive, recognisable and acute styles of both artists.

**Remastered 2024 repress, packaged in a thick cardboard sleeve, with restored artwork using the original painting by Ernst Wilhelm Nay in full fidelity** Alessandro Alessandroni's definitive holy grail, Open Air Parade is finally get reissued through our label. We're excited to present the very best library record by the cult maestro on the dreams podium alongside Spontaneous, the 2 Farfalla's recordings and Ritmo dell'Industria we released two years ago. A long-awaited masterpiece and sought-a…

Temporary Super Offer! One of the best, and most necessary reissues of the year. Filed neatly and undisturbed within the micro-genre of 1970s Italian artsploitation, amongst films soundtracks such as Girl With The Crystal Plumage, A Quiet Place In The Country and House With The Laughing Windows, this obscure library LP is one of the few fully formed concept albums from the recently reappraised discography of Rome's most versatile and adventurous female production music composer Daniela Casa. Onc…