Bruno Nicolai

CAM Sugar is proud to celebrate the 50th anniversary of this masterpiece of Italian Giallo cinema, La Dama Rossa Uccide Sette Volte (The Red Queen Kills Seven Times), with a special vinyl reissue of the soundtrack by Bruno Nicolai. This 2 LP set has been fully remastered from the original tapes and enriched by two bonus tracks, one of which was previously unreleased.

The film was first released in 1971 and tells the story of two young women who are haunted by a family portrait depicting a Red Queen who every 100 years comes to life to kill seven times. Bruno Nicolai met Ennio Morricone when they were both studying at Rome’s Santa Cecilia music academy. Bruno Nicolai was the conductor on many of the maestro’s scores from For a Few Dollars More onwards, but also found himself with plenty of composing work of his own throughout the 60s and 70s. Nicolai became almost as prolific as the maestro himself, particularly within the western and giallo genres. The Red Queen… is a great example of his giallo work. It has a distinctive and memorable main theme, and a second ascending piano-led theme that accompanies some of the suspense sequences. The first instance of the main theme comes right at the beginning, hauntingly sung by a small child on ‘Preludio & Titoli’. In ‘Minaccia’ we find that heavy suspense/chase bassline that Nicolai so often used in his giallo and Jess Franco scores, lush, atmospheric, and decidedly ‘euro’.