Ennio Morricone

Quartet Records, in collaboration with GDM and Universal Music Publishing Italia, presents a revised, remastered 45th anniversary reissue of Ennio Morricone’s bizarre sci-fi score for Aldo Lado’s The Humanoid (1979), a sort of parody-reboot-plagiarism-homage to the recent Star Wars success that featured a cast of actors famous for their recent appearances in The spy who loved me, and Moonracker: Richard Kiel, Barbara Bach and Corinne Clery.

The story encompasses stealing revolutionary scientific inventions, mad doctors and crazy plans for world domination. Because of this chaotic storyline, Lado went by the pseudonym George B. Lewis (just as Luigi Cozzi used the name Lewis Coates in STAR CRASH). This made it seem like an international production, and in his case, it wouldn’t affect his career as a serious director. Ennio Morricone had scored almost all of Aldo Lado’s films since his debut in LA CORTA NOTTE DELLE BAMBOLE DI VETRO, so it was only logical that he should also compose the music for The Humanoid. With the huge success of John Williams’ revival of symphonic scoring in STAR WARS as a precedent, Morricone adopted a completely different approach—toward electronic music, pastiches of classics by Beethoven and Bach, and a fascinating sound close to the avant-garde music he’d encountered during his time with the Gruppo d’Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza.

His score for The Humanoid quickly became a cult classic, and the LP was released by RCA in 1979. Subsequently, the same program was released on CD in 1992, and an expanded edition, quickly sold out, came in 2010 from GDM. This new edition, remastered by Chris Malone and supervised by Claudio Fuiano, celebrates the 45th anniversary of the film and one of the most bizarre scores ever penned by the Roman genius.