Back catalogue: Soundtracks

Review: Piero Piccioni's score for Ti Ho Sposato Per Allegria (1967) offers a delightful and sophisticated accompaniment to Luciano Salce's comedy, based on Natalia Ginzburg's play. The film's narrative follows a serious lawyer who marries a whimsical and scatterbrained girl with a troubled past, just a month after meeting her. The story's charm lies in its light-hearted approach to serious themes like abortion, death, separation, and marital communication issues. Piccioni's music, released on vinyl by Musica Per Immagini, perfectly complements the film's whimsical tone. His score blends moods and aesthetic elements from his earlier works while introducing the unmistakable sound of bossa nova, funk, and lounge that would come to define much of his 70s output. The Turin-born composer's ability to simplify complex harmonic structures, infused with jazz elements, results in melodies that are both memorable and classy. Key to this soundtrack are its buoyant spirit and refined elegance. Piccioni's compositions achieve a perfect balance between catchy themes and intricate musical textures. Piccioni's talent for creating music is both light-hearted and artistically rich, making this a standout in his extensive catalog.

Review: Pianist. Conductor. Composer. Impressario. Extraordinaire. We could probably leave it at that with Piero Piccioni, but for the sake of clarity let's get clear. One of Italy's most prolific film composers of the mid-late-20th Century, this monolith of big band and jazz wrote more than 300 movie scores in his career, and also lays claim to membership of 013, the first jazz outfit broadcast in his home country following the fall of Fascism in 1944. Born in Turin, one of the epicentres of Italian music, Cadaveri Eccellenti was a 1977 crime thriller about Lino Ventura, Italy's top homicide detective, who is investigating the assassination of a judge. Full of intrigue, mystery, and tension, not to mention that underlying sense of sexiness which seems to pervade European flicks of this era, by now you can probably imagine how cool the score is.

Review: Celebrates the 50th anniversary of Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzurro mare d'agosto (which is better known in Engish as Swept Away) with the ultimate edition of this classic soundtrack from Decca. Piero Piccioni's iconic score perfectly captures the 1974 film's exotic ambience with samba, bossa nova and lounge music sounds all enriched by Nora Orlandi's wordless vocals. Fully remastered from the original archive master tape, this version comes on double vinyl and tastefully honours Piccioni's remarkable contribution to Italian cinema.

Review: Strange Gardens, or Effroyables Jardins, tells the story of a French clown whose son is embarrassed by him, but this tomfoolery has a serious past - antics saved the street performer and his friend, Andre, both members of the French Resistance during the war, from certain death at the hands of the Nazis. It's an intimate and, at times, troubling exploration of innocence, persecution, identity, friendship, loyalty and escapism in the most harrowing circumstances. Not to mention the short memories of mankind and the prejudices we unfairly develop when truths are committed to faded sepia photographs. Zbignieuw Preisner encapsulates this thoughtful atmosphere beautifully, providing a piano and string score that's tender, poignant, emotional, and musically captivating. A record that can just as easily stand alone as it can next to its visual brethren.