M.M.I. RECOGNITION AWARDS 2015.

Here at MMI we do not have the facilities or budget to give out actual physical awards or certificates to composers or record labels etc, but we would like to recognise the following for their contributions to the art of film music over the past 12 months.

COMPOSER OF THE YEAR 2015,

ENNIO MORRICONE.

MOST PROMISING OR BREAK OUT COMPOSER OF THE YEAR.

MAURIZIO MALAGNINI.

RECORD LABEL OF THE YEAR.

It is always difficult to reach a decision on record label of the year and this year it is a tie between.

LA LA LAND RECORDS.

KRONOS RECORDS.

PRODUCER OF THE YEAR.

GODWIN BORG OF KRONOS RECORDS.

BEST ARCHIVAL RELEASE.

DANCES WITH WOLVES. JOHN BARRY LA LA LAND RECORDS.

BEST SCORE FOR A GAME OR INTERACTIVE MEDIA.

CALL OF THE CHAMPIONS. WINIFRED PHILLIPS.

BEST SCORE FOR A SCI FI FILM.

JUPITER ASCENDING MICHAEL GIACCHINO.

BEST MUSIC FOR A TV SERIES OR A TV MOVIE.

PETER AND WENDY MAURIZIO MALAGNINI.

BEST SCORE FOR A HORROR FILM.

THE TRANSPARENT WOMAN.
SALVATORE SANGIOVANNI AND SUSAN DiBONA.

SCORE OF THE YEAR 2016.

THE MAN FROM UNCLE. DANIEL PEMBERTON.

THE BLACK SPIDER.

SLEEVE NOTES FOR THE KRONOS RECORDS RELEASE, 2016.

Composer Stelvio Cipriani, has worked in almost every genre of film. His music punctuating and enhancing a multitude of scenarios and situations. His film scoring career began in 1966 when he wrote the music for the Spaghetti western THE BOUNTY KILLER, but he had previously been a pianist in a small band which would perform on cruise ships and also play in many of the dance halls that had opened and become very popular in Italy during the late 1950,s and into the early 1960,s. After doing a number of cruises the composer returned to Italy where he became pianist to the now well known Italian singer Rita Pavone who had just begun her career in show business. The composer put his success in the writing of music for the cinema down to the various experiences that he had encountered whilst playing in a band and also acting as accompanist to Pavone. He felt that working in an environment where you had to arrange or be able to play a piece at a minutes notice was at times invaluable when it came to delivering a film score on time or at very short notice, which is often the case in the world of the film music composer. He also felt that orchestration was an important part of the composing process and carried out the orchestrating duties on 99 percent of his film scores. His most popular film score within the Spaghetti western genre has to be A MAN A HORSE AND A GUN, the theme that the composer penned for this spaghetti sage brush saga has endured throughout the years and is still looked upon by many collectors and aficionados as an iconic piece of music and one that has gone down in Italian cinema history, being covered by numerous artists Henry Mancini, Geoff Love and LeRoy Holmes among them. He is also revered for his work on THE ANONYMOUS VENETIAN which contained a lush and romantically laced soundtrack. Cipriani is probably one of the most well known composers who worked in film in Italy alongside the likes of Ennio Morricone, Bruno Nicolai and others such as Gianni Ferrio and Francesco de Masi, his music being most prominent during the mid to late 1960,s through to the end of the 1980,s working on movies such as BLINDMAN, FEMINA RIDENS, MARK IL POLIZIOTTO,TENTICOLI,A BAY OF BLOOD, PIRANHA ll, THE GREAT ALLIGATOR, THE BLOODSTAINED SHADOW, RABID DOGS, BARON BLOOD, COME TOGETHER, THE IGUANA WITH THE TONGUE OF FIRE, THE SILENT STRANGER, HEADS YOU DIE TAILS I KILL YOU, RETURN OF ALLELUJAH and many more. Born on August 20th 1937 in Rome, Cipriani came from a non musical family and according to the composer he became involved in music by chance.

He initially trained as an accountant and after qualifying he worked for a year in that job, but whilst doing so also enrolled at a music conservatory to study. His first music lesson were when he was a small child and was given guidance by a Priest at the church he attended, as a youngster Cipriani was fascinated by the organ and the Priest noticed the young boys aptitude for music and alerted his Grandfather to this. Cipriani marks composers such as Henry Mancini and Nino Rota as his influences, “I would have to say that the great Nino Rota is at the top of my list of influences, his music for the films of Fellini especially had a great effect upon me, he was I think a complete musician”. The composer also worked with Dave Brubeck and scored movies for Mario Bava. “My collaboration with Mario Bava was always very good, he was shall I say a careful and meticulous director. He took great care when film making and was always interested in how the music would work within his films, he always found time to attend the recording sessions”.

This latest release from Kronos records is something of a rarity and will be a treat for all collectors of Italian film music the world over. THE BLACK SPIDER has music by Italian Maestro Stelvio Cipriani and is a multi themed work which is filled with a veritable smorgasbord of musical colours and textures. At times the score leans towards the more easy listening or lounge genre of music that is associated with numerous Italian movie soundtracks but also it does occasionally contain a deep and dark sound within its perimeters that becomes unsettling and sinister. We can hear within the work influences from previous Cipriani scores such as the aforementioned THE ANONYMOUS VENETIAN, with lavish sounding strings, harpsichord and piano combining to create light but at the same time substantial tone poems that linger long after one has ceased to listen to the compact disc. The composer utilises to great effect this combination of instrumentation to achieve an overall sound that is inventive and supremely entertaining. Each cue is wonderfully written and cleverly orchestrated by the composer, the piano solos in particular verge on concerto like performances which are full of melody and hauntingly attractive. To support the more traditional instruments the composer also employs synthetic sounds and electronic embellishment which fuse seamlessly into the proceedings giving the score greater depth and a higher level of atmospheric impact. There are also a number of cues that include organ and guitar solo performances, these evoke the sound of Morricone, Trovaioli and Nicolai during the 1960,s. This is a score that will be returned to many times and one that will be a worthy addition to any film music collection.

John Mansell © 2016 (ifmca) Movie Music International.

VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN.

Composer Craig Armstrong’s latest work is for the dark and gothic horror tale VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN, the score which is a large scale affair is filled to overflowing with numerous themes and motifs that conjure up perfectly the shady and horrific world that we associate with Mary Shelley’s character and his creation or monster. Armstrong is one of those composers who writes for film that many people without realising it have heard and loved his music, many of his scores have been to films that can be deemed as successful at the box office, movies such as ROMEO AND JULIET with a young Leonardo di Caprio and also LOVE ACTUALLY which is shown at least once a week on TV somewhere in the world. The problem with Armstrong’s scores is that many of them get buried and thus ignored or drowned out by the use of a pop music or vocal track soundtrack as in THE GREAT GATSBY, MOULIN ROUGUE and also the aforementioned ROMEO AND JULIET and LOVE ACTUALLY Armstrong composed beautiful and dramatic soundtracks for all of these but never seems to receive the credit which he so richly deserves from collectors, its like he remains in the shadows as far as many collectors are concerned, but saying this he has been nominated for awards for his work on motion pictures. VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN in my opinion is probably one of the composers more robust and dramatic works since his work on THE INCREDIBLE HULK, the soundtrack being a thundering and powerful addition to the composers C.V. The use of brass and percussion within the score is highly effective Armstrong employing these elements of the orchestra in many of the cues, all the time however they are being supported, elevated and enhanced by the string section which swirls around them, punctuates and drives them on to catapult the proceedings forward at break neck speed, infusing and creating a fearsome and foreboding sound that is darkly rich, windswept and unsettling, in fact listening to tracks such as THE FINALE and PROMETHEUS ASCENDING can be likened to being pounded and thrown around by a storm on a barren moor, but this is not a negative in any way at all, it is my way of describing how the music actually gets to the listener and also what atmosphere it brings forth.

The composer also utilises choir within his score this evokes an even more commanding atmosphere and also adds a somewhat celestial or reverent dimension to the work. This is an action/fantasy score, and the accent is upon action for most of its duration, it is an entertaining score but I have to add it is not an original sounding work, when hearing it for the first time one could easily mistake it for the music of Alan Silvestri or even Brian Tyler and Danny Elfman. It is I have to say an entertaining soundtrack and its good to hear this at times subdued composer flexing his musical muscles. Maybe not highly innovative but still worth adding to your collection.

two talented composers from Italy,

The variation and also the quality of the music is unbelievable, UK producers take a listen…

JANE GOT A GUN.

2016, thus far has seen something of what can be likened to a revival or re-emergence of the western in cinemas, THE HATEFUL 8, THE REVENANT and now JANE GOT A GUN, the latter contains a musical score by composers Lisa Gerrard and Marcello de Francisci. I think I am right when I say that this is a revenge western, we saw a number of these during the 1970,s in vehicles such as HANNIE CAULDER and A MAN CALLED NOON to name but two. JANE GOT A GUN stars Natalie Portman in the title role and has Ewan McGregor as a convincing villain. The score is something of a departure from what we as collectors of film music look upon as a typical western score, by this I mean there are no great expansive cues depicting or supporting the wide open spaces of the old west, instead what we are presented with is a rather low key work down to earth sound, but it is a score which certainly gets your attention simply because it is out of the accepted or expected area of sounds that many associate with the western genre. The soundtrack contains a number of musical passages that are performed by solo guitar which is enhanced by solo violin or fiddle, plus we have the always welcomed distinctive vocal talents of Lisa Gerrard which adds to the work a certain earthiness in a very similar way in which Gianna Spagnola did for Morricone’s NAVAJO JOE, Gerrard’s flawless vocalising brings to soundtrack a sound that is haunting and at times dark and unsettling. If you are hoping that the score for JANE GOT A GUN will evoke past western soundtracks such as THE BIG COUNTRY or HOW THE WEST WAS WON then please think again, the film does not call for music of this type or music that was once more or less expected in westerns, this I think is an intelligent and sophisticated approach to the western medium and in effect the composers have created a whole new original and diverse slant to scoring westerns with their music. The work is also quite a percussive one and contains a number of cues that are filled with pulsating sounds that at times are thundering and fast paced these are along the way punctuated by bold, dark and strident string stabs that add a sense of urgency to the proceedings, there is also a hint of melancholy at certain points within the score which every so often give the work an at times unexpected romantic and emotive side, thus creating another level or dimension to the music.

FRANCISCI AND GERRARD.

The score is performed mostly on conventional instrumentation, but does however have a certain amount of synthetic support, however saying this the two compliment and embellish each other seamlessly. The composers have successfully in my opinion managed to re-invent the sound of the western with this soundtrack using instruments which ordinarily would not be utilised for the genre and with the stunning use of vocals courtesy of Gerrard which are present but never overpowering. If I was asked to describe this score by making comparisons to other soundtracks, I would find it difficult because this is an original through and through. Understated but highly effective both on and off screen.

SOUNDTRACK ON VARESE SARABANDE RECORDS,FROM JANUARY 29TH 2016.