POMPEII- SIN CITY.

From the start of the score for Pompeii-Sin City by composer Remo Anzovino.it is apparent that one is listening to a work that oozes quality and a great artistic stature. The compositions are superbly melodic and contain haunting phrases and nuances that develop and build into subtle but affecting tone poems. The composer fashions a work that has many musical faces, each being expressive and vibrant in their own way.

These individual pieces combine to create an effective score which can be dramatic, romantic, and poignant. Composer Remo Anzovino.is one of the most naturally talented and gifted Maestros that i have heard for many years, the score is symphonically led with gracious and emotive piano performances scattered throughout. 

The composer creates a sound that is directly and instantly attractive, his individual and inventive style being one that enhances and captures the essence and mood of this documentary film. His eloquent yet subdued compositions adding depth and giving the production a higher level of impact, whilst at the same time creating an abundance of atmospheres that maintain an alluring persona. It is a sensitive and wonderfully engaging work, that lace the movie with an ingratiating and rich sound creating various moods.  

This documentary explores Pompeii, a city that has over the centuries been shrouded in mystery, it is also a city that has over this time period managed to influence civilisations, via its culture and art, which ranged from the Neoclassicism to the Contemporary. This film conveys the mystery, the story and the influential range of this City through images and words by the great artists and writers who experienced, visited and imagined it: from Pliny the Younger to Picasso, from Emily Dickinson to Jean Cocteau.

The film surprisingly doesn’t just deal with the volcano eruption, an event that has gone down in history and been re-told and passed down the generations, but it examines the everyday life of the City as it was, and relays the to the audience the day to day lifestyle of the inhabitants, how they loved, worshipped, worked, played and lived and their ultimate fate. It is a fascinating watch and supported wonderfully by a musical score that purveys the emotions of the City dwellers and events that took place within its streets and alleyways. The music that composer Remo Anzovino has written for this documentary, is not just music for film, it is music for the heart, music that is enriching, affecting, and haunting. There is in places a contemporary new age sound to the work, but it also posses and conveys a sense of the ancient and the religious. The re-occurring musical pattern is however firmly focused upon the melodic, the delicate and contains a style and sound that has to it a fragility that radiates a gracious and emotive aura. The solo piano interludes are superb, these intricate, intimate and delightfully touching nuances are at various stages enhanced by the use of lilting strings, that are in no way intrusive but supportive which give the compositions and even greater sense of the emotive.

The composer also utilises cello to heighten emotion and an atmosphere that is overflowing with melancholy, this is more prominent within the cue, DOG AT SUNRISE and I have to say I was reminded slightly of the sound achieved by Ennio Morricone on certain cues within his score for MOSES THE LAWGIVER, it is a heartfelt and sorrowful sound, but also one that is highly attractive and affecting. Then we have up-tempo styles which are sprinkled throughout the score as in LUPANARE TWIST, which for me evoked a sound that composers such as Francesco De Masi and Armando Trovajoli employed within some of their film scores of the 1960’ and 1970’s. This is a soundtrack that is varied, and filled with a diversity of styles, textures, and colours. The composer painting a musical picture of the diverse lives of the citizens of POMPEII and at the same time providing the documentary with an effective musical enhancement. The soundtrack album will be released on November 6^th through Sony Masterworks, this is most definitely one score you should own.