SOUNDTRACK SUPPLEMENT SEVENTY FOUR.

Soundtrack supplement is seventy-four this Christmas, not in years but that’s the total of official Soundtrack Supplements that have been published here on MMI. I hope that we have entertained you, informed you and maybe guided you to your soundtrack purchases during these installments. This edition is shorter than usual but I am anticipating a deluge of new material in the days leading to the big day so we will be back!!!!. (sorry that was a pathetic Schwarzenegger impersonation).

We go straight to a score that I think is extremely good. Imperative by composer Richi Carter who also provided a luscious and rich sounding score for the 2021 movie The Great Artist is one to watch out for, it’s now available on Spotify etc, as is The Great Artist. I feel it’s a well-balanced and wonderfully written and structured score, which by the sound of things is a fusion of conventional instrumentation and electronic components throughout, the striking Main Title sets the scene for much of what is to follow with the composer creating a stirring and richly thematic piece, that verges upon the operatic and the epic.

A score well worth checking out and the same can also be said for his music to The Great Artist.  In Lilburn, GA, a suburb of Atlanta, lies one of the state’s most hidden gems. The movies storyline follows the journey of a father and son’s dream of transporting their fifty-foot Ark from Lilburn, GA to Knoxville, TN down to it’s final destination in Tampa, FL.

That’s the synopsis of the 2022 documentary The Ark of Lilburn, it’s a film that contains a haunting score by Jordan Bennet, who employs a kind of folk/country sound throughout that is accompanied and interwoven with a definite Italian western score flavour. Guitars, whistling, harmonica, and synth voices work well and create a genuine spaghetti western feel to the work. The composer including passages that are akin to Morricone, Nicolai and De Masi employing an Alessandroni like whistle which mimics the work of both Morricone and Nicolai on the A Professional Gun soundtrack, and a piano track that could be straight out of The Big Gundown, and also cues such as Daylights Wasting and A Fistful of Gravel in which we hear a homage to Once Upon a Time in The West, complete with harmonica fuzzy sounding guitar and dark electric bass.

I love the way that the composer integrates so many varying styles and sounds into what is quite a lengthy score. It’s not just entertaining but is also a score that engages the listener straight away, I love it and I think you will too. Available on digital platforms.

The series The Confessions of Frannie Langton is adapted by the author Sara Collins from her own novel of the same name. The central character Frannie Langton is a heroine very much depicted in a similar way to that of Jane Eyre, as she too faces a life that is filled with trials, tribulations and challenges that are unjust. She is accused of taking the life of her Mistress who just happened to also be her lover.

The series which will begin to air over the Christmas period is a strong and hard hitting one and takes us back to the early life of Frannie through her childhood and into adulthood and up util the murders and what really took place. The initial episode took a while for me to get into and I was not entirely convinced that I wanted to continue to watch, I was quite restless during this first visit, but it soon settles down and we are treated to an engrossing and thought-provoking story as it unfolds, and we are drawn even further into the life of the central character. It is a well-made and extremely well-acted romance and also a gothic drama that has to it some Agatha Christie type whodunnit moments. It has a strong cast, and the production is also well done, the musical score is by award winning composer Dominik Scherrer, who has penned a sensitive and an alluring work, the composer employing a string section, piano and woods to create a lilting but also a romantically apprehensive and haunting soundtrack. The music is quite subdued at times but posses a rich thematic quality, with cello solo performances fashioning dark shadings but at the same time these are filled with melancholy, the score is touching and wonderfully appealing.

I think the subtleness of the music is part of that appeal as I found myself immersed in the mystery and the romantically laced musical notions of the score, especially in cues such as I became Langton’s Creature, and Amorous Waltz, which are both almost hypnotic and draw the listener in as they progress and build slowly but effectively, it is certainly one to check out, available on digital platforms.  

The official theme from the Paramount + Stallone starrer series Tulsa King has been released digitally, and if this the standard of the music for the rest of the series, then I can’t wait for a full score release. Music is by Danni Bensi and Saunder Jurrianns, the theme is immediately striking with a solo whistler performing the central melody, with a mid-upbeat backing of guitars which are then joined by saxophone that performs the same central theme as the whistler, again the influence of the Italian western score strikes, an appealing and infectious theme take a listen.  

Composer Rob Simonsen is one of those composers who is consistently producing wonderful music, yet he is very rarely mentioned in reviews or articles or if he is I have not seen that many. His music I feel is perfect for cinema and TV and he seldom writes a bum note as they say, his score for The Whale has been released onto various digital platforms I found it on Spotify. Again, the composer serves up an emotive and affecting selection of music and layered sounds that straight away catch one’s attention. It is a subtle yet powerful work, and although there are soundscape elements within the work there are also real thematic passages and moments. I dislike intensely the use of drone like interludes that are basically just installed on some movies as a filler for the composer so there is background sound present but its not what I would call music, in The Whale there is some of this type of scoring, but even though it can be described as drone influenced it still has to it a morsel of thematic content.

The composer works in solo performances at certain points from violin which is a welcome sound and adds melancholy and a real sense of emotion to the proceedings, every so often the music alters to something that is vaguely theme driven, albeit short lived it is there. Take a listen, as it is an inventive score.

MOVIE MUSIC ITALIANO, Quattro.

IL MALAMONDO.

I think if anyone produced a documentary today that included the subject matter of Il Malamondo, many would think they might be just a little un-hinged.  When viewed now the film comes over as an outdated documentary-curio. The director Paolo Cavara released the film during what I suppose could be his formative years and as an inexperienced film maker. It was released at the time of his home country Italy was experiencing economic growth which was nicknamed a boom in the country’s fortunes. The film is basically a trip around the world (well mainly Europe as in France, Switzerland, Sweden, and the UK), documenting the strange and unpredictable behaviour of the younger generation. The film also used language that nowadays would not be PC but back in the day was perfectly acceptable (or so they told us). Il Malamondo or Funny World as the movie was often titled outside of Italy, is a collection of basically stupid practices, in Italy the film focuses upon the well-known singer Adriano Celentano performing in a piazza in Rome, Celentano was very popular during the 1960’s, and also stayed in demand through to the 1970.s because of his ability to impersonate the sound of American rock and roll, he even gained a certain amount of popularity in the UK disco’s of the mid 1970’s with his song Prisencolinensinainciusol, which was released on Epic records. Many of the singer’s fans in Italy looked upon him as their hero because he was seen as someone who was standing up for Italian youth. But things changed for him during the 1990’s when he was exposed as a fraud and not really adhering the values that he was promoting to others.

It is a chronicle of strange and shocking customs from various countries, including a dangerous game played by French students. The documentary reached its conclusion with a partial striptease performed on a beach, and was utilized as the films end credits, complete with a vocal entitled ’Questi vent’anni miei’, which had music by Ennio Morricone, and was performed by Catherine Spaak.

The song never appeared on the soundtrack recording, but on American editions of the original LP recording on the Epic label (BN 26126) a vocal entitled Funny World, which was sung by American vocalist Ken Coleman with English lyrics by Alan Brandt was featured.  Music played an important part within the documentary, and Morricone’s rhythmic and catchy score was a mix of pop orientated compositions and dramatic and romantic pieces that weaved in and out of the unusual happenings on scree at times being amusing and even used as a type of ridicule of the scenarios.

He scored ten movies in 1964 it was also the year of A Fistful of Dollars, and a year which brought us other creative works such as, El Greco, I Maniaci, In Ginocchio Da Te, and Prima Della Rivoluzione, the latter being directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. In my opinion I Malamondo, was probably the most inventive score from that year, apart from A Fistful of Dollars. The composer created mad cap sounds, frantic Bossa nova beats and luxurious sounding romantic themes.

Even now when I listen to I Malamondo I find it entertaining, and although there is a kind of sixties pop vibe to much of the score, it is one that stands out within Morricone’s body of work for film, this was the beginning of the Morricone sound, the start of an age of film music that was to develop and progress and will endure for centuries. I Malmondo has so many highlight cues that it would be difficult to single out any as being superior to the other, we are treated to the attractive Penso a te with its inviting electric guitar solo, and the harmonious and haunting trumpet solo of Michele Lacerenza, both of which are underlined with percussion and laced with strings to give it a romantic and endearing musical persona.

The upbeat and richly percussive L’ultima volta, with choir and sprightly sounding organ, again laced with strings and punctuated by electric bass and vibrant piano with the core theme being manipulated and performed by electric guitar, which itself is supported by flyaway and wistful strings. This is the sixties sound of Ennio Morricone. It is arguably one of the most diverse scores written by the composer during this period (1964) and was a score that basically showed off the Maestro’s flair and capability to create inventive, comedic, and innovative music. It was also a score that showcased the composer’s style and sound which was from both the world of film music and pop music.

The score was performed by many popular musicians of the time, Lacerenza as I have already mentioned on trumpet, but also fellow trumpet player Nunzio Rotondo played on a handful of tracks, with Franco de Gemini providing the harmonica parts. The choral work was provided by both Nora Orlandi and her 4+4 coro and Alessandroni’s Il Cantori Moderni and featured the unique and mesmerizing vocalising of Edda Del Orso. The score was re-issued by CAM onto compact disc, and then received a further release which was expanded from twenty tracks to thirty-two cues in 2021 and released on vinyl and made available on digital platforms. I am certain that the majority of Ennio Morricone devotees have at least one edition of this soundtrack in their collection, it is simply a must have score.