Piero Umiliani
Although most of his work straddled the gap between jazz and lounge, prolific Italian composer Piero Umiliani also had a yen for electronic music, and he was one of the first in Italy to experiment with the Moog and other electronic keyboards. Like many of his Italian colleagues at that time, he composed the scores for many exploitation films in the 1960s and 1970s, covering genres such as spaghetti western, Eurospy, Giallo, and soft sex films. Although not as widely regarded as, for example, Ennio Morricone or Riz Ortolani, he helped form the style of the typical European 1960s and 1970s jazz influenced film soundtrack.
Although most of his work straddled the gap between jazz and lounge, prolific Italian composer Piero Umiliani also had a yen for electronic music, and he was one of the first in Italy to experiment with the Moog and other electronic keyboards. Like many of his Italian colleagues at that time, he composed the scores for many exploitation films in the 1960s and 1970s, covering genres such as spaghetti western, Eurospy, Giallo, and soft sex films. Although not as widely regarded as, for example, Ennio Morricone or Riz Ortolani, he helped form the style of the typical European 1960s and 1970s jazz influenced film soundtrack.
L'uomo nello spazio
MILESTONE!!!!Fantastic space themed music from the great Piero Umiliani, released in 1972 on his own Omicron record label and finelly reissued in a limited edition of 500 copies on transparent clear blue vinyl. These tracks, which utilise a range of electronic instruments are generally claustrophobic and tense and experimental. "I have dedicated these compositions to the spaceman, this new, modern Ulysses going adrift on the galaxian oceans..." ~ P. Umiliani, 1972. The words of the great Pi…
5 Bambole per la Luna d'Agosto
5 Bambole per la Luna d'Agosto" (5 Dolls for the August Moon), directed by the Italian master of thriller Mario Bava, is today considered a great cult film of Italian cinema. Underestimated by many, due to unconvincing screenplay and dialogues, the work has to be rediscovered thanks to its chromatic and photographic techniques, on which at the time - and in many ways still today - Bava was second to none: the same horror Maestro Dario Argento paid homage to him several times in many of hi…
Genti e Paesi del Mondo
The mid 70s presented mature, fertile grounding for maestro Piero Uimiliani’s Sound Workshop Studio, exploring side ways explorations in to gravitational soundscapes and beyond.... Released in 1975 via his prolific Omicron imprint, Genti e Paesi Del Mondo (‘Peoples and Countries of the World’) is a return to the ethnic flavours so beloved of Umiliani’s zeitgeist.
Umiliani turns anti-clockwise launching a left field mental audio pad to uncharted territories. On Genti e Paesi Del Mondo spa…
Mondo Inquieto
Maestro Piero Umiliani returns in the alter ego guise of M. Zalla for the 1974 compositional library piece Mondo Inquieto (‘Restless World’) via his far reaching, experimentalist imprint Sound Work Shop. Ambient tensions are represented via a dramatic cross fertilisation of orchestral strings, layered synths and primeval percussion with the Maestro on moody, reflective compositional duties. Stand out cut Strategia (‘Strategy’) harnesses the dopest Wu Tang Beats alongside swathes of high end …
Tensione
The comparable Piero Umiliani (under his mysterious Moggi moniker) weighs in with another AWOL library gem of 1979. Maestro goes resolutely left field and off track with an intra-personal exploration of the disturbed inner psyche within the human condition. Distressed electro beacons are unleashed as de-tuned predatory Carpenter-esque synth patterns come to the fore (check Clavinet Suspence for primal audio blastings to a lost unnamed 80’s slasher movie).
With the electric eighties buzzing on …
The Folk Group
**CD version** Piero Umiliani’s rich and diverse discography got us used to bold experimentalism, to excursions into popular music as into avantgarde. Nonetheless, while “The Folk Group” makes no surprise, it still represents a peculiar work within Umiliani’s seemingly endless career. Originally published under the name of M. Zalla, an alias he especially used for those albums that were difficult to classify – and among which we must mention the extraordinary “Mondo Inquieto” and “Problemi d’ogg…
Questo Sporco Mondo Meraviglioso
**CD version** “Questo sporco mondo meraviglioso” is one of the numerous collaborations between the director Luigi Scattini and Piero Umiliani, and one of the most interesting and varied soundtracks within the composer’s repertoire. Produced in collaboration with Piero Loy, the picture falls into the Mondo Movies genre, documentaries dedicated to controversial and shocking topics (without aspiring to be journalistic or adhering to scientific evidence). In this case, Scattini’s direction focuses …
La Ragazza dalla Pelle di Luna
“La ragazza dalla pelle di luna” is the first chapter of Piero Scattini’s acclaimed movie trilogy,completed by “La ragazza fuoristrada” (1973) and “Il corpo” (1974), whose soundtracks were all entrusted into Piero Umiliani’s expert hands. With a title taking inspiration from the fame of Seychelles’ indigenous beauties (a myth later dismissed by Scattini himself) the film found its protagonist thanks to a casual encounter between the director and the beautiful model Zeudi Araya, the first element…
Psichedelica
**CD version** Before talking about Psichedelica, one of the many and rare library albums signed by Piero Umiliani, we must step back in time, until June 1968, when Umiliani was working on the score of Svezia Inferno e Paradiso (Sweden Heaven and Hell), one of the many collaborations between director Luigi Scattini and the Maestro. In fact, a large part of the music recorded for that movie, one of Umiliani's most popular works, would be later selected for this library release. Originally issued …
Il Mondo dei Romani
First vinyl reissue. Limited edition of 500 orange LPs (vinyl only; no digital release). Remastered from the original reels. The sought-after experimental gem Il Mondo Dei Romani, by soundtrack and avant-garde maestro Piero Umiliani, is now available on vinyl for the first time since its original release in 1972. Originally recorded for a TV documentary about ancient Rome and released on Umiliani's Omicron label, Il Mondo Dei Romani finds Umiliani experimenting with electronic instruments (Suoi …
La Legge Dei Gangsters
First complete vinyl edition of the great Piero Umiliani's jazz score for La legge dei gangsters (Gangster's Law), an obscure 1969 Italian crime film starring the mighty Klaus Kinski. Featuring a large ensemble of the country's strongest players (including Oscar Valdambrini on trumpet), the score is full of sophisticated, groovy, and romantic tunes. Two LPs on colored vinyl, released in a limited numbered edition of 1000.
Effetti Musicali
Effetti Musicali is a 1968 Piero Umiliani homemade album that exposes his art and his versatility. Listening to this album seems to show him among his keyboards and other implements to overlap sounds and create situations with no outside producer influence, in full artistic freedom. The result is an experimental psychedelic electro-acoustic album. From the original Umiliani family master tapes. Limited edition of 500 copies in a glossy cover.
We all love a bit of Umiliani, and here on this excep…
Svezia Inferno e Paradiso
*2022 stock* One of the greatest soundtracks ever from the mighty Piero Umiliani is finally available again, in a faithful replica of the original edition on Omicron. A sublime mix of erotic elements, playful funky numbers, and warm jazzy tunes – all supposedly scored for an exploitation documentary about sex in Sweden – but music that really stands strongly on its own! There's a number of cuts with those cool Hammond organ tricks that Umiliani does so well – and lots of others have cool female …
La Morte bussa due volte
A stellar cast doesn’t always guarantee a magnificent film and, from a strictly cinematographic point of view, “La morte bussa due volte” (Death knocks twice) is one of many examples of this kind; This thriller was in fact quickly forgotten at the time (1969), despite the presence of the charismatic Adolfo Celi and the beautiful Anita Ekberg.However, even for less ‘important’ productions, the likes of Morricone or, in this case, Piero Umiliani, were sometimes bothered: composers but also …
Le isole dell'amore
A groovy erotic film score by Piero Umiliani – his soundtrack for 1970's Le Isole Dell'Amore – and it's a wonderfully arranged one by the maestro! Raw percussion and a sunny vibe overall..."In the late '50s and throughout the next decade and beyond, among the underground most ridden film genres there was the so-called ‘mondo movie’, basically made of a collage of several scenes with a commenting voiceover. To this category belongs “Le isole dell’amore” (The islands of love), a film that’s practi…
Synthi Time
*2022 stock* Synthi Time is perhaps one of the most suitable albums - within Umiliani's incredibly vast discography - to fully appreciate the composing and experimental genius of the Maestro. For once away from the classic soundtracks that made him popular, this project veers away also from refined works of library music such as Genti e paesi del mondo (People and countries of the world) or Problemi d'oggi (Today's issues), released under the moniker of Zalla. In this case, we like to imagine hi…
Fischiando in Beat
*2022 stock* Due to a perhaps too buoyant and unfitting title and to a ridicolously limited distribution (even at the time of its original release), Fischiando in beat (Whistling in beat) has often been ignored despite being one of the most entertaining works signed by Piero Umiliani (here accompanied by his orchestra). Originally released in 1969, Fischiando in beat presents twelve gems of instrumental beat music, fabulous specimen of that music genre often labelled with the much-abused term 'l…
Tra Scienza e Fantascienza
2015 restock - "Tra scienza e fantascienza", is an album of histrionic Piero Umiliani recorded under the pseudonym Moggi. A Master gifted with a never ending passion for music, innovator by vocation, experimenter in his genetic code now at ease with synths in order to forge sound that could be reductively termed as avantgarde. Timeless atmospheres, alien hypnotic sonorities, modern and charmingly retro, minimal and complex arranged with an impressive taste for the unknown substance the Maes…
Intrigo a Los Angeles
Hold your breath. This is the soundtrack to the 1964 spy movie directed by Romano Ferrara (Roy Freemount) and starring Carol Walker, Luciano Marin and Mary Luger. Composed and directed by Piero Umiliani, Intrigo A Los Angeles is one of the best and rarest soundtracks he ever did, with original copies sold for around 600 euro. This de-luxe double lp reissues comes in a beautiful gatefold sleeve that reproduces the original artwork outside and has a reproduction of the original movie poster insi…
La Ragazza Fuoristrada
**CD version** This is the second movie with Zeudi Araya, filmed in a hurry to take advantage of the success of the previous “La ragazza dalla pelle di luna”. “La ragazza fuoristrada”, set between Egypt and Ferrara, Italy, deals in an unusual way with the theme of racial integration, still a taboo at the time especially in remote Italian provinces. Despite the fact that the title evokes the legendary "Dune Buggy" (the main character, Luc Merenda, is a journalist who goes to Egypt to test it), th…