2024 Restock. Since its founding during the early 2010s, the Italian imprint, Sonor Music Editions, has done astounding work illuminating the shadowing world of Italian Library music with beautiful vinyl reissues of some of the most celebrated and sought-after releases in the entire genre. Central to their activities has been a deep dive into the Sermi catalogue, a renowned Italian label that released, across late '60s and early '70s, some of the wildest and most highly regarded LPs within the Library/Soundtrack canon. Now they’re back with yet another holy grail from the label’s extended universe, the first ever reissue of the composer Sandro Brugnolini's masterpiece, Utopia, originally pressed in a tiny run by Gemelli in 1972. Delving across diverse territories of jazz - from funk to avant-garde, filled with amazing sounds, dreamy moods, and refined orchestrations, and gorgeous grooves, it only takes one spin to understand why original copies command crazy prices on the secondary market. Fully licensed, remastered from the original tapes, and housed in a thick cardboard sleeve that reproduces the album’s stunning original cover by the painter Michel Seuphor, when it comes to Library music, this one is just about as essential as they come.

Born at the outset of the 1930s, Sandro Brugnolini started his career as a jazz saxophonist during the early 1950s, leading his membership within the famed Modern Jazz Gang, alongside Amedeo Tommasi, Cicci Santucci and Enzo Scoppa, whose debut LP, 1960’s Miles Before and After, retains cult status among Italian jazz fans. Like many of the most ambitious artists of his generation, Brugnolini found both creative and financial freedom in the contexts of library music and soundtracks over the length of his long career, recording and working on dozens of albums, beginning with the soundtrack to Enzo Battaglia's film, Gli Arcangeli, alongside the Modern Jazz Gang, before branching out on his own solo career during the mid-60s, and subsequently recording many of the genre’s most highly regarded release including, with Stefano Torossi, Giancarlo Gazzani and Puccio Roelens (originally credited to Jay Richford and Gary Stevan), 1974’s legendary LP, Feelings, as well as 1969's Musica per Commenti Sonori - encountering Brugnolini venturing into psychedelia and prog, with killer fuzz guitar work - and the iconic pair of 1970 albums Underground and Overground.

Utopia - now joining Sonor Music Editions’ long-standing dedication to Brugnolini’s life, work, and legacy via numerous previous reissues - stands among the composer’s most noteworthy and highly regarded efforts. Originally issued in 1972 and recorded under the direction of Franco Tamponi, featuring the arrangements of Giorgio Carnini at the Hammond and piano, is drenched in the gauzy haze of '70s, trigging a deep sense of imagism with its deep, lounge inspired grooves, and jazzy funkiness that rest on the foundations of refined, avant-garde orchestration. From the joyous to the moody, it’s a body of sounds in perfect synchronicity with its title; an immersive world of dreamy escape that cocoons you in the lushness of its depths. Long overdue for a reissue and produced in full collaboration with Brugnolini's estate, Sonor Music Editions has done it again with this stunning, first time reissue of Sandro Brugnolini's Utopia, one of the great masterpieces from the golden-age of Library music. Fully remastered from the original tapes, and housed in a thick cardboard sleeve that reproduces the album’s stunning original cover by the painter Michel Seuphor, it’s about as essential as they come and an absolute must for any fan of the Library / Soundtrack world. It’s not going to sit around for long, so grab a copy while you can!