Shipping class: lp

Four Flies digs harder and deeper! This missing soundtrack by Piero Umiliani par excellence, and considered by many to be lost, is finally fully recovered on six master tapes which contain the original complete recording sessions!
“Orgasmo” (better known worldwide as “Paranoia”) is the first chapter of the famous giallo trilogy that Umberto Lenzi filmed starring former “Baby Doll” Carroll Baker, depicting a story of diabolical lovers and shady intrigues which reechoed certain morbid atmospheres with which Henri-Georges Clouzot tried his hand with his “Les Diaboliques” (1956). Co-starring Lou Castel – who starred in “Fists in the Pocket” and other ‘committed’ films, and therefore was considered a rebel, and the young Colette Descombs, who often steals the scene from the main actress, Baker.
Recorded just after “Sweden, Heaven of Hell”, when Umiliani had taken a definitive step into the golden phase of his career and reached the top of his compositional skills, the “Orgasmo” score is an actual gem of grace and elegance – a manifesto of seduction that constitutes one of the main assets for Lenzi’s film.
With this work, Umiliani managed to perfectly capture the film’s morbid side, psych(edel)ic deliriums, and pop ambiance. Some of the music’s attributes, such as Alessandro Alessandroni’s and his wife Giulia’s vocal work, or the major role played by Antonello Vannucchi’s Hammond organ, foreshadow the atmospheres of “Five Dolls for an August Moon.”
The whole film score shines with an unusual light for a thriller, and reverberates with the light and brilliance reminiscent of Brazil’s music, such as wonderful and inspired bossa nova or samba-jazz versions, with which the main themes were arranged.
On top of that, the sublime Lydia MacDonald sings the superb title track, “Fate Had Planned It So.” A more rhythmical take on this track, along with the dancing soul tune “Just Tell Me”, sung by Wess, comes alone with a new 7’’ limited edition, available in 300 copies (both songs are not included in the LP version of the soundtrack).
Another piece of Piero Umiliani’s outstanding musical legacy is finally now ready to shine again!

If a jewel were to be chosen from among the more than three hundred soundtracks composed by Maestro Stelvio Cipriani during his long and prodigious career, the choice would probably fall, rather than on the now super famous ANONIMO VENEZIANO, on this previous and somewhat less celebrated score: FEMINA RIDENS, which, together with MARK IL POLIZIOTTO is one of Cipriani’s most iconic titles. Indeed, this is one of those soundtracks that best represent the spirit of Italian golden age film music, and the original LP, published on CAM series SAG – 9017, is at the very top of every collector’s most wanted list.

Cipriani perfectly captured the mood of Piero Schivazappa’s 1969 film, a feminist parable blending eroticism with black humor and Pop Art. The maestro combined classical music, orchestral pop and baroque jazz with spaghetti western, psychedelic blues and lounge vibes – all of this with sumptuous arrangements that still sound contemporary. “Mary’s Theme” is an immortal, timeless track – it has been sampled in contemporary hip-hop productions – and shows the eternal modernity of the finest Italian cinematic sound.

This reissue finally makes available again an iconic soundtrack that remained inaccessible on wax for way too long. And it does so in the best possible way, starting from the original master tapes preserved in the CAM archives, where it was possible to locate an unreleased track, now added at the end of side B. An enhanced version of “Chorus and Brass Fugato”, whose original edit has been improved and extended, is also included. And as if that weren’t enough, Four Flies also released an extra 7-inch record featuring the two most danceable tracks on the entire OST!