In 1973, Vasco Vassil Kojucharov made Ritmi e suoni, “Rhythms and Sounds” in English, for Italy’s Picci Records. The limited release album is a collection of pop, jazz, and classical pieces that were intended for use as production music in TV, film, and radio programs. Composers Sandro Brugnolini and Stefano Torossi are also believed to make uncredited contributions to the library music LP directed and arranged by Kojucharov and released under his first name.

The fourteen tracks include “Mi bruci,” “Ponte levatoio,” “Assedio,” “Lei è tornata,” and “Louisiana Charleston” on Side A, plus two alternate versions. Side B has “Sorridimi così,” “Tamburi all’alba,” “Agguato tra i bambù,” “Freddie se ne va,” “Tamburo solatario,” “Spain Highway,” and “Oltre la collina.”

Vasco Vassil Kojucharov’s “Spain Highway” has been recently uploaded to SoundCloud:

https://soundcloud.com/philterbanx/vasco

The library music album is one of about a dozen Picci Records released between 1972 and 1973, in addition to a similar number of 45 singles. The eclectic catalog included genres ranging from jazz and classical, to progressive rock and pop, often on the same LP. Interbeat is the parent label of Picci.

Only pressed in numbers of a few hundred copies at most, several of these LPs now fetch 500 euro or more on specialist auction sites and music marketplaces like Discogs, especially those with original rather than generic covers.

The second version of Vasco Vassil Kojucharov’s “Lei è tornata” is online:

https://soundcloud.com/philterbanx/vasco-2

At this time, it appears only one other track from Ritmi e suoni is online, “Oltre la collina.”

And it seems none of the fourteen tracks have ever been reissued in any format since the 1973 limited vinyl issue by Picci.

Vasco Vassil Kojucharov’s “Oltre la collina,” the album’s final cut, is on SoundCloud:

Note: If any legal rights holders object to the posting of this rare, out of print, and unavailable track ripped from this correspondent’s personal collection, please drop a line and it will be removed immediately.

More Music by Vasco on Picci Records

Vassil Kojucharov, a composer who studied in his native Bulgaria and then in Russia, moved to Italy in the mid-1960s. He worked with Nino Rota before going on to write his own scores on films like Wanted Sabata in 1970, Spara Joe… e cosi sia! (Joe Dakota) in 1971, and La Colt era il suo Dio (God Is My Colt 45) in 1972. Kojucharov also collaborated with fellow composer Elsio Mancuso, releasing material under the names “Vasco and Mancuso.”

In 1973, Vassil Kojucharov made a second album for Picci Records, Interspaziale. In fact, the two library music LPs, Ritmi e suoni (GLA 2009) and Interspaziale (GLA 2010), were released one after another and could easily be mistaken for soundtracks in their own right.

The same year Vasco Vassil Kojucharov did the soundtrack for Il plenilunio delle vergini, reissued in 2013 in CD by the Beat Records Company.

An audio excerpt from Vasco’s Interspaziale is found at Boxes of Toys.

A Familiar Cover: Same Image Used on Multiple Albums

The late 1960s and early 1970s, a unique, amazingly fertile time period in library and soundtrack music, saw countless small-sized record labels jockey for survival. This often meant modest budgets for packaging and promotion. Not surprisingly, then, Picci Records used the same cover for at least three albums: Ritmi e suoni, Interspaziale, and The Fast Machine. 

The Fast Machine, an eponymous album released at the end of 1972-beginning of 1973, features music by Oscar Lindok, better known as composer-conductor Giacomo Dell’Orso.

The Fast Machine’s “Highway South,” composed by Oscar Lindok (aka Giacomo Dell’Orso), is on SoundCloud:

Note: If any legal rights holders object to the posting of this rare, out of print, and unavailable track ripped from this correspondent’s personal collection, please drop a line and it will be removed immediately.

Ellecci Records, a sister label of Picci Records, used the identical album cover for at least four albums, as well.

This includes Alvaro and Filippo’s Guitars Cocktail, released in 1975, and Fogu, Moseholm, and Binsy’s Los Mariposas from the following year. And the first two LP releases by the Italian label, Vassil Kojucharo’s An ghin go, with Franco Bonfanti, and Thrilling Soundtrack.

The Thrilling Soundtrack album has a pair of collaborations between Vassil Kojucharov and Stefano Torossi, “Mascelle d’acciaio” and “La cella della morte.”

Vassil Kojucharov and Stefano Torossi’s “Mascelle d’acciaio” is on YouTube:

Amazingly, the same album cover has also been used by a third label, Nuova Idea. The Flipper Music imprint used the image for their 1975 Con brio LP by Corvasce and Rosciglione.

More Hard To Find Music From Picci Records

Although the twelfth and final LP release by Picci, Franco Chiari’s Al sint album will set you back a cool thousand euros, if you can find a copy, perhaps their most valuable LP is La Seconda Genesi’s Tutto deve finire.

The progressive rock album released by Seconda Genesi in 1972 boasts a lineup with Giambattista Bonavera on saxophone and flute, Paride De Carli on guitar, Pier Carlo Leoni on drums, Alberto Rocchetti on keyboards and lead vocals, and Nazzareno Spaccia on bass. One record seller at Discogs currently has a copy on offer for $7,293.97 U.S.

La Seconda Genesi’s “Dimmi padre” is on YouTube:

Besides The Fast Machine, Picci released two other albums of music by Giacomo Dell’Orso, My Favourite Tones, which features nine nine tracks performed by Orchestra di Giacomo Dell’Orso, and Come Upstair, credited to Oscar Lindok And His Friends.

The latter album also features an uncredited Sandro Brugnolini. Outstanding progressive rock cuts like “My Way To Mexico” and “Let’s Go To Manhattan” are easy to find on the Internet. Both are also located in an exclusive piece on The Rhythm of Life by Oscar Lindok’s Orchestra, a 1972 album that features Giacomo Dell’Orso, Proluton (aka Gianni Dell’Orso), and Peter Donimak (aka Nico Fidenco).

Uncredited contributors on the highly sought after record include composers Sandro Brugnolini and Stefano Torossi as well as Alessandro Alessandroni.

Oscar Lindok And His Friends’ “Chopin in Paris” is on SoundCloud:

Note: If any legal rights holders object to the posting of this rare, out of print, and unavailable track ripped from this correspondent’s personal collection, please drop a line and it will be removed immediately.

A Classic Spaghetti Western Composition from Vasco and Mancuso

Among career highlights of Vasco Vassil Kojucharov is work on several Italian westerns. This includes the soundtrack he composed with Elsio Mancuso in 1969 for director Sergio Garonne’s Django il bastardo (aka The Stranger’s Gundown).

Vasco Vassil Kojucharov and Elsio Mancuso’s title track for Django il bastardo, released under the names “Vasco and Mancuso,” is on YouTube:

Online Sampler Showcases Brugnolini and Torossi

Sandro Brugnolini and Stefano Torossi have been working together since their first album, Musica per commenti sonori, was released by Costanza Records in 1969–an LP scheduled for reissue for the first time in June 2016 by Schema. Some of these collaborations have been officially credited but many were not.

A selection of nine album cuts on SoundCloud covering 1973 to 1974 includes three tracks with Sandro Brugnolini, Giancarlo Gazzani, and Puccio Roelens from their 1974 Feelings LP first issued by Carosello Records and last reissued in 2016 by Schema, a track with Amedeo Tommasi from Tecnologia, the 1974 Rotary Records LP reissued in 2016 by Intervallo, three tracks from Gazzani’s withdrawn Musica per commenti sonori LP from 1974 featuring Brugnolini and Torossi and three tracks from Paolo Ormi’s Tastiere LP on Jubal also with uncredited contributions from Brugnolini and Torossi: