In 1989, the compilation Thrilling – tensione – terrore 2 (Ansiogeni), was released by Fonit Cetra and RAI, two Italian labels specializing in library and soundtrack music. Part of the Commenti musicali series, the album features original compositions by Sandro Brugnolini, Claudio Gizzi, Leandro Piccioni, and Antonio Sechi, produced by Stefano Torossi. In 2016, the limited release LP was remastered from the original analog master tapes by Contempo Records as part of their new Contempo Libraries series.

Side A includes “Il grande fratello,” “Morte clinica,” “Pioggia acida,” “Le voci di dentro,” “Indicibile orrore,” “Spasmodica attesa,” and “Psicosi da macchine,” all composed by Claudio Gizzi. Side B has two versions of Leandro Piccioni’s “Serie prima” plus “Plasma” and “Micromatera.” A pair of tracks by Antonio Sechi, “Ossessione” and “Sul filo,” and Sandro Brugnolini’s “Il fantasma dell’opera” and “Overdose” complete the compilation.

At this time, none of the tracks from Commenti musicali: Thrilling – tensione – terrore 2 (Ansiogeni) are available online from sites such as YouTube or SoundCloud. However, the U.K.’s Juno Records offers previews of each track of the remastered vinyl album HERE.

More information should be available once the Contempo Records website goes online in the near future (contemporecords.it). For fans in North America, the new reissue is available at Dusty Groove, a music retailer that carries an impressive selection of soundtrack and library music. In addition, global music marketplaces such as Discogs have both the original 1989 album as well as the remaster 2016 version available.

More from Claudio Gizzi

Classical pianist-composer Claudio Gizzi is well known in the world of electronic, soundtrack, and library music. He has also released pop albums in France under the alias Jean-Pierre Posit and made an album with fluteist Severino Gazzelloni.

In 1972, Gizzi released Ascoltarsi nascere on Champion Records. He also contributed a track on Giacomo Dell’Orso’s My Favourite Tones album released on Picci Records. Two of his most famous works are soundtracks he did in 1973 and 1974, Andy Warhol’s Flesh For Frankenstein and Andy Warhol’s Blood For Dracula. Originally released in 1982 by Varèse Sarabande, both albums have been reissued in deluxe vinyl editions by Dagored in 2015.

An interesting behind-the-scenes look at Claudio Gizzi’s experiences composing these soundtracks, as well as several others, is found in an interview of Gizzi by Marco Werba that was originally published in CinemaScore #15, 1986/1987.

Claudio Gizzi’s title piece for Andy Warhol’s Flesh For Frankenstein is on YouTube:

In addition to composing soundtracks, Claudio Gizzi has done more than a dozen albums and compilations with composer-producer Stefano Torossi. This includes several full length albums for Fonit Cetra such as Gizzi’s Strumentali: Un milione di anni fa in 1987, Strumentali: Il gran teatro del mondo, Vol. 1 and Strumentali: Il gran teatro del mondo, Vol. 2, both in 1988. All of these limited release LPs are currently out of print and not easy to find.

Claudio Gizzi’s Musica per commenti sonori: Elicottero (Panoramiche dall’aria) from 1996, produced by Stefano Torossi, is one of their few full length albums currently available, reissued as a digital download Deneb Records in 2014 under the title Great Images: Nature – Documentary – Electronica.

“Lo spirito del bosco” from Claudio Gizzi’s Strumentali: Un milione di anna fa LP, produced by Stefano Torossi is on SoundCloud–it is also on the 1993 Commenti musicali: Musica d’epoca – Prehistoria e storia antica compilation:

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.

Another four Musica per commenti sonori albums initially issued by Costanza Records in CD format between 1998 and 1999 that include contributions by Claudio Gizzi and Stefano Torossi have also recently been reissued as downloads, as well as their overlooked XXI Century album that first appeared on Primrose Music in 1990, credited to the New Age Group. Gizzi and Torossi also contributed tracks on Primrose releases from 1988 to 2000 such as Season’s Greetings, Children’s World, Kaleidoscope, Megasound, and Special Experience, all now available as digital downloads.

At this time, it seems most or all of the LPs Claudio Gizzi did for Italy’s legendary Fonit Cetra label are nearly all out of print, including a trio from 1988: Strumentali: Romanticherie, Strumentali: La fatica di vivere, and Sophisticated, the former two produced by Stefano Torossi.

Claudio Gizzi’s “Vox dolorosa” from Strumentali: La fatica di vivere, produced by Stefano Torossi, is online:

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 from Leandro Piccioni

Composer, musician, and conductor Leandro Piccioni has done soundtracks for a number of films including Soffiantini Kidnapping, The Last Bullet, The Homicide Squad, Rebecca the First Wife, and The Soul’s Haven, for which he received the Popular Jury Award at the Lagronegro film festival in 2003.

Piccioni’s also the co-author of the opera The Magic Flute for Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio, a processing and rewriting of Mozart’s Magic Flute. In 2013, he and Mario Tronco wrote the elaboration of the opera Carmen par l’orchestra di Piazza Vittorio by Bizet.

A video featuring Leandro Piccioni on piano with Quartetto Pessoa (including Marco Quaranta and Rita Gucci on violin, Achille Taddeo on viola, and Kyung Mi Lee on cello) performing Piccioni’s soundtrack for the TV movie Assunta spina on 30 April 2010 at the Festival Napoletango in Rome is on YouTube:

In 1983, Leandro Piccioni was credited with co-composing four tracks on Amedeo Tommasi’s Arte e Rinascimento for RCA. Later in the decade,  Piccioni worked on several albums with Stefano Torossi.

These include Piccioni’s Strumentali: Fusion Adventure in 1987, Strumentali: Grande immagini, with Claudio Gizzi, in 1988, and  History: Past and Future, also with Gizzi, in 1989. All three full length albums were released by Fonit Cetra and produced by Stefano Torossi.

Each of the limited release, promotional LPs is now out of print and difficult if not impossible to find although copies that do occasionally appear on auction sites such as eBay. The best place to check is still probably Discogs. For example, at the moment there are three copies of Strumentali: Fusion Adventure available. Alternatively, the full album was uploaded to the Internet HERE.

Piccioni and Torossi also contributed tracks to compilation albums on Flippermusic’s Primrose Music label including Childrens Music, Season’s Greetings, Kaleidoscope, Megasound, and Ecology, all initially available in CD and now as digital downloads.

Piccioni also has a pair of compositions on the Sophisticated compilation LP released by Fonit Cetra in 1988. An overview of his more recent work is found at his personal website.

Leandro Piccioni’s “Siddharta” from Strumentali: Grande immagini, produced by Stefano Torossi, 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 from Antonio Sechi

Composer Antonio “Tony” Sechi and Stefano Torossi collaborated on music that has appeared on library music albums released by Costanza Records, Fonit Cetra’s Strumentali and Commenti musicali series, Primrose Music, and Rai Trade.

In 1986, Antonio Sechi and Stefano Torossi’s Musica per commenti sonori: Pianoforte was released on vinyl by Costanza Records, reissued by Fonit Cetra in 1988 under the title Strumentali: Pianoforte solo (Nello stile di…). The album, with extra tracks, was issued by Fonit Cetra in CD as Solo Piano in 1997 and is now available as a digital download.

Also in 1986, Antonio Sechi and Stefano Torossi released Strumentali: Genere romantico – classico – moderno – Infinito orizzonte and  Strumentali: Paesaggi. In 1987, they did Strumentali: Favole and Strumentali: Capolavori, plus Musica per commenti sonori: Life Is A Trumpet, with Massimo “Max” Catalano–the latter reissued as Strumentali: Jazz in 1989.

Antonio Sechi and Setfano Torossi’s “Percolo nell’aria” from their Strumentali: Genere romantico – classico – moderno – Infinito orizzonte LP is on YouTube:

Stefano Torossi also produced Bruno Lauzi and Antonio Sechi’s Strumentali: Fogli di diario in 1988, Sandro Brugnolini and Antonio Sechi’s Strumentali: Il mondo del lavoro in 1989, and Sechi’s solo album Situation Comedy in 1990. Torossi produced tracks on Strumentali: In giro per il mondo in 1987, Strumentali: La fatica di vivere in 1988, and six tracks on Strumentali: Romanticherie, also in 1988.

Among other compilations, Antonio Sechi and Stefano Torossi’s tracks also appear on Fonit Cetra’s Commenti Musicali: Agreste / Bucolico from 1988, as well as two volumes of Commenti Musicali: Children, released in 1991 and 1993, and two volumes of Commenti Musicali: Musica d’epoca, both released in CD in 1993.

Antonio Sechi collaborated with Danimo (better known as Sergio Montori) on Indus, an experimental electronic album on the obscure Ping Pong label.

“Discoteca,” the third track on Indus, is on SoundCloud:

https://soundcloud.com/dj-el-topo-1/discoteca-danimo-antonio-sechi

More from Sandro Brugnolini

Composer and alto sax player Alessandro “Sandro” Brugnolini, born and raised in Rome, first drew attention at a national jazz festival in 1958. Brugnolini, a member of the Modern Jazz Gang from 1956 to 1965, played sax, arranged, and was the main writer on albums that include Miles Before And After in 1960.

Besides establishing a successful career in jazz, Brugnolini composed soundtracks in the 1960s and 1970s as well as releasing a series of innovative library music albums that draw from funk, rock, jazz, and more, including his 1969 Musica per commenti sonori album with Stefano Torossi, reissued by Schema in 2016.

Recorded 25 October 1969 at the Dirmaphon Studio in Rome, Musica per commenti sonori features Maurizo De Angelis on acoustic and electric guitars, Giorgio Carnini on piano and organ, Enzo Restuccia on drums, and Giovanni Tommaso on bass–thank you Sandro Brugnolini and Stefano Torossi for confirming the players and additional recording details on this monster LP.

Sandro Brugnolini and Stefano Torossi’s opening track, the aptly named “Sweat Beat,” is on YouTube:

In 1970, Sandro Brugnolini released Underground and Overground, with Angelo Baroncini and Silvano Chimenti on guitar, Giorgio Carnini on organ, Enzo Restuccia on drums, and Giovanni Tommaso on bass. In 1974, Brugnolini joined Giancarlo Gazzani, Puccio Roelens, and Stefano Torossi, to compose Feelings–the album, which showcases some of the top session musicians of the era, was reissued in 2016 by Schema.

Those are just a handful of the exceptional albums Sandro Brugnolini has worked on. A closer look at some of his musical highlights are found in an exclusive interview on this site. In addition, the Albums section has features on several Brugnolini albums, including Underground, Feelings, Strumentali: Genere computermusic – homo tecnologicus, with Stefano Daino, and Stefano Torossi, Strumentali: Emozionale, with Torossi, and Musica per commenti sonori: Acoustic (I Marc Quattro oggi – Suoni acustici degli anni ’60-’70) (aka Film Characters), with Torossi, and Antonello Vannucchi.

Sandro Brugnolini’s “Amofen” from Overground, featuring Angelo Baroncini and Silvano Chimenti on guitar, Giorgio Carnini on organ, Enzo Restuccia on drums, and Giovanni Tommaso on bass, is here:

And one more from Sandro Brugnolini from Underground, the companion album recorded the same year at Rome’s Dirmaphon Studio–and reissued in 2014 by SONOR Music Editions.

Sandro Brugnolini’s “Impressiànico,” featuring the same players from Overground, is online:

https://soundcloud.com/armagideon-times/sandro-brugnolini-impressi

Online Torossi Sampler Covers 1986 to 1989

The following is a selection of tracks found online from Stefano Torossi covering 1986 to 1989 including “Camel Trophy” and “Natura violenta” by Amedeo Tommasi and Torossi from their Musica per commenti sonori: L’uomo e la natura (1986) album on Costanza Records; “La fossa dei serpenti,” “Cavaliere d’acciaio,” and “Replicante” from Strumentali: Genere computermusic – homo tecnologicus (1986) and “Fiabesk,” “Il filo di Arianna,” “Uccellini,” and “Delirium tremens” from Strumentali: Emozionale (1987), both with Sandro Brugnolini on Fonit Cetra; Melodicon (aka Torossi)’s “Il Clown #2,” “Una semplice ballata,” “Disperazione,” and “Sentirsi Solo #3” from Strumentali: Sciocchezzuole (1988); Brugnolini’s “Work” from Strumentali: Il mondo del lavoro (1989), produced by Torossi; and Giuliano Sorgini’s “Freddezza” and “Raccontare” from Strumentali: Sentimenti per grande orchestra (1989), produced by Torossi.