In 1970, Alessandro Alessandroni released a library music album entitled Fischio in armonia (“Whistle In Harmony” in English) on Italy’s SR Records. The LP by the multi-talented composer, musician, bandleader–and occasional whistler, also features four compositions with Stefano Torossi.

“Lungomare,” “Trinacria,””Swinging Whistle,” “Nel sobborgo,” “Nella baia,” “Fischiarello,” “La casetta sul fiume,” “and “Fughetta,” on Side A, and “Serenata guappa,” “Nel sud,” “Serenatina,” “Puntilistica,” “Les compagnons,” “Whistle Waves,” “La mia baracca,” “Serenata bulla,” “Oriente,” and “Contestazione.”

“Lungomare,” “Nella baia,” “Fischiarello,” and “Serenatina” are co-compositions of Alessandro Alessandroni and Stefano Torossi.

Alessandro Alessandroni and Stefano Torossi’s “Lungomare,” the opening track, is on YouTube:

It seems none of the remaining tracks on Fischio in armonia are currently available online, and the original vinyl LP will not only cost upwards of 150 or 200 euros but is also nearly impossible to find. However, it can still be obtained at a reasonable price as the same album was released in France under the title Sifflons en harmonie by St Germain Des Prés, attributed to “M. Alessandroni.”

St Germain Des Prés also issued three volumes of the Aux sources de la civilisation series in 1972 credited to Alessandroni under his Braen alias: volumes one and two with Kema, also known as Giulia De Mutiis, and volume three with Raskovich, better known as Giuliano Sorgini. The trio of albums are reissues of releases from Flippermusic’s folk music label. The original Sifflons en harmonie LP can be found for around 20-25 euros at online music sites such as discogs.com and eBay worldwide.

Stefano Torossi and Alessandro Alessandroni have worked on a number of musical projects together including Torossi’s Musica per commenti sonori album for Costanza Records in 1971, in which Alessandroni directed the orchestra and arranged the music for I Cantori Moderni di Alessandroni and Franco De Gemini and Stefano Torossi’s 1972 soundtrack Si puo’ fare molto con 7 donne (You Can Do a Lot With Seven Women). A closer look at this album is HERE.

Alessandro Alessandroni, Franco De Gemini, and Stefano Torossi’s “Bassa Beat” is online:

More Music from Alessandro Alessandroni

Among the numerous pop, jazz, psychedelic rock, folk, library music, and soundtrack albums from the founder of I Cantori Moderni di Alessandroni are several more LPs released on SR Records (also referred to as Sermi) including Alessandro Alessandroni e il suo complesso (1968), Alessandro Alessandroni (1971) (also known as Farfalla, or Butterfly in English), Open Air Parade (1972) with Giovanni Tommaso, and Prisma sonoro (1974). Originally available in vinyl, many of these sought after albums have been reissued in recent years including Cometa Edition Musicali’s upcoming Alessandro Alessandroni (Farfalla) vinyl release.

Alessandro Alessandroni’s “Invention” from his 1971 “Butterfly” album is on SoundCloud:

Although Alessandroni’s impressive individual discography includes original albums for many of the most famous labels in the library music genre in Italy (Beat Records Company, CAM, Canopo, Cenacolo, Deneb Records, Flower, Flirt Records, Fonit Cetra, GDM, Octopus Records, Penta Flowers, Primrose Music, RCA, and more, as well as France (St Germain Des Pres), Germany (Coloursound Library and Crippled Dick Hot Wax!), and Japan (Seven Seas) among other countries), it is his work as an instrumentalist on movie soundtracks rather than as a composer and conductor that first propelled him to fame in his native Italy and beyond.

The musical background of Alessandro Alessandroni began in a family barbershop located in a small town 40 miles north of Rome. He explained in a biography posted on his English language website: “We had instruments; guitar, mandolin and a mandola. We didn’t do much business. But we made a lot of music!”

The versatile artist is an accomplished guitarist, mandolinist, accordionist, pianist, and sitarist. An example of Alessandro Alessandroni’s sitar playing is heard on Francesco De Masi and Alessandroni’s 1969 soundtrack for Lesbo, first released on CAM, and remastered and reissued on CD in 2010 by the Beat Records Company.

An audio file for Francesco De Masi and Alessandro Alessandroni’s “Sesso in controluce,” the fifth track on the Lesbo soundtrack, is on SoundCloud:

As a teenager, Alessandroni spent a lot of time listening to classical music before forming his own band in his high school years. A short time later he was introduced to jazz and before long was playing piano and singing in small clubs in Italy and around Europe. Alessandroni comments on his website that around this time he also discovered a natural gift for whistling which his childhood friend Ennio Morricone used to such great and lasting effect on the soundtrack for Sergio Leone’s 1964 Per un pugno di dollari (or a A Fistful of Dollars in English).

The title theme of Ennio Morricone’s “Per un pugno di dollari” featuring Alessandro Alessandroni’s whistling, now a familiar sound associated with the whole Spaghetti Western genre, is used in an English language trailer for the 1964 Sergio Leone film starring Clint Eastwood, Marianne Koch, and Gian Maria Volontè:

Recent Alessandroni Album Reissues

Besides Cometa Edizioni Musicali’s upcoming limited-edition Alessandro Alessandroni (Farfalla) vinyl LP, a number of classic albums featuring the music of Alessandroni have been reissued in various formats in the last few years.

Three of the LPs that are highly recommended from this correspondent’s personal collection include Inchiesta (1977), a SONOR Music Editions’ 2013 release (also reissued in CD by Cometa in 2011), I Cantori Moderni di A. Alessandroni: Musiche di A. Alessandroni (1970), a 2013 Penny Records LP/CD bundle, showcasing an eight-to-sixteen person choir featuring Edda Dell’Orso, Giulia De Mutiis, Gianna Spagnuolo, Augusto Giardino, and Franco Cosacchi among others, and Abnormal Sensations by Braen Raskovich, a 2014 Cacophonic album with Giuliano Sorgini (aka Raskovich) also available in digital format that was initially released under the title Inchiesta giudiziaria by Octopus Records in 1971.

I Cantori Moderni di A. Alessandroni’s “La partenza,” with choir members including Edda Dell’Orso, Giulia De Mutiis, Gianna Spagnuolo, Augusto Giardino, and Franco Cosacchi, is on YouTube:

Braen is an alias Alessandroni used for a series of albums credited to Braen Raskovich, with Sorgini; with Peymont (aka David Hoyt Kimball); with Atmo (an alias of Amedeo Tommasi) and Franco Tamponi; and with Kema, also known as Giulia De Mutiis, the singer-lyricist and first wife of Alessandro Alessandroni.

Alessandro also teamed up with Giuliano Sorgini (aka Raskovich) to form The Braen’s Machine, recording Underground (1971) and Termi ritmici e dinamici (1973) for Liuto Records, and their final album, Quarta pagina (Poliziesco), for Fonit Cetra International.

Both the first and the third albums by The Braen’s Machine have been reissued by the Italian label Schema as LP/CD bundles, Underground in 2014 and Quarta pagina (Poliziesco) at the beginning of 2015.

Alessandro Alessandroni and Giuliano Sorgini’s “Addescamento” from Quarta pagina (Poliziesco) has recently been uploaded to the Internet:

Another favorite CD reissue from 2014 was Franco De Gemini’s L’armonica a bocca / L’armonica a bocca di Franco De Gemini, a twofer from Beat Records that includes ten tracks composed by Alessandro Alessandroni and the composer-harmonica master. The 26-track reissue includes “Sulla riviera,” which showcases Edda Dell’Orso on vocals.

This track also appeared on Franco De Gemini’s The Man With The Harmonica 2008 CD collection from All Score Media. Still available on auction and specialist soundtrack and library music sites, it also includes “Cheops and Nefertiti (Versione integrale inedito)” and “Cos’ e l’amore (Instrumental)” from Franco De Gemini (and an uncredited Stefano Torossi)’s Si puo’ fare molto con 7 donne (You Can Do a Lot With Seven Women) soundtrack.

Alessandro Alessandroni and Franco De Gemini’s “Sulla riviera,” featuring vocalist Edda Dell’Orso, is on YouTube:

A recent shot of Alessandro Alessandroni was used on the new cover for the 2010 reissue of Primsa sonoro on Cometa Edizioni Musicali.

And something special, a live performance of Alessandro Alessandroni performing three pieces from Ennio Morricone soundtracks for Sergio Leone films including the theme of Per un pugno di dollari (A Fistful of Dollars), “Addio a Cheyenne,” from C’era una volta il West (Once Upon a Time in the West), and the title track from Qualche dollaro in più (For a Few Dollars More):

Additional music from Alessandro Alessandroni and Franco De Gemini is also found at an exclusive interview with Edda Dell’Orso HERE.