Recently released from Digitmovies is the
excellent double soundtrack from a composer whose work continues to impress me,
Franco Micalizzi. Sei lellato amico hai incontrato Sacramento / I due volti della Paura (both 1972) CDDM088, are both incredibly good scores and presented
for the first time on CD. Sacramento, A Spaghetti western starring American
actor Ty Hardin, arrived hot on the heels of the very successful They call me Trinity (1970), from which
Micalizzi also produced an impressive score. It’s fair to say that Sacramento is not too far
removed in its style to that of Trinity.
It has all the attributes of the genre. Micalizzi makes intelligent use of his
instrumentation incorporating firm favourites such as Spanish guitar, harmonica,
trumpet and Jews harp, all of which are wrapped up within very polished
arrangements. Dell’Orso is inevitably at hand once again (was this amazing
woman ever out of work?) if only to add spice to an already beautiful flavour.
Rounding off this CD is an equally good score, I due volti della Paura.
Another slice of impressive Italian giallo, the film stars George Hilton and
the beautiful Luciana Paluzzi. The music is woven with romantic themes; crafted
suspense and some great beat ‘n shake pop cuts that practically have you hooked
from their opening chords. It doesn’t take long, in fact by track 3; I was
asking the question, why on earth has this soundtrack taken so long to surface?
It’s packed with undiscovered gems, Gimkan’
being one of the best beat tracks I think I have heard in a very long time. At
just under 30 minutes, it’s one hell of a bonus and makes for a stunning double
feature. Neither of these 2 Micalizzi scores received a release outside of the
promotional LP market, which only adds further to their appeal. Audio is of the
highest quality. Attention to detail through informative liner notes coupled
with and an awesome display of original artwork and campaign posters makes this
particularly appealing on the eyes as well as the ears. It’s a combination that
leaves little reason as to wonder why Digitmovies are the market leaders in
Italian film music today. www.digitmovies.com
- Darren Allison