Browse by Artist: PICCIONI, PIERO

Artist:	PICCIONI, PIERO
Title:	Il Bell'Antonio OST
Label:	DAGORED (ITALY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$18.00
Catalog #:	RED 183CD

"In the extraordinary music that Piccioni composed for Bolognini's masterpiece, Antonio, the tormented protagonist of the story, and his intimate burning drama are accompanied by the splendid soundtrack in a union that is highly evocative, coloring the splendid black and white in perfect 1960s style. Piccioni's music cuts to the heart of Sicilian life of the post-war period, conveying the mood of its very distinctive customs, and the angst and desperation of the characters in the story, touched by such intimate tragedies. There is no folk music in this soundtrack; just Piccioni's extraordinary, original score, which adheres so incredibly to the various scenes, situations, moods and emotions, that by listening to the music, you almost feel as if you are flipping through the pages of the book that the screenplay was based on."

Artist:	PICCIONI, PIERO
Title:	Puppet On A Chain
Label:	DC RECORDINGS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$18.00
Catalog #:	DCR 039CD

"DC Recordings is proud to present the previously unreleased soundtrack to Geoffrey Reeve's Puppet On A Chain. Based on Alistair Maclean's novel of the same name, the film tells the story of Paul Sherman, an Interpol narcotics agent who arrives in Amsterdam to investigate a gang of heroin smugglers. The music that accompanies the film comes courtesy of one of Italy's most prolific and respected soundtrack composers -- Piero Piccioni -- who has over 150 film scores to his name including Alberto Lattuadas' I Dolci Inganni, Luchino Visconti's The Stranger, Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt and Francesco Rosi's Salvatore Giuliano. Often mentioned in the same breath as his peer's Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai, Piccioni's work has always embraced the celluloid spectrum, from demented sex comedies and spaghetti Westerns to bloody horror exploitation flicks. Recorded in 1970 Puppet On A Chain is a blistering, Hammond-heavy score that effortlessly mixes elements of sybaritic lounge listening, hard edged, beat driven funk/jazz and big band swagger."

Artist:	PICCIONI, PIERO
Title:	The Seduction of Piero Piccioni
Label:	EL RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	ACMEM 040CD

2005 release. "Piero Piccioni was a genuine original, one of Italy's finest film composers in a golden age. Born in Turin in 1921, the son of Attilo Piccioni, who during the 1950s was Italy's foreign minister, Piero Piccioni's work is characterized by playful arrangements and sumptuous melodies. From a jazzy musical upbringing came the scores to almost 100 often memorable Italian film scores; from a fantasy atmosphere for the fairytale romance More Than A Miracle (Cinderella, Italian style) starring Omar Sharif and a delicious Sophia Loren (a box office smash in 1967 in America where the soundtrack album actually charted), to the balmy, refined bossa nova of Escacco Alla Regina ('checkmate to the queen') which features the sensational voice of Edda Dell'oro, to vivacious music from a quartet of Spaghetti Westerns, to three of the films made with his friend and long-time collaborator, the comedian Alberto Sordi, An Italian in America, 'Il Medico Della Mutua' (be sick, it's free!), a humorous and controversial social satire about Italyšs disastrous health system, and the renowned Fumo Di Londra ('Smoke Over London') which alone combines shake, lush ballads and small-group Mediterranean psychedelia to dizzying effect. Fumo Di Londra is the epitomy of Italian pop-art. An aspiring John Steed-style patrician, Mr. Dante Fontana arrives in mid-'60s London to indulge in the world of the English gentleman only to find everyone swinging and so embarks on any number of far-out adventures including a discotheque party, a Carnaby Street shopping spree and a scene in Richmond Park. Of all Italian film music composers, Piero Piccioni is second only to Ennio Morricone in terms of popularity and with his own superb style and remarkable versatility, is regarded by his many disciples as equally important. Inventive, futuristic jazz for science-fiction, moody orchestration and funk for gangster movies and political thrillers and sunny organ and wah-wah groovers for oddball sexcapades; no genre was beyond Piccioni's range and this compilation, drawn from the vaults of the important Italian labels GDM and Cinevox, invites you to immerse yourself in his genius."

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