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PRICE:
$14.50
NOT IN STOCK
1-2 Weeks
ARTIST
TITLE
Il Castello Dei Morti Vivi
FORMAT
CD

LABEL
CATALOG #
CDDM 193CD CDDM 193CD
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
10/5/2018

2011 release. Digitmovies presents on CD for the very first time Angelo F. Lavagnino's complete original soundtrack for the Italian gothic movie Il Castello Dei Morti Vivi (aka "Castle Of The Living Dead"). Directed in 1964 by Herbert Wise (Luciano Ricci) and starring Christopher Lee, Gaia Germani, Philippe Leroy, Jacques Stanislawski, Donald Sutherland, Luciano Pigozzi, Renato Terra Caizzi, Antonio De Martino, Ennio Antonelli, Mirko Valentin, and Luigi Bonos. In the early 19th century a caravan of vagabond artists reaches the far-away castle of the count Drago (Lee) who engaged them for a private performance. Dark omens obscure the journey. In fact, in the gloomy castle tragic events will happen: The nobleman does not have any interest for dramatic art and he only wants to get new bodies which he can add to his very singular collection of embalmed creatures. Inoculating a serum which he himself has extracted from a very rare plant, the count who is obsessed by the fear of death immediately petrifies every living being he likes to appease by contemplating a fragment of the eternity. Angelo Francesco Lavagnino, one of the most famous film music composers, has written a particularly gloomy OST, performed by few instruments that create gothic atmospheres and almost anticipate by a few years the psychedelia. These sound dimensions of big tension, sometimes aggressively dramatic, sometimes quietly magical, describe all the evil which resides in the castle of Drago, a true demon with a human aspect. As main theme Lavagnino has written a ballad with an ancient flavor introduced in the main titles and reprised later. A tech note: The only master tapes which have survived in mono until today, although in good condition, contain a notable hiss which in the slower passages did sometimes cover up the music itself. Therefore, although contrary to our usual approach, Digitmovies had to intervene by using filters of hiss reduction and they did add some light reverb for a better listening experience of material recorded in those days in 1964. A proper rescue and preservation of an Italian silver age OST and of the music art of Angelo Francesco Lavagnino.