FABIO FRIZZI

A stepping stone on the way to the superb soundtrack to L'Aldila (The Beyond), Fabio Frizzi's soundtrack for City of the Living Dead isn't quite as developed on the prog side of things, and indeed has a mildly greater proportion of more standard orchestral pieces, but when it does dip into the realms of RPI it offers up enjoyable sketches along the way to the more developed works Frizzi would subsequently present. Somewhat less consistent than L'Aldila, I'd say it's still worth a listen if you are very keen on the strange partnership of RPI and horror movies from the 1970s since it continues the tradition of Goblin competently.

An interesting release which sits halfway between the sort of symphonic progressive material Goblin would produce for Dario Argento on the one hand and more traditional horror movie soundtracks on the other, Fabio Frizzi's soundtrack for The Beyond was truly one of the highlights of the film, adding a sombre power to the devastating final twist. The gentle flute passages on here are a real treat - of course, those who've seen the film and taken in the last scene will know that in its original context the flute added a bitterly ironic touch of sweetness to a panorama of utter devastation, but outside this context it's actually rather uplifting and romantic, a little island of calm in the middle of symphonic terrorism.

It's little surprise that symphonic horror maestros Morte Macabre chose to cover an extract from the album on Symphonic Holocaust, though I'd have preferred to hear their take on the masterful Voci di Nulla theme than the disco-esque Sequenza Ritmica E Tema. But then again, why tamper with a work which is so fine in its original context?

Italian symphonic meets haunted house

Fabio Frizzi is an Italian composer from Bologna. In the 1970s he became involved with creating the soundtracks of horror films, forging a successful alliance with director Lucio Fulci. He also became interested in the experimental music of the time and befriended musicians of the band Goblin among others. This led to a few of his soundtracks crossing into RPI territory, blending symphonic prog, dramatic choir vocals, keyboard experimentation, and dark-sounding rock. Some of this work could be described as a mix of Goblin with a more refined, subtler Jacula.

"The Beyond" is quite similar to the previous "Night of the Living Dead" I just reviewed, but perhaps more fully realized as a dark symphonic listening experience. Compared to the previous work there seems to be less of the pared down Jacula rock and much more of an orchestral experience. This album sounds more like a soundtrack because of the fuller orchestral background. On top of this you still have a fair amount of eerie piano melody and a big increase in the choir vocals. The dark vocal choirs are now more prevalent and feature a more complex arrangement. Of course some of it comes off quite campy still which is to be expected given the films, yet there are tracks like "Voci dal Nulla" which are just plain beautiful on any level. Beguiling flute, lovely yet sad atmosphere, mystery. I'm not quite enthused enough about this scene to go with high ratings, yet this is undeniably good stuff and I'd suggest any fan of dramatic, darker Italian symphonic, do give it a spin. You may well love it!

You don't have to like Zombies to enjoy this

I hate zombie movies and the whole zombie pop culture thing, I think it's a load of rubbish. But zombie music is another matter when the Italians are involved. Fabio Frizzi is a well known Italian composer born in Bologna in 1951. In the 1970s he became involved with creating the soundtracks of horror films, forging a successful alliance with director Lucio Fulci. He also became interested in the experimental music of the time and befriended musicians of the band Goblin among others. This led to a few of his soundtracks crossing into RPI territory, blending symphonic prog, dramatic choir vocals, keyboard experimentation, and dark-sounding rock. Some of this work could be described as a mix of Goblin with a more refined, subtler Jacula.

"There was a crop of new keyboards made by a lot of different manufacturers. The true revolution was the Yamaha line, with an incredible electric piano like CP80 and an extraordinary synthesizer, the CS80." Frizzi worked exhaustively with ex Goblin keyboard player Maurizio Guarini to find new, unique sounds; "we actually tried and used every new instrument of that time, included vocoders, the Prophet 5, Arp 2600, Oberheims, Roland Jupiter 8 (Frizzi says he still has his), etc. But I already had a passion for vintage sound, so I brought with me things like Mellotron, Mini Moog, ARP Solina, Fender Rhodes, etc, etc, etc!" -from Tim Fife's Cinema Suicide interview with Frizzi

It begins with eerie yet traditional strings welling up around you. Soon the drums commence with a very simple, plodding beat...very much like the deliberate drumming of Albert Goodman on the Antonius Rex debut. And when the choir vocals come in the music feels much like the Rex. What makes the music excel for me is a sense of loss, a great sadness, beauty and yet emptiness, which is captured by repeating motifs of traditional piano and lovely flute passages. If you enjoy piano and flute you will want to hear this. These sections are contrasted with dissonant, often difficult-to-enjoy passages of noise and keyboard screech...used to build tension and fear. Occasionally there will be a tasteful, almost Gilmour-like guitar lead over the slow moving atmospheric darkness, or a cool lone flute dancing along to a bass guitar solo. If you enjoy instrumental, atmospheric soundtrack music with the feel of the darker RPI bands, selected albums from the late 70s/early 80s will be of interest. Further, if you already know you love Frizzi, you should check out an active band called RanestRane, who put their own original progressive rock to classic horror film presentation. Good stuff!

This is my favourite Frizzi-involved soundtrack, with The Beyond OST (L'Aldila), City of The Living Dead, and Vai Gorilla being other favourites.

The OST (original soundtrack) is eclectic due to having three composers, yet it gels. It ranges from haunting dark ambient to pop, to modern classical to jazzy music. It's mostly suspenseful, and the "7 Note" track should appeal to those who enjoy Tubular Bells. As is common in soundtracks, we get various variations on similar themes. I have my particular favourite themes and variations on them, but I won't bother going into that. The album flows very well, and picking it apart into some 22 track, track-by-track analysis would bea bit misguided, and, well, terribly dull in my opinion..

Part of what I like so much about the album is the way it builds up tension. It starts with an ominous instrumental, moves into a pop love song that is rather foreboding, and then into more menacing music... The score is very colourful, and it is surely one of my favourite soundtracks (and I'm something of a soundtrack collector).

First off, I am a great lover of Italian soundtrack and library music. My favourite soundtrack composer over-all is Ennio Morricone and my favourite library music composer is Egisto Macchi.

Frizzi has been involved with a couple of my favourite soundtracks: Sette Note in Nero and The Beyond. I do like other Frizzi soundtracks, such as City of the Living Dead, and Manhattan Baby and Zombie to a lesser extent, and love Vai Gorilla which he collaborated on.

The Beyond is a terrific soundtrack to a gruesome Italian horror film (not quite up to Sette in Nero for me, but great none-the-less). Although the film has found a cult following and is highly regarded amongst splatter-fest film aficionados, it seems to me quite remarkable in a way that such an excellent soundtrack would accompany such a film -- even if Fulci's is a much more thoughtful film than most really gory films (yet I find it common to find wonderful, original soundtracks to erotic, horror and violent dramas coming from Italy and France -- and I'm sure it can be said for many other nations too).

I've long had a thing for choral type vocals and this album is no exception. It has rousing, exciting, rather sinister, beautiful and uplifting music (definite contrasts in mood). Themes are repeated with variations. If I were to choose just two tracks to keep, it would be "Suono Aperto" and "Voci dal Nulla", the first I find a gorgeous instrumental, and the second very exciting and also has great beauty.

I love soundtracks. And I like soundtracks commonly where themes are developed, or approached differently throughout an album. This album succeeds very well in offering different moods and feel for themes. I like the variations very much.

This review is rather short and spontaneous. Personally, I would give it five stars, but since I have found Sette Note just a little more satisfying, four stars.

EDIT: Listening again, I have to give it five stars. I love the album, and after many months of listening to it regularly it hasn't lost its shine. I might even request this for my funeral when I go off to the great Beyond (the beyond being a chintzy urn that doubles as a cigarette ashtray in this case)...