CD Reviews 9/14/00
The Infernal Trio *** 1/2
ENNIO MORRICONE
Screen Trax CDST 320
14 tracks - 42:35
Ennio Morricone has never exactly followed convention, and for this1974
Francis Girod film, he wrote one of his most unexpected scores. The liner
notes describe the film thus: "A lawyer and two German refugee sisters
contrive, to make ends meet, to cheat insurance companies through person
exchanges until to commit several murders and then melting the bodies of
their victims in sulphuric (sic) acid." It sounds like a jolly good
barrel of laughs [great translation too]. This new album opens with "Acid
and Charm" which is an old-fashioned waltz. (It also features Edda
dell'Orso, albeit briefly, adding her touch over the melody.) What follows
is simply disturbing: "Rag Nuziale" begins as a piece of ragtime
swing, before it develops in to one of the most bizarre, synthesized concoctions
Morricone has ever dreamt up. Various layers of peculiar, dashing synths
build to create one of the most peculiar sounds imaginable. And in case
the listener is not yet scratching his head in pure bewilderment, Morricone
does the sensible thing and adds the sound of a woman's orgasmic moans
(three minutes into the track, if you're in a hurry).
The most conventional thing in this score is the main theme, first heard
in the six-minute third track, a pop-flavored piece more representative
of what Morricone was writing at the time. Again, it doesn't exactly conjure
up images of lawyers drowning insurance salesmen in sulfuric acid, but
it's an enjoyable piece with a hint of mystery. The best cue title is certainly
"Sinfonietta - Requiem for Sulphuric (sic) Acid."
This album represents the first time this impressive score has been
available on CD. It dispenses with two cues from the original vinyl album
(which were composed for a different film in the first place), but more
than compensates by adding seven new, previously-unheard cuts (though these
are, admittedly, mostly variations on the existing material). Morricone
fans will love it, since it sounds like Morricone was actually on acid
while writing the music for the acid-drowning scenes -- but to the rest
of the world, be warned: Once Upon a Time in America, it ain't!
-- James Southall
Running Free ** 1/2
NICOLA PIOVANI
Varese Sarabande 302 066 157 2
16 tracks - 57:18
Nicola Piovani's Running Free isn't the exultant spectacle-fest
that one might expect from the film's pedigree (i.e., cowriter-producer
Jean-Jacques Annaud); if anything, Piovani's somewhat queasy, drunken-Rota
style seems to lend itself more easily to a story with themes of sadness
and uncertainty. Those two emotions are what Piovani's music tends to generate,
and while the score has its quiet, soft moments ("A Sky Heavy With
Sun"), it leans in large parts towards those ambiguous ends.
Give Piovani credit for not leaning heavily on ethnocentric instrumentation
for effect; he manages, through straightforward orchestrational techniques,
to establish a tone and feel with a more universal quality. What little
ethnic material there is is sparsely used, and limited mostly to occasional
percussion effects. The seven-minute "Running Free (Main Title)"
cue introduces his theme, a wistful little motif that he develops in the
Morricone style of constant re-use and development. It proves to be flexible
enough, but listeners interested in more variation would be better advised
to seek other waters. "Lucky's Long Journey" takes an undulating
ostinato for low brass and pushes it into the strings, eventually letting
it weave in and out with his main theme, while the brief "A Wide Sky"
places the theme against a sprightly guitar backing.
Piovani even stretches out a little with "Lucky's Escape,"
setting the ostinato from "Lucky's Long Journey" against tense
strings and percussion effects. "Friends of the Wilderness" though,
treads over more familiar territory, as do "Hoofbeats" and "Richard
and Lucky." The album concludes with a music-box-esque take on the
main theme with "Running Free," basically another arrangement
of earlier material. Fans of this European style of scoring will most certainly
eat this up; others in the mood for a little diversity should beware. It's
an awfully long haul for so little in the way of development; for its kind,
it's not bad, but there's not a tremendous amount going on, and there are
few surprises. -- Jason Comerford
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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