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SAFARI 5000
Music Composed and Conducted by Toshiro Mayuzumi
Limited edition of 500 units
Quartet Records presents the premiere release of Toshiro Mayuzumi hidden masterpiece for the 1969 Japanese cult movie Safari 5000.
The film, directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara, is about racecar drivers competing in a deadly rally in Africa. Starring Yûjirô Ishihara in the leading role, the film was inspired by John Frankenheimer’s Grand Prix and features a similarly epic storyline spanning continents and featuring real footage from an actual rally. The movie was the top grossing movie of Japan in 1969, then it completely disappeared from the face of the Earth due to some legal issues. Only uncovered a few years ago on Blu-Ray, the film is not only magnificent to look at, it’s also great magnificent to listen to!
Japanese composer Toshiro Mayuzumi may be best-known for writing the Oscar-nominated score for John Huston’s The Bible: In the Beginning… (1966), but he has many other scores that are waiting to be discovered in studio archives. His work on Safari 5000 may be one of the best Italian-style film score not written by an Italian, featuring a wonderful, heroic theme for Yûjirô Ishihara’s driver character. Though it takes places in the 1960s, the film is occasionally scored like a traditional Italo-Western, including whistling and a choral performance of the main theme!
This is a premiere presentation of the score which hasn’t been released in any form until now, beatifully mastered by Claudio Fuiano from the original stereo mastertapes, courtesy of Gruppo Sugar. The richly illustrated 8-page booklet features liner notes by Gergely Hubai who discusses this rarely seen film and shares his insights about the music.
KILLERFISH
Music Composed by Guido & Maurizio De Angelis
Limited edition of 500 units
Quartet Records presents the CD premiere release of the Guido and Maurizio de Angelis disco-suspense score for the 1979 caper/thriller Killer Fish.
Produced by Alex (son of Carlo) Ponti, KillerFish was clearly inspired by the success of Steven Spielberg's Jaws and Joe Dante's Piranha. The film stars Lee "Six Million Dollar Man" Majors and Karen Black as a couple of thieves who steal valuable diamonds which are eventually hidden in a lake. Their backgammon obsessed nemesis (played by James Franciscus) plants his own little trap and now the valuable gems are guarded by dozes of tiny killers - piranhas! Margaux Hemingway tags along for the ride as a supermodel whose Rio photo shoot accidentally tangles with the heist that will claim a few too many lives!
Collectors of Italian film music may need no further introduction of the De Angelis brothers whose work includes the Euro-hit "Santa Maria", "Dune Buggy" from the comedy ...Altrimenti Ci Arrabbiamo! (1974) as well as music from several other Bud Spencer and Terence Hill movies. Their score for Killer Fish is anchored by the Amii Stewart theme song "The Winner Takes All" is played during the opening and closing credits while instrumental variations occur throughout the story. Stewart contributed another song to the soundtrack, but "Don't Ever Let Me Hear You Say Goodbye" does not appear in the film in its vocal version. Instrumental variations of these two themes ("Welcome to Brazil", "Diamonds", "Margaux") round out the delightful disco program - a well-recommended title for anyone who is into the unmistakeable De Angelis sound.
Killer Fish was previously released on LP by ATV, and due to the recording tapes are long lost, this CD premiere contains the same generous 35-minute program, which is almost all the music featured in the film. The 8-page full color booklet features liner notes by Gergely Hubai who discusses the film, the score and a couple of other small secrets by De Angelis brothers, such as a small musical joke hiding in the film.
CHRISTOPHER SLASKI FILM WORKS
Music Composed, Orchestrated and Conducted by Christopher Slaski
Quartet Records presents a whole CD's worth of showcase from the career of young British composer Christopher Slaski.
Born in 1974, Christopher Slaski built a truly international career over the last few years by sharing his time between his studios in London. Christopher graduated in Music from Cambridge University where he studied composition with Robin Holloway, then he obtained a postgraduate diploma in Composition from the Royal Academy of Music in London. Slaski also studied conducting with Lawrence Leonard (conductor of the Halle Orchestra) and attended film scoring master classes given by Ennio Morricone at the Academia Chigiana in Sienna and José Nieto in Madrid. Now you can hear for yourself
The wide variety of cues include a selection of stylistically diverse short film scores such as the Morricone-inspired Who is Florinda Bolkan? or the Legrand-esque You or Me, Lebanon's most critically acclaimed feature film entitled Rue Huvelin, the Spanish action movie Proyecto Dos, family dramas like La Vergüenza or Hollow or full-blooded comedy scores like Semen, una historia de amor. The compilation doesn't forget about Christopher's most requested titles like selections from the Brothers Quay's The PianoTuner of EarthQuakes or the Bobby Darin biopic Beyond the Sea starring Kevin Spacey. The program is rounded out by Slaski's personal tributes to his personal heros like Astor Piazzoll, Michel Legrand, Philippe Sarde or Ennio Morricone. The CD also debuts the mysterious Film Noir Suite, compiled from the rejected film score of I, Anna, completed in 2012.
The album is accompanied by a 12-page booklet written by Gergely Hubai in close collaboration with the composer. The notes describe all the projects in great details, based on the composer's own recollections of this rich and versatile career.
The three releases are available for order and shipping now. For more info and listen audio samples, please visit www.quartetrecords.com
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Go to Slaski's site and listen to that wonderfu; piano and string piece that automatically plays. Absolutely wonderful, what ever it is.
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Soundtracks from the 1960s by Japanese composers are sparce indeed.
Ironically, the Toshiro Mayuzumi scores that were recorded in Italy seem to be ones that have the best chance of getting released onto disc. [TM's "The Bible" was issued by Legend about 4 years ago].
I wonder if there are any other Mayuzumi master tapes within Gruppo Sugar?
SAFARI 500 is a pleasant surprise for me, but I'm also suprised no other FSM member has commented on this title which fills a small space in the very large gaps in Mayuzumi's discography.
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