Luigi Nono/Mauizio Pollini - "sofferte onde serene..." Vinyl, LP, Album, Germany, 1979 (Deutsche Grammophon)

My knowledge on the Italian composer Luigi Nono is limited, and I have only this album "sofferte onde serene..." and a compilation with Berio and Maderna.   I have an interest with composers of the 20th-century who used magnetic tape as part of the ensemble, and Nono is no stranger to the tape machine.  Here Nono has the noted pianist Maurizio Pollini play along with magnetic tape that is haunting and very mood sturring.  It's music to wait for an upcoming storm.  And that storm is "a floresta èjovem e cheja de vida."   A composition with magnetic tape as well as clarinet played by William O. Smith, who was an original member of Ennio Morricone's (and others) Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza.  

a floresta èjovem e cheja de vida" is very much rooted in the Vietnam War, and Nono was very much against that war.   The texts in this piece are from various sources and mostly from the Left.  A haunting work as well as the first piece on this album. 

Ennio Morricone with Joan Baez - "Sacco & Vanzetti" OST, LP, Album, 1971 (RCA)

An incredible score by Ennio Morricone with substantial assistance from Joan Baez on the theme song "Here's To You" as well on Part 1,2, and 3 of "The Ballad of Sacco & Vanzetti."  This is an album that is both lush with full orchestration as well as electronics and effects, from various members of Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, the free-form experimental band that consists of Morricone as well as a few of the musicians here Walter Bianchi, Gastone Chiarini with the vocal group I Contori Moderni arranged by Alessandroni.

I have never seen "Sacco & Vanzetti" so I can't comment on how the music is used in the film, but the album is very consistent with the music sung by Joan Baez (who also wrote the lyrics) and the experimental pieces.   I never heard Baez sing in such a modern or borderline avant-garde format, which reminds me of when Bryan Ferry or David Sylvian sings over electronic abstract mood music.  "The Electric Chair" with Sinket played by Walter Bianchi is a sound that one can imagine will go with the executioner's 'hot' chair.   There is a sense of sadness that runs through the album, and the relationship between the 'pop' "Here's To You" mixed in with something like "Electric Chair" is a startling exploration between the melody and ambient sounds.

Egisto Macchi - "E.S.P. Vinyl, LP, Album, OST, Limited Edition, 1973/2016 (Cometa Edizioni Musicali)

For those who have read my previous posts as well as my talk on Egisto Macchi https://youtu.be/rqCI97HMQxY know that I'm a huge fan of his work. I'm very passionate about Macchi's music at the moment because it's a new discovery or a new love.  Macchi is known for the music he composed for library music companies.   He was very much a close associate of Ennio Morricone, and like that great composer, they do share a sense of aural adventure.  Morricone did a lot of big budget films, and Macchi did mostly work for grade-z film productions.  Nevertheless, he was a brilliant composer.  E.S.P. is a work of stunning beauty.  

E.S.P. was an Italian TV series, and the music on this album basically plays the one theme but in different arrangements.  When I first heard E.S.P., it reminded me of the soundtrack "Twin Peaks, " in that both pieces capture a wishfulness but a sense of sinister underpinning around the corner.  The main instrument on E.S.P. is the Theremin.  Played not like a science fiction soundtrack, but more of a melodic instrument that fits in the orchestration perfectly.  The score is haunting and it's the perfect late night sound to reflect on one's life.  A superb album. 

Egisto Macchi - "Bioritmi" Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition, Reissue (The Omni Recording Corporation)

I know little to nothing about Egisto Macchi, except that he's an Italian composer who worked on music for film and Television, and is a close associate of Ennio Morricone and is a member of Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza.  I have two albums by him, including "Bioritmi," and he's exceptional.  

Originally released in 1971, and reissued/remastered by the great label The Omni Recording Corporation, "Bioritmi" is a record of great feeling and beauty.  It's noted in its informative sleeve notes that there are traces or a hint of Moondog's music within its grooves.   The music here is very much a quartet of strings and distant percussion and it does move in a circular fashion just like Moondog. It's very machine-like but done by humans.  The music builds and then slowly releases its intensity.   Listening to this I think of insects working in a hive.  It's almost a musical portrait of a society working, but not necessarily a human's approach to society unless they're watching insects building a nest and obtaining food.   A quiet album or work, but with great feeling and the clockwork of giving and releasing makes "Bioritmi" a give and take the pull as one listens.  An amazing album and the composer is a genius.  

Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza - "Azioni / Reazioni 1967-1969" 5 x Vinyl, LP, Remastered, DVD, Box Set, Limited Edition (Die Schachtel)

Due to the scale of this project and just the 'oh wow' of it all, this is for sure on my top ten list of the greats from the 21st century so far.   Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza (GINC for short) is a group of mostly Italian composers who got together to do improvise music.  Originally organized by Italian composer Franco Evangelisti, they have done numerous recordings and concerts throughout the 1960s.  How I discover them is all due to my music hero Ennio Morricone who is a long-term member of GINC.  

This five-disk vinyl box set captures them doing live performances that are stunning.  The music is all done on acoustic instruments, but either altered such the prepared piano (ala John Cage) or the electronic mikes on various instruments such as trumpet, sax, strings, organ, and all sort of percussion.  At times the music is pure noise, but there is a sense of construction and thought behind the playing.  In an essence, the musicians/composers are using their composing hat as they make music together.  In actuality, it is also about the relationship between these composers, and how they see music, and therefore the world. 

The box set comes with a DVD video of their performance and a beautiful book with essays in English by Evangelisti and others explaining the GINC aesthetic and philosophy.   For the new listener of GINC, they for sure will be reminded of John Cage's early works.  GINC has a different 'feel' for their instruments, and it doesn't rely on musical accidents or outside noise.  The sounds that GINC makes are very confined to space and time.  

The mind reels knowing Morricone's association with these sound bandits.  Most of the Italians here did music soundtracks or wrote music for libraries that store scores for future films and Television.  Most associate Morricone with the Spaghetti western, but if that is your knowledge of Morricone, you really don't know him at all.  I feel that GINC was or is a very important aesthetic for Morricone and throughout his career, he has touched on the avant-garde side of music composition for his various movie soundtracks.   His openness to explore the music landscape is breath-taking.  Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza is an essential listening experience for anyone who even has the slightest interest in modern music.  These five discs plus DVD and book is a worthy investment that will keep on giving for a very long time. 

Here's the full list of members of GINC. Each one contributes greatly to the music.  They are: Alessandro Sbordoni, Antonello Neri, Domenico Guaccero, Egisto Macchi (an incredible composer), Ennio Morricone, Franco Evangelisti, Frederic Rzewski, Giancarlo Schiaffini, Giovanni Piazza, Ivan Vandor, John Heineman (the only American in the group?), Mario Bertoncini, and Walter Branchi.

Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza - "Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza" Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, 2016/1966 (Schema)

Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Conssonanza is a group of Italian composers who got together to make improvised 'noise' music.  The most famous member of the band (orchestra) is Ennio Morricone, who plays Trumpet within this experimental group.  The others are composers, who border on the classical or are writing film track music.   Here, they can go wild, and wild do they go.

This is music that is not open-ended but contained in an aesthetic history that is a combination of Fluxus and music by John Cage.  Perhaps even traces of The Art of Noise (the other Italian Futurist sound movement) not the British 'pop' group.  Using conventional instruments, they make new sounds by altering the instruments or through electronic means.  What sounds like chaos is really master musicians working in a format that takes chances at a high point, yet never fall off the cliff.  At times ambient but more likely in one's face, this is essentially 20th-century music that changes the shape of the air around them.  I think of their music more sculptural than anything else.  

The album was released in 1966, and this is a reissue, that is in a limited edition of 500.  Pick it up before it goes bye-bye.  The other composers/musicians involved besides Morricone are Jerry Rosen, Frederic Rzewski, Franco Evangelisti, Roland Kayn, Mario Bertoncini, Ivan Vandor, and John Heineman.   The sound of 1966 that is the new sound

Egisto Macchi - "Città Notte" (Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered, 2015/1972 (The Omni Recording Corporation)

"città notte," (Night City) the album by Egisto Macchi is a masterpiece.  A pal of Ennio Morricone, as well as both of them being part of the experimental and free-flowing Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza.  This is a very focused album of compositional music, but using the instrumentation in startling aural textures.  Macchi's approach is to express an urban area (a city) as a subject matter for this album.  It's abstract space, but no doubt Italian.  

From moment to moment "città notte" can change from lush strings to snarling electric guitar.  Or both.   When you have the beauty of the strings mixed in with harsh sounds of a guitar, or organ, it brings out the grandeur of the piece.  Pain and pleasure equal bliss.  Sparseness yet the aural canvas will eventually be full.  There are no specific credits in who plays what on this album, recorded in 1972, but it's more of a hunch that Morricone plays trumpet, and it's almost like the sound of someone spitting against the wind. 

On a financial level, I think this album was made for film production houses which need a certain type of music - mood pieces, or something romantic at times. Listening to it as an album project, which I suspect Macchi was playing both ends of the spectrum, is superb.  It is truly a mix of the experimental, the gorgeous melodies, and an exploration of sound, and how it can transform a space.  Playing this album in a room that is great for sound, it can't help but impress the listener. 

The Group - "The Feed-Back" Vinyl LP, Album (with CD), Re-Issue, Re-mastered, 1970 (RCA, Schema ‎)

"The Group" is Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, who we know is a band that Ennio Morricone is associated with.  Totally experimental, and more John Cage-like than what we think of with respect to Morricone's more mainstream movie soundtrack work.  "The Feed-Back" is Gruppo di Improvvisazione with an incredible beat.  The one consistent instrument throughout the recording of this album are the drums.  It's very Can/Neu like, that it's a beat that doesn't give up. 

The music is free-form, but the drums keep everything grounded to a groove.  An adventuresome DJ can play this album in a nightclub, and I don't think there will be that many people leaving the dance floor.   There are only a handful of recordings by or with Morricone that has nothing to do with film scoring. So it's interesting avenue or opportunity for him to do what he wants to without the restrictions of a producer.  Which comes to mind, does a filmmaker dare tell him what to do?

To give full credit to the band, it consisted of Walter Branchi, Renzo Restuccia, Bruno Battisi D'Amario, Egisto Macchi, Mario Bertoncini, John Heineman, and of course, Morricone. 

Ennio Morricone - "Controfase" Vinyl, LP, Album, 1972/1915 (The Omni Recording Corporation)

A lost album that has been found, thanks to the record label, The Omni Recording Corporation.   Ennio Morricone is a master.  In my opinion, the greatest composer to come out of the 20th century.  To choose one, or even a few of his albums is something I can't do.  One has to accept none or all.  I choose 'all.'   I think in my collection I have over 50 albums - on CD and vinyl.  I tend to hover towards his more experimental work, then his big symphonic orchestra pieces.  But I'm such a fan; there is so such thing as a bad music from Morricone.   It's impossible!

"Controfase" is a recording that was lost to history but found by the label a few years ago.  It is a perfect example or almost a sampler of Morricone's interest in sound design and orchestration.   The mood on this album is creepy and dark.  It also features the talent of a fellow composer/arranger Bruno Nicolai as well as the great vocalist Edda dell'Orso and Morricone's experimental noise band Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza.   So on one album, you have the legendary collaborators that come and go into Morricone's recordings of the 1970s. 

Morricone's music varies between highly melodic pieces to dark noise.  This album is very much the latter.  The eight selections or pieces express every shade of darkness.  Anyone who has an interest in recording sound would find this album fascinating.  Incredibly textured, with layers of unexpected orchestrations with respect to various instruments and electronic effects.  This album just keeps on giving the gift of great music.