Armando Sciascia - "Violin Reactions" Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered, 1974/2015 (The Omni Recording Corporation)

Armando Sciascia is an Italian musician, composer, arranger, and violinist.   Mostly for Italian soundtrack films, but also very much a huge figure in the music library world.  This is music used by film producers to select music to fit a scene in a movie.  It's not original music for that specific film, but more of stuff left in a closet, and one approaches the space for the perfect sound at that moment. "Violin Reactions" are set pieces with Sciascia's violin playing, as well as composition, that is a hybrid of strong melodies, beats, and electronically processed sounds.  Sciascia had his own record label for his music and studio as well.  By day he served the film industry, by night he got into his own weird groove. 

The photographs I see of Sciascia are always from the 1950s or even earlier, and they somewhat do not convey the sounds he made in the 1970s.  Here, in his studio, he's a combination of Brian Eno and Joe Meek as he experiments with aural tools to make a new world.  "Violin Reactions" is a title that doesn't disappoint.  Every piece of music here has a strong presence of Sciascia's violin playing, but it's the mixture or the soup that he places the violin within that gives this album much pleasure. 

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.  

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. 

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.