LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

From the mid sixties Edda Dell'Orso has provided haunting wordless vocals to a large number of film scores by Ennio Morricone and other prominent mostly Italian composers of those times; Piero Piccioni, Bruno Nicolai, Roberto Pregadio and Luis Bacalov. But her name is synonymous with the Morricone and in particular, the original spaghetti westerns; 'A Fistful of Dollars', 'The Good The Bad and The Ugly' and 'Once Upon a Time in the West' where her dramatic voice was deployed as an instrument for the first time and to revolutionary effect. The singer's sensuous, almost ecclesiastical, often playful vocalisations brought tense atmospheres and dreamy moods to soundtracks showcased here as diverse as Morricone's memorable 'Giu la Testa' ('a fistful of dynamite') for Sergio Leone (featuring Rod Steiger and James Coburn), Piccioni's lovely 'Scacco alla regina' (starring the delectable Rosanna Schiaffino) and Spanish composer Anton Garcia Abril's strange but highly effective score for the sci-fi drama '4-3-2-1 Morte!' that with Edda's assistance somehow successfully helps blend an atonal chamber orchestra with go-go beat and cartoon jazz. One of the better known and most immediate Edda Dell'Orso recordings is the melodic title track Bossa Nova for 'Metti Una Serra a Cena (love circle)'; a beautiful and sinful counterpoint in a scandalous menage a trois. Edda's vocals again capture just the right atmosphere of period indulgence in 'La Donna invisible', where all of the characters are appropriately affluent, elegant, and bored. This mood also dominates 'Verushka' where an internationally successful sixties model reflects on the emptiness at the heart of her jet set lifestyle. Moving into the seventies and into darker waters still, Edda contributed intensity to two films by Dario Argento including 'l'uccello dalle plume di cristallo' (the bird with crystal plumage) which is considered to be amongst the horror director's best work, and then in 1976 collaborated with the progressive group Goblin under the name 'il reale impero britannico' for 'perche si uccidono? (why do they kill themselves)', a film essay about drugs and self destruction. But three of the most remarkable performances in this collection are reserved for the Morricone soundtracks of arguably the three most obscure films; the slow burn of the two fantastic main themes from Vittorio Caprioli's 'Scusi Facciamo l¹amore?', the stratospheric 'Guella Donna' from forza g, a kind of sex pantomime in the air and moodiest of all the fourteen minute concert suite of the 'venuta del mare' theme of ecce homo that closes the album where Edda uses her voice like a paintbrush to create a futuristic scene.
Track listing: Seli (Main Title) 4321 Morte! (Sequence One) Da Soli In Vacanza Al Re Poche Mosse Alla Fine Metti Una Serra A Cena La Spiaggia A Lidia Scusi Facciamo L'amore? (Two Cigarettes) Giu' La Testa (Alternate Version) In Un Sogno Il Sogno All Serenita Edda With Il Reale Impero Britannico Violenza Inattesa Quella Donna Quattro Mosche Di Vellut Grigio