Howdy gang! Hope everyone is having a lovely summer so far.
Today I've picked out two LPs featuring works by pianist-composer Alessandro Raffaelli (b. 1961), who, if his website is to believed, is much more prominent as a radio director/producer than he ever was as a musician.
Our first LP, "Pick-Up" was issued on what I suspect was Raffaelli's own label/publisher, Black Horse, that, interestingly, was based in Rovereto, Trentino-Alto Adige - far north and a long way from our usual music metropoles of Milano and Rome.
Alongside Raffaelli himself we find contributions by some other names from the region; multi-instrumentalist and composer Gianfranco Grisi (b. 1953) from Mori, jazz pianist-composer Francesco Pisanu (b. 1959) from Premosello-Chiovenda/Trento and his band Jazz Print, jazz pianist-composer Renzo Vigagni from Rovereto, composer Konrad Plaickner (b. 1938) from Merano, as well as actor-lyricist Arnoldo Foà (b. 1916) and jazz pianist, composer and Argentinian expat Angelo "Pocho" Gatti (b. 1930).
The music is a bit hit and miss to my ears, but there are some nice moments throughout; in particularly the synth work and CP-70 piano really shine at times. The two are linked in an interesting way; bridging the two is the B-side opener "Esposizioni", which you'll hear in a different rendition on our second LP, which also borrowed its title from the work.
Now, as an side - I'm sure those of you with pasts (or presents) working in record shops probably have tons of stories like this, but occasionally I really wonder what sort of 'life' the LPs have had before they ended up in my collection. You real old-heads might remember that I once picked up a cheap Fonit LP where someone had glued a huge photo of a chicken on the rear sleeve, for instance. This Black Horse LP is another odd case; when it arrived it absolutely
reeked of women's perfume, which took a looong time to wear off. The vinyl itself seems to be covered in some sort of residue that I can't get off, so I suspect someone had the great idea to douse this with a lovely fragrance before it was shipped to me. Quite amusing if I am to interpret it as a sort of love letter, I guess - but unfortunately as a consequence, you may hear some distortion in this rip.
On to our second! Oddly, the liner notes of the second of our two LPs (1986) claims it to be Raffaelli's first, even though it's clearly predated by the Black Horse LP. From an obscure label in the north, we've also moved south to the Rome-based 'major' RCA, though the recording itself was done in Modena, Emilia-Romagna.
Don't let the equipment list on the rear scare you off - this is one my favourite synth LPs out of Italy, and one that is played quite frequently at my house. One of its key assets, to my ears, is its eschewing of the synth and production overindulgence that I sometimes associate with the mid-to-late-80's, opting for more stripped-back arrangements centered around the acoustic piano. In something of an unusual move for a library LP, its cues are all fairly long, which allows them to steadily build tension, drive and excitement throughout the track, more akin to a traditional pop song - heck, one of them even modulates before the last chorus, very uncommon for library music. The synth programming also seems very deliberate and the different sounds compliment each other well. An uncredited saxophonist appears for a few parts, but doesn't overstay his welcome.
- That being said, it's occasionally
very 80's, haha. The chorus of "Future Earth" clearly wouldn't be out of place in an infomercial VHS and "Bad" sounds like menu music for a video game. The dramatic B-side closer "White Night" is perhaps Raffaelli's best-known composition, as it got picked up as the theme song to the pop science show "Big Bang" on Canale 5 in Italy.
Enjoy!
[Black Horse] BH 0030 LP - Pick-Up (Instrumental Music) (1985)
mp3://mediafire.com/file/tjc1l8zcm4upfkq/BH+0030+LP+-+Pick-Up+(Instrumental+Music)+(mp3).rar/file
flac://mediafire.com/file/hpnz388sapvdewh/BH+0030+LP+-+Pick-Up+(Instrumental+Music).rar/file
[RCA Original Cast] SP 10097 - Esposizioni (1986)
mp3://mediafire.com/file/halp3eeeytg60bf/SP+10097+-+Esposizioni+(mp3).rar/file
flac://mediafire.com/file/vgfkfyebeak58on/SP+10097+-+Esposizioni.rar/file
