Orange Vinyl. The publishing history of Ennio Morricone's score for Forza "G" (1972, directed by Duccio Tessari) is tortuous. When the film opened - produced by Vides Cinematografica for Franco Cristaldi and distributed by United Artists Europa - only the first two tracks were released, as a single 45rpm with Sospesi fra le Nuvole on the A-side and Come un Miracolo on the B-side. The remainder of the score stayed unissued for over twenty years, surfacing in part on a Japanese SLC compilation in 1996 and in full on a 2002 Cinevox CD. The complete soundtrack now appears on vinyl for the first time ever, in an orange-vinyl edition with audio newly remastered by Claudio Fuiano.
The session is conducted by Bruno Nicolai and assembles the familiar Roman studio circle of the period, with I Cantori Moderni di Alessandroni on choral duties and full Cinevox strings and brass. The main theme Sospesi fra le Nuvole returns in five versions across the album and is a melodically "light" construction that Morricone treats with the same harmonic precision he reserves for his graver scores. Tessari was shooting an action-comedy built around the Italian Air Force aerobatic team Frecce Tricolori, with a cast that included Riccardo Salvino, Pino Colizzi, Barbara Bouchet, Dori Ghezzi, Anita Strindberg and Kitty Swan. The project was developed with the involvement of real-life acrobatic pilot Gianni Orlando, who co-wrote the screenplay and consulted on the flight sequences. Morricone wrote for it with the same care he gave to Petri or Bertolucci.
The pleasures of the record lie in its tangents. Forza G (Come un Western) is a parody of Morricone's own western scoring, with mariachi trumpets cited as ironic self-reference. Forza G (Psichedelico Jazzistico) is pure experimental jazz, indebted to the composer's parallel work with the Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza. Forza G (Quella Donna) sets a wordless female vocal against a jazz-rock motif of electric guitar and vibraphone reminiscent of late-Sixties Gary Burton. Forza G (La Festa) and Forza G (Burlesco) add lounge cues for party scenes that locate the record in the same months of activity as the sonorizzazione work Piero Umiliani and Alessandro Alessandroni were producing for Liuto and Omicron.
A minor pocket of Morricone's 1972 that is anything but minor. Scored with the same collaborators as his major work of the period, and overlooked only because the film itself didn't carry beyond its release.
LP, orange vinyl. First-ever vinyl edition of the complete soundtrack. From Cinevox's new Hidden Gems series.
