Ombre Roventi

Digitmovies is glad to present for the very first time on CD the complete OST in full stereo by Carlo Savina for the horror movie “Ombre roventi” (aka “Shadow of Illusion”) directed in 1970 by Mario Caiano and starring William Berger, Daniela Giordano, Krista Nell, Antonio Cantafora, Giancarlo Bastianoni, Carol Lobravico, Enzo Maggio, Mirella Pamphili. A girl named Gail (Giordano) who went to Cairo meets a group of sinister looking people who think that she is the reincarnation of the Goddess Isis. Gail will be exposed to a big danger when the evil priestess (Nell) of a pagan cult wants to use human sacrifices for winning the favour of Anubi, a divinity from the darkness. The priestess searches for her victims among a group of young beat people devoted to the practices of  free love. For the production of our CD we could use the stereophonic master tapes of the original session that gave us the chance to release all the recorded material (40:21). Savina has written a nice “shake” dance floor tune for brass and rhythm group called “Shadow” which is introduced in the “Main Titles”(Tr.1) (it seems this track has been issued in mono on a C.A.M. promotional 45 rpm single in the SPEC series) and then reprised  in a fast version in the Finale (Tr.20). The composer alternates ethnic music for archaic flutes, drums and  rattles (Tr.4, Tr.6, Tr.9, Tr.11,Tr.14, Tr.16,Tr.19), which well recreate the atmosphere of the Egyptian capital city in which the plot is placed, with lounge kind music with jazz-blues performances of the trumpet accompanied by a small ensemble. The horror side of the story is underscored with suspense themes (Tr.2,Tr.8,Tr.13,Tr.17,Tr.18), whereas for the young beat people Carlo Savina has written two wild “shake” dance floor themes (Tr.5, Tr.12) and a hippie-style tune for choir (Tr.7). A soundtrack rarity rescued from the oblivion and preserved on CD from a movie which till today is impossible to find on DVD.