EL CRISTO DEL OCEANO - CANOSSA

Digitmovies proudly reissues for the very first time on CD the OST in full stereo by Bruno Nicolai, without any doubt one of his masterpieces, for " El Cristo del Oceano" (aka "Luca, bambino mio" - "Christ from the Ocean") an Italian-Spanish-Mexican co-production directed in 1971 by Ramón Fernández and starring Nino Del Arco, Pilar Velázquez,Paolo Gozlino, Leonard Mann,José Suárez, María Elena Arpón, Roberto Camardiel,Perla Cristal,Juan Antonio Elices,Ana Farra,Goyo Lebrero,Elio Marconato,José Manuel Martín. The plot: Luca lives in a small town of fishermen, he is an introverted and stubborn child, who has remained alone since his father had been lost in a sea storm and his mother Martha, convinced that he is not dead, has kept on searching for him in the close harbours. The boy has made friends with Juan Aguirre, a fisherman who is rough in his manners, but good from the depth of his heart. The man persuades him to attend school and both of them spend their free hours together. One day the representatives of the community decide to put the boy into the hands of an orphanage, but Juan, under a big personal sacrifice, succeeds in solving the matter. During a heavy sea storm all the fishing boats come back to the harbour except the one of Juan who is lost in the sea. The boy is alone again and desperately runs away to the cave where he usually had fun with his fisherman friend. There he meets Manuel, a mysterious man who comforts him and gives him back his will to live. Luca comes round to the beach where he finds a big wooden statue of the Christ and even more stubborn than before he unwillingly gives permission that the statue is exposed in the church, but when the remains of Juan's boat are found, he obtains that they are used to build a crucifix that was missing in his statue of the Christ. The mysterious Manuel disappears and Luca finds his mother again who will never abandon him anymore in view of the miracle which has just happened. For this tale made of strong feelings and religious mysticism Bruno Nicolai has written one of the most beautiful and intense scores of all his career. For this CD we could use the stereo mastertape assembled by the composer himself for the original album (issued in Italy on LP Gemelli CS 3002 and in Japan on LP Seven Seas 765), due to the fact that the complete session tapes have not survived until today. However, in the movie there is not much more music than on the album anyway. Bruno Nicolai has written two main themes : a delicate motif for the boy Luca which is performed by mandolins and strings and which gets reprised with different orchestrations (Tr. 1,Tr.8,Tr.10,Tr.14,Tr.18), and a heart-wrenching "love theme" for viola and orchestra (Tr.2, Tr.9) which Nicolai reprises in a mystic version for orchestra and choir (Tr.11).The OST also contains dramatic moments to describe the relationship between the man and the force of the sea (Tr.4,Tr.6), a grotesque theme for the character of the parish priest (Tr.3), a motif with Spanish flavour for classic guitar and strings for the mother (Tr.5), dance floor music of a lounge kind (Tr.12, Tr.16) and music for big band with a Spanish mood (Tr.13, Tr.15). Our CD (with a total time of 73:17) encloses as bonus tracks in full stereo the very rare library album “Canossa” which Bruno Nicolai released as LP in the mid-70s on his own Gemelli label with the number GG.ST.10.035. This album contains a lot of different and unidentified tracks which were either composed for films, stage or radio plays or were intended strictly for library purposes. Nicolai has composed experimental music with psychedelic flavour, mysterious,dramatic and dark themes which would be suitable for a Giallo movie (Tr.20,Tr.23, Tr.24, Tr.26, Tr.28, Tr.29,Tr.31) and which get alternated with passages with a medieval flavour (Tr.19,Tr.21,Tr.22,Tr.30). There is also an epic love theme for orchestra and choir (Tr.25) which seems indeed to have been composed for Jess Franco's 1971 German movie “Sie tötete in ekstase” (“She killed in ecstasy”) where Nicolai however did receive no credit for his musical contribution. Little clicks appear sometimes in “Canossa” and although we did our best to minimize them, they could not be totally removed, existing on the only available magnetic source.This CD is dedicated to the wonderful music art of Bruno Nicolai and to all his fans who were waiting for a long time for this CD re-issue of "El Cristo del Oceano".