Fenomenal e il tesoro di Tutankamen

Digitmovies is proud to present for the first absolute time on record the original soundtrack from the film “Fenomenal e il tesoro di Tutankamen” (aka Phenomenal and the Treasure of Tutankamen), a 1968 movie directed by Ruggero Deodato under the pseudonym „Roger Rockefeller” (director of the classic “Cannibal holocaust” and considered in the world as one of the cult directors of the Italian Cinema). After the recently released “Kriminal” and “Satanik” with music by Roberto Pregadio and Romano Mussolini (appeared as two de-luxe editions released by Beat Records for the first time) now “Fenomenal” has arrived. This pure fantasy superman – inspired by the comics world – is the protagonist of “Fenomenal e il tesoro di Tutankamen”, a practically forgotten movie released in 1968 (in the same year Mario Bava brought to the screen his “Diabolik” produced by Dino De Laurentiis and magnificently scored by Ennio Morricone – the master tapes are sadly lost …but maybe someday…). This phenomenal discovery was made possible thanks to the friend and collaborator Daniele De Gemini of Beat Records who recently phoned me saying…”Claudio, I have here something that could be interesting for you …the score from an old movie called Fenomenal e il tesoro di Tutankamen…music by Bruno Nicolai…” and without any hesitation I immediately said “Yes!”…and so this CD was born using three master tapes survived until today in very good conditions. Furthermore, the wonderful discovery we made: the original elements were recorded in full stereo! Bruno Nicolai wrote and conducted a score not for a large orchestra: the music with Swing and Beat arrangements was performed by a small ensemble. But the real protagonist here is the phenomenal choir of I Cantori Moderni di Alessandroni vocalizing throughout the entire score. The “Fenomenal Theme” is a joyfull motif performed by mixed choir with a very Swing vein, introduced by a grotesque male laugh of the same style of Bava’s “Diabolik” (Tr.1, Tr.28). This OST is enriched with cool themes between Swing and Jazz like Tr.3, Tr.7, Tr.8, Tr.10, Tr.14, Tr.23, Tr.25 and varied with several suspense themes between Giallo and Espionage in Tr.2, Tr.4, Tr.5, Tr.11,Tr.12, Tr.16, Tr.21, Tr.22, Tr.24. The themes Bruno Nicolai wrote are orchestrated in perfect “Lounge Music” style like a wild shake for a club scene (Tr.6), the romantic slow shake with Edda (Tr.9), the relaxing theme for guitar and small ensemble (Tr.13), the rhythmical waltz for accordion and choir (Tr.17) and its slower reprise with Edda and I Cantori Moderni (Tr.18), an elegant Bossa for organ and rhythmic (Tr.19) and a joyful shake with choir of which second part recalls the main theme written by M° Nicolai for “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”, another Italian spy movie. We close our CD with two bonus tracks: versions of the “Main Titles” and “End Titles” without the choir.