Fatal Frames soundtrack

What can I say about Al Festa that I haven't already said in my previous posts about his work? Today's focus, Fatal Frames, is not only my favorite film from Al, it's also one of my favorite gialli of all time, a point I seem to be sadly alone with among Italo-heads. This soundtrack is a great extension to the visual brilliance Fatal Frames has, and stylistically feels like a fusion between a Frizzi-esque electronic score and late 80s Italo disco.

This album was released in 1996 by ViviMusica Soundtracks to coincide with the Italian premiere of the film, and to the best of my research, it may have been discontinued before 2000. Granted, the only thing I remember reading is that it was discontinued somewhat quickly after the film's international release (as in showings at the Fantasia film festival, Fantasporto, what have you), so the date is more or less an assumption on my part. Thankfully, I found my copy for a measly six dollars off of an eBay affiliate, copies elsewhere tend to fall within the $20 range before shipping.

The liner notes are fascinating in that they contain a synopsis of the film that seems to have been penned by Al himself, as well as short biographies of Al and producer/star Stefania Stella, pictures of the star-studded cast, and full film credits on the back of the booklet.

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. Eternal City (Vocal)

2. Main Titles

3. Rome's Arrival: This Is Stefania

4. Roman Spellbounds

5. St. Angelo's Run

6. Candles In The Night

7. The Seance

8. Black Colosseum (Tamara's Death)

9. Professor Robinson Appears

10. The Best Memory (Love Theme From Fatal Frames)

11. Trevi In Rosso (Videokiller Attacks)

12. Candles In The Night (Nightmare Reprise)

13. Valenti Investigates

14. Final Nightstorm (Revelations)

15. Alibi '96

16. Desert Flower

17. Pensamiento Estupendo (Dance Mix)

18. Eternal City (Instrumental)

The soundtrack to Al's first feature film, Gipsy Angel has been much, much harder to track down, but hopefully I will find it one day. I know that Al had a promotional CD run of it to give out at screenings of the film throughout Europe, but only one copy of it has ever surfaced on the Internet as far as I can tell, and it's the copy that serves as the basis for that album's Discogs page.

Bianca Neve - Wake Up!

This is another release of Al's that I have on vinyl. One of his later Italo-disco projects before foraying into work in films, Bianca Neve was the second attempt by Al to shoot Dutch? model Anne Dattner into Euro-dance superstardom; the first was Kristal, where she performed alongside future Rai Due director Massimo Liofredi, and scored a hit with Love & Magic, while other singles Ete Super and Mango Tree* failed to make a similar impact. (Despite what Discogs would have you believe, this Kristal was not the Kristal behind Love In Stereo.)

The same is true with Bianca Neve, where Dattner was merely a visual performer in the vein of Rob and Fab from Milli Vanilli or Jimmy McShane from Baltimora while famous Italian singer Edda Dell'Orso really performed the vocals; while the first Bianca Neve single Prince Kiss became an international hit in Europe, the single pictured here, Wake Up!, did not, despite distribution from CBS Records, and was never issued on CD by any of, say, Bianco Y Negro's Italo-disco compilation lines.

Its b-side, Broken Heart, has become the more well-known song in recent years, having cemented its way into the hearts of Italian horror fans when Al included its music video on the Synapse Films DVD of Fatal Frames. Broken Heart was later rearranged into the song "Tonight", featured in Al's 1990 directorial debut Gipsy Angel.

(*Al's video for Mango Tree has seemingly spiked up to over 20,000 views after appearing on YouTube, which I'm guessing mostly come from Italian users fascinated with Massimo Liofredi's presence in the video. It's hard to confirm my hunch since comments are disabled, but I did see someone from Italy post it on Twitter in reference to Liofredi, so that's what I'm working off of. Regardless, the song was seemingly not a hit when it was originally issued in 1985.)