Romolo Grano – Arcana (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Arcana is a horror/dramatic movie directed by Giulio Questi and starring, among others, Lucia Bos, Maurizio Degli Esposti e Tina Aumont. Its soundtrack, composed by Romolo Grano, is here reissued for the first time ever on vinyl.

For Arcana Romolo Grano composed a soundtrack that develops in a truly original way, almost like in a lively ballet, characterized by classical flavoured strings with a pop music accompaniment, Edda DellOrsos voice, and the Hammond organ in the title-track (A1). Introversione (A2) features strings full of tension, distorted electric guitars and a marimba. Taranta (A3) is basically folk music with violin and percussion to accompany some sequences of the film. Luomo con s stesso (A4) is an extremely delicate piece for solo guitar, then romantically reprised in Luomo con s stesso (Pt. 2) (B1) in an orchestral version with Edda DellOrsos voice and pop rhythms. Sacro e profano (B2) contains a part of the two previous themes, but with a mysterious violin performance, distorted electric guitars and dissonant strings layers. In Percezioni extra sensoriali (B3) harpsichord, string tremolos, flute, marimba, vibraphone and female vocals create an atmosphere of supernatural-sounding anguish. This soundtrack was arranged and conducted by Berto Pisano.

At the time, RCA produced a small run of a rare promotional LP that is here reissued on vinyl for the first time ever using the stereo master assembled by the composer himself, with a total running time of around 31 minutes.