Studio Umiliani

FLIES 25 | PIERO UMILIANI - STUDIO UMILIANI

Rare and unreleased tracks from Sound Work Shop archives | 1967 - 1983

▶ 2LP Gatefold 180gr. + CD bonus included

▶ Limited Edition 500 copies

▶ liner notes by Pierpaolo De Sanctis

▶ artwork by Francesco Franz Longhi

• Four Flies Records explores Piero Umiliani's Sound Work Shop archives to select rare and unreleased tracks

• First archive compilation of Piero Umiliani's work for the Rome-based record label and the first one focussing on Piero Umiliani in recent years

• Exotica, psychedelic jazz-funk, proto-trip hop: this selection is a cross-cutting portrait of Umiliani's activity during the golden years of his Sound Work Shop, the studio-laboratory where he has been playing, creating and experimenting with total freedom from 1969 to 1983

• The compilation will be released as a limited edition 2LP, accompanied by Four Flies' Pierpaolo De Sanctis liner notes and archive images

Four Flies Records strikes again, releasing their first archive compilation of Piero Umiliani's work and the first compilation focussing on the Maestro's legacy in years. "Studio Umiliani" is a collection of sunken treasures and hidden beauties yet to be re-released, and of stunning unpublished works surprisingly unknown for quite some time. The project, born from the initial effort of Andrea Fabrizii, who has far and wide been exploring Umiliani's soundtracks before anyone else, led Four Flies research to seek for new unreleased recordings at the Maestro's archive.

A challenge that Pierpaolo De Sanctis from Four Flies Records accepted without hesitation – with the help of the Umiliani family. His two daughters Alessandra and Elisabetta Umiliani, true keepers of their father's memory, together with their husbands Francesco Argento and John Linkowski, and of course, Piero's wife Stefania Baffa, have been pivotal in compiling this exciting project.

The result is a cross-cutting portrait of Umiliani's activity during the golden years of his Sound Work Shop, the studio- laboratory where he has been playing, creating and experimenting with total freedom from 1969 to 1983.

PIERO UMILIANI: Moog, EMS VCS3, Electric Piano Fender Rhodes/Wurlitzer, Mexican Marimba, Spinet, Hammond Organ

piano on C4: Enrico Pieranunzi
sax on A3: Enzo Scoppa
trumpet on A3: Cicci Santucci
choir on B6: I Cantori Moderni di Alessandroni

Liner notes by Pierpaolo De Sanctis

If you are looking for a "best of" Piero Umiliani compilation, this is not the record for you. In fact, this record is not about big hits or unforgettable masterpieces. Rather, it is a sampling of sunken treasures and hidden beauties yet to be re-released, and of stunning unpublished works surprisingly unknown for quite some time.

This is a further confirmation of the massive amount of tracks Piero Umiliani recorded for cinema, radio, and television; a wide production whose borders need to be explored. The idea of a mixtape to dig into the various facets of the Florentine Maestro's hidden archive originally came from Andrea Fabrizii, who has far and wide been exploring Piero's soundtracks before anyone else.

This has been the starting point to seek new unreleased recordings: a challenging undertaking that would have been impossible without the moving generosity and incredible support of the Umiliani family. His two daughters Alessandra and Elisabetta remain true keepers of their father's memory, together with their husbands Francesco Argento and John Linkowski, and of course, Piero's wife Stefania Baffa.

Their tremendous help and willingness to work with us has resulted in the opportunity to peer respectfully into hundreds of secret reels that had never left the safe; a proper treasure of tapes, most labeled with awkward names. In order to properly understand and clarify the mystery surrounding the archive, we carefully listened to all the tapes that could possibly have hidden something interesting. This is how the long and fascinating work of identification began (still in progress, I might add), leading us on the trail of a good number of beautiful tracks thought to be lost, impossible to find or simply non-existing. Some of them will be released soon on Four Flies Records, whereas others, such as Agente 3S3 – Massacro al sole, have been immediately forwarded to our friends at BEAT and put together into an amazing release.

A pleasant side effect of this immersive search and of the frequent visits to the composer's Roman house has been the emotional connection with the people living there, which subsequently turned a work occasion into a unique human journey. The record – or rather, the records – that you are holding in your hands are the result of a year's work: visit after visit, finding and burning precious tracks, drunk with dedication and enthusiasm, deeply thankful for the warm welcome of the Umiliani family.

The result is a cross-cutting portrait of Umiliani's activity during the golden years of his Sound Work Shop; his studio-laboratory where he has been playing, creating and experimenting with total freedom from 1969 to 1983. He was always ahead of his time in both the research and use of the electro-acoustic equipment he surrounded himself with: Moog, Mellotron, Synthi, Busilacchio, Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Marimba, etc. This peculiar and personal "sound factory" was open to friends, musicians, and editors that were close to the group of the Roman libraries, such as Aldo Sinesio from Horo and Fly Records and Romano di Bari from Flipper, who recorded there a huge amount of LPs. It was an environment where Piero dared to experiment with cutting-edge solutions, some of which we listen to for the first time here, such as the extreme acid jazz (almost free) of Petra - Città segreta, galvanized by to Enzo Scoppa's sax and Cicci Santucci's trumpet, the Brazilian rhythms with synth nuances for Il burattinaio, the moog in Ratko e l'orso, or the electronic sound of Grand Canyon. This last track is taken from a record that was supposed to be released by Telesound in the early '80s, but was never published due to the composer's illness.

Original moods and colors resound in tracks previously released – which we have chosen to bring back. Some examples include the proto-trip hop in "Risaie", the exotica in "Preistoria", the psychedelic jazz-funk of "Non mollare", or "Millenni"'s shady jazz. The jazzy swing of "C'è un fantasma nel mio letto", with the recognizable solos of the young Enrico Pieranunzi, another unpublished work this time recorded at Dirmaphone. These tracks tell us much about Umiliani's multifaceted approach to composing, which one wouldn't expect from "Mr. Mah-nà Mah-nà" – music characteristically original and truly beautiful; a music that seems to come from the future, from an imaginary place, or from a past that was just dreamt about and never existed.