The great thread of electronic/synthesizer soundtracks

[Micke]

I honestly don't know much about David Michael Frank, but I read somewhere that he often brought in session keyboardists/synthesists to play on his scores. Michael Boddicker, Mike Lang and Rick Marvin are credited with playing synths on "Out for Justice" and they usually brought their own synth-setups for the various projects they worked on. Boddicker's setup in particular was very big including, among others, a huge Moog modular system. Anyway, I suggest you contact David through his website: http://www.davidmichaelfrank.com/contact/

[forcedopinion]

Thanks for the info. I actually did write David but never heard back. Oh well, still a big fan of those action scores!

[mdannyg]

Does anyone have any idea what the synth music was that was used in this Out of Africa trailer? It's not from the actual movie score by John Barry. I like the repeating theme that begins at 20 sec. And the piece at the end sounds a bit like Tangerine Dream, but I dont recognize it.

*EDIT* Found them both, Mark Isham - Men Before the Mirror and Many Chinas.

[Micke]

That's cool! I wasn't aware of that music from Mark Isham's solo album Vapor drawings (1983) has been used in movie trailers.

I also just learned that another track from the same album, "On The Threshold Of Liberty", was used in the trailers for Revolution (1985)
and Courage under fire (1996).

[mdannyg]

It's weird because i've been listening to On The Threshold a lot lately. My dad used to have a Windham Hill sampler with it. I just ordered a copy of the Vapor Drawings album on ebay.

[binaryoblivion]

I don’t know if China Lake been mentioned in this thread already, but the 1983 short film has a very good score by David Gibney. It is a mixed synth/orchestral score - check out the 3:30 mark for some excellent synth.

I came across this while researching Mark Isham’s score for The Hitcher. China Lake is written and directed by Robert Harmon who was tapped a couple of years later to direct The Hitcher. The look and theme of the two films is very similar.

[forcedopinion]

Man oh man, what a flick! Great music too.

[tim gueguen]

If you've ever watched Hong Kong and Taiwanese films from the '70s and '80s you've probably heard music in their soundtracks taken from elsewhere, probably without permission. For example the early '80s martial arts movie Shanghai 13 uses "Jam Sandwich" from Jimmy Page's score to Death Wish II as its opening theme. Last night I came across the following clips of the 1978 movie 5 Superfighters. I'm guessing the electronic music heard here wasn't written for the movie specifically, but again lifted from elsewhere.

[dustyrose]

It's available of Netflix

[LoboLives]

Any idea what synths were used on those Italian cannibal films like Cannibal Holocaust or Cannibal Ferox...I am assuming either a Moog or ARP of some kind.

[Micke]

The Italian film composer/arranger/keyboardist/organist Carlo Maria Cordio played the synths and keys on the horror-scores to "Eaten Alive" (1980) and "Cannibal Ferox" (1981), both
of which were composed by Roberto Donati. A lot of the music from the first film was reused in Ferox.

The synths and keys used included Minimoog, Polymoog, mellotron, Logan and Solina string ensemble. Besides the aforementioned scores and his own work, for example the excellent soundtrack to Rosso Sangue aka Absurd (1981), Cordio was Stelvio Cipriani's keyboard/synth-player for about 10 years from the latter half of the '70s onwards (lots of film scores and library albums) - some exceptions where Cordio was not available are "Solamente nero" (1978, which featured Claudio Simonetti on synths) and "Nightmare City" (1980, most likely featuring Sandro Centofanti).

Cordio also also played on soundtracks by Riz Ortolani (he might have played on Cannibal Holocaust but he wasn't totally sure about that), Nico Fidenco (eg Zombi Holocaust, he often worked with Fidenco), Francesco De Masi (eg "Lone Wolf McQuade") the great Ennio Morricone, Armando Trovaioli, Nino Rota, Carlo Savina and others.

My favorite score by Cordio:

(the strings, pads and pipe organ were all done on the Polymoog!)

(Polymoog pipe organ!)

[LoboLives]

The Italian film composer/arranger/keyboardist/organist Carlo Maria Cordio played the synths and keys on the horror-scores to "Eaten Alive" (1980) and "Cannibal Ferox" (1981), both
of which were composed by Roberto Donati. A lot of the music from the first film was reused in Ferox.

The synths and keys used included Minimoog, Polymoog, mellotron, Logan and Solina string ensemble. Besides the aforementioned scores and his own work, for example the excellent soundtrack to Rosso Sangue aka Absurd (1981), Cordio was Stelvio Cipriani's keyboard/synth-player for about 10 years from the latter half of the '70s onwards (lots of film scores and library albums) - some exceptions where Cordio was not available are "Solamente nero" (1978, which featured Claudio Simonetti on synths) and "Nightmare City" (1980, most likely featuring Sandro Centofanti).

Cordio also also played on soundtracks by Riz Ortolani (he might have played on Cannibal Holocaust but he wasn't totally sure about that), Nico Fidenco (eg Zombi Holocaust, he often worked with Fidenco), Francesco De Masi (eg "Lone Wolf McQuade") the great Ennio Morricone, Armando Trovaioli, Nino Rota, Carlo Savina and others.

My favorite score by Cordio:

(the strings, pads and pipe organ were all done on the Polymoog!)

(Polymoog pipe organ!)

Thanks Micke!

Yeah I got the Absured soundtrack on vinyl. A lot of the cues were put in the CAM Library and re-used for the U.S. cut of the film Pieces.

I would have never expected a Polymoog...or any type of polyphonic synth on Ferox. I thought for sure it was an ARP Odyssey of some kind with it's ring modulation in the cue "Not The Piranhas". For the longest time I thought both Ferox and Holocaust were made in the 70s as they have a very 70s feel to them so I was assuming it would have been an ARP, Moog or SEM of some kind.

Again, it angers me as to why Moog haven't revisited a poly synth in recent years.

[LoboLives]

You wouldn't happen to know what gear was used on the Tangerine Dream scores The Park Is Mine and Near Dark do you? It sounds like a lot more digital oriented stuff like PPG and DX7s

[tim gueguen]

Johann David Wyss's The Swiss Family Robinson isn't a title one normally associates with electronic music. In 1974 Canada's CTV network produced a TV series based on the book, starring Chris Wiggins as Johann Robinson. One episode, "The Intruder," has a science fiction theme, with the Robinsons being menaced by a strange white substance from a meteorite. Given the plot I got curious today whether any electronic music appeared in the episode. Several cues do in fact appear, starting with this synth and what sounds to be electronic percussion piece at 2:42.



Walter Levinsky is credited with "arrangements and orchestrations," and Score Music Productions Inc. with producing the music. It's possible these cues where written by Edd Kalehoff, who has had a long association with Score and was using a Moog modular in the early '70s.

[Music Bird]

See 3:03 for a cool synth solo. What was used? Look up Yoan Tanamal Lagu Si Kodok Goyang2 and that is the movie album. Cool synth work throughout. The music is by Enteng Tanamal. That quack noise though, it doesn't sound like a normal Minimoog, because there is a different sounding filter. Maybe a Minikorg 700S or Korg 770? Paging Micke.