For years I had to endure a crummy bootleg CDr of this amazing score (which was released by a tiny little Italian label called Dagored in 2001). I could never track down an original vinyl copy for some odd reason. Then last year the fine folks over at Mondo reissued it on vinyl for the first time in thirty years. First issued in 1981 on Beat Records in Italy (under the title “L’Aldila”), the original film music composed and arranged by Frizzi is as riveting as it is beautiful.
Donald Guarisco at AllMusic wrote:
This surprisingly lush and gorgeous soundtrack provided the score to a gruesome Italian horror film about the gory goings-on at a Louisiana house built over one of the seven doors to hell. Despite this grim subject, the film’s Fabio Frizzi score presents an elegant combination of traditional orchestrations and ornate, electric prog rock instrumentation. Much of the film’s music centers on variations around a few central themes. “Verso L’Ignoto” and “Suono Aperto,” playing during the film’s subtler, more atmospheric moments, involve the former’s cue building from a gentle but ominous piano riff into a complex orchestral instrumental full of plucked strings and ghostly sounding mellotron riffs, and the latter highlighting pretty flute and acoustic guitar melodies against a lush backdrop of yearning strings. For the more shocking scenes, “Sequenza Ritmica E Tema” and “Voci Dal Nulla” are used: the first tune layers a series of ever more intense keyboard shadings over a surprisingly funky bass riff and the second intertwines ominous vocal harmonies and serpentine keyboard riffs until it explodes into an ominous display of full-blooded, The Omen-styled Latin chants. Each of the themes balances orchestral grandeur with rock-styled motifs that stick in the memory. The end product feels like a collaboration between Ennio Morricone and Goblin because it effectively synthesizes the gentle melodicism of Morricone with the prog rock blood and thunder of Goblin. As a result, The Beyond is bound to appeal to Italian soundtrack fans and prog rock fans alike. Its distinctively dark yet melodic tone also makes it worthy of investigation for fans of gothic rock. In short, The Beyond is a great fusion of rock and orchestral stylings for anyone who appreciates spooky music.
Fabio Frizzi
The Beyond (L’Aldila)
(Beat Records, 1981)
MediaFire DL Link
01. Verso L’Ignoto [MP3]
02. Voci Dal Nulla
03. Suono Aperto
04. Sequenza Coro E Orchestra
05. Oltre La Soglia
06. Voci Dal Nulla
07. Suono Aperto
08. Voci Dal Nulla
09. Giro Di Blues
10. Verso L’Ignoto
11. Sequenza Ritmica E Tema
