Fabio Frizzi
Composer Fabio Frizzi is best known for his eerie scores for European horror movies. A frequent collaborator with Italian horror icon Lucio Fulci from the '70s into the '90s on films such as Contraband, The Beyond, and A Cat in the Brain, his music often used analog synthesizers, with their fuzzy sound adding a layer of creepiness to his downbeat melodies. Still incorporating elements of electronic, classical, and rock music into his scores with help from vintage instruments, Frizzi went on to compose music for projects including TV's Il Capitano (2005), House of Forbidden Secrets (2013), and Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich (2018).
Fabio Frizzi was born in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy on July 2, 1951. As a teenager, he was passionate about both movies and music, and he formed a trio with fellow musicians Franco Bixio and Vince Tempera to write and perform music for movies and TV. In 1968, Frizzi and his partners scored a spaghetti Western, Ed ora... raccomanda l'anima a Dio! (aka And Now, Make Your Peace with God), and by the mid-'70s he was scoring several pictures a year. In 1975, Frizzi was hired to write music for I quattro dell'apocalisse (aka Four of the Apocalypse), a Western directed by journeyman director Lucio Fulci. Four years later, when Fulci was asked to direct a horror film inspired by George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead, he brought Frizzi in to score the picture.
The movie, Zombie (aka Zombi 2), was an international success, and as Fulci's name became synonymous with gory Italian horror, Frizzi developed an underground following. Frizzi's scores for City of the Living Dead (aka Paura nella città dei morti viventi), The Beyond (aka ...E tu vivrai nel terrore! L'aldilà), Manhattan Baby, and many others made him a cult hero among horror fans. In 2003, Quentin Tarantino paid homage to Frizzi's work for Fulci, including an excerpt from the score for 1977's The Psychic (aka Sette note in nero) in the soundtrack to Kill Bill, Vol. 1. Also in the 2000s, Death Waltz Recording Company, an independent label devoted to releasing horror film scores in high-quality editions, began issuing several of Frizzi's scores, raising his profile even higher among horror fans and collectors of musical esoterica.
His scores for the 2010 short film Beware of the Darkness and the 2013 feature House of Forbidden Secrets were among those issued by Beat Records Company in the 2010s, and in October 2015, Frizzi performed in the United States for the first time when the composer and an eight-piece ensemble staged five North American concerts focusing on his work for Fulci. Featuring Frizzi's music, the '70s film Febbre da Cavallo was adapted into a stage musical in the mid-2010s, with a cast recording arriving on Beat Records in 2017, and a year later, his soundtrack for the 2018 horror-comedy Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich saw release on Lakeshore Records. Underscoring his collectability with fans, in 2019, Cadabra Records issued a limited 7" vinyl collection of "composer's cut alternative mixes" of tracks from The Beyond.
© Mark Deming & Marcy Donelson /TiVo
Discography
21 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Castle Freak (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Lakeshore Records on 29 Jan 2021
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Carambola (Colonna sonora originale del film)
Franco Bixio, Fabio Frizzi, Vince Tempera
Miscellaneous - Released by Cinevox Record on 1 Jan 1974
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Fear In the Town of the Living Dead
Film Soundtracks - Released by Octopus Records on 6 Jul 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sette note in nero
Franco Bixio, Fabio Frizzi, Vincenzo Tempera
Soundtracks - Released by Cinevox on 1 Jan 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Assassinio al cimitero Etrusco (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Sony - ATV Music Publishing on 7 Mar 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Fantozzi (Colonna sonora del film)
Franco Bixio, Fabio Frizzi, Vince Tempera
Miscellaneous - Released by Cinevox Record on 1 Jan 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
La preda (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Soundtracks - Released by Cinevox on 1 Jan 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Luca il contrabbandiere (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Nazionalmusic S.a.s. on 9 Jul 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Lakeshore Records on 17 Aug 2018
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Amore libero (Free Love, Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, musiche dirette da Vince Tempera)
Miscellaneous - Released by Cinevox Record on 1 Jan 1974
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Manaos (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Creazioni Artistiche Musicali C.A.M. S.r.l. on 25 Jun 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
O.S.T. Regina dei fiori
Film Soundtracks - Released by Fonit Cetra WMI on 25 Nov 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Flaminia (Colonna sonora originale del film)
Soundtracks - Released by Cinevox Record on 11 Apr 2024
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
O.S.T. Cenci in Cina
Film Soundtracks - Released by Fonit Cetra WMI on 1 Jan 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Superfantagenio
Miscellaneous - Released by Cinevox Record on 1 Jan 1986
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sella d'argento (Silver Saddle)
Franco Bixio, Fabio Frizzi, Vincenzo Tempera
Soundtracks - Released by Cinevox on 1 Jan 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
O.S.T. Stiamo bene insieme
Film Soundtracks - Released by Fonit Cetra WMI on 1 Jan 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
O.S.T. Il Capitano
Film Soundtracks - Released by Fonit Cetra WMI on 24 Jan 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
O.S.T. Non lasciamoci più (1 & 2)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Fonit Cetra WMI on 22 Nov 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
O.S.T. - Il Capitano 2
Film Soundtracks - Released by Fonit Cetra WMI on 12 Oct 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Fratelli Benvenuti (Colonna sonora originale della serie TV)
Film Soundtracks - Released by RTI on 1 Jan 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo