Italian Horror Soundtrack Composer Brings Show To The Chapel

By Dave Pehling

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Celebrated Italian horror soundtrack maestro Fabio Frizzi brings his current tour to the Chapel Tuesday night, performing a new version of his score to The Beyond along with classic music from his collaborations with director Lucio Fulci.

Composer, keyboard player and guitarist Frizzi first started making soundtracks in the early 1970s and had already worked with Fulci on a number of comedies and spaghetti westerns several years before he and the director started working on a series of surreal, gore-filled horror movies that began with the 1977 giallo, Sette Note En Nero (aka The Psychic or Seven Notes In Black).

While that soundtrack and film showed similarities to the fruitful creative relationship director Dario Argento and Italian progressive-rock band Goblin, Frizzi and Fulci came into their own starting with Zombi 2 in 1979, which was marketed in Italy as a sequel to George Romero's Dawn of the Dead. Prominently featuring Frizzi's haunting synths and heavy percussion, the soundtrack and film earned a cult following among horror film fans in the U.S. and beyond.

Subsequent collaborative efforts including City of the Living Dead, The Beyond and The House by the Cemetery (sometimes referred to as Fulci's "Gates of Hell" trilogy) further established the two artists as major players in '80s horror cinema. While Fulci's declining health later in the decade would curtail his productivity, the pair worked together on one last film -- A Cat in the Brain in 1990 -- prior to the director passing away in 1996.

Frizzi has experienced a resurgence during the past decade with reissues of his classic soundtracks and new scores made for films by American horror director Todd Sheets (House of Forbidden Secrets and Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich), More recently, the composer has been touring with his Frizzi 2 Fulci ensemble, playing the music of those influential '80s movies. His current American jaunt presents what he has called The Beyond "composer's cut," a new version of the soundtrack that will be performed live during a screening of the film followed by a greatest hits set of Frizzi's best-known material. For this appearance at the Chapel Tuesday night, Frizzi and his group are joined by Bay Area musical tastemaker DJ Omar (Popscene).

Fabio Frizzi
Tuesday, Dec. 10, 7 p.m. $45-$50
The Chapel