Back catalogue: Library/Archive

Review: For the first time, Piero Umiliani's entire Liuto label production is collected together in a remarkable 19-CD box set. This set includes 18 albums (with the final album being a double CD), each housed in a replica of its original sleeve. Accompanied by a 72-page booklet featuring rare photos, essays by Maurizio Corbella and Niccolo Galliano, and a detailed discography, this release is fully endorsed by the Umiliani family. Umiliani's contributions were pivotal in shaping the Italian sound in jazz, film, and library music. His ability to merge creativity with production and publishing made him a true modern musician who was integral to Italy's rich musical heritage, as this collection proves beyond doubt.

Review: The Complete Sound Work Shop Heritage box set is an extraordinary tribute to Piero Umiliani's prolific career, gathering his entire output on the Sound Work Shop label into an unparalleled 17-CD collection. Housed in faithful reproductions of the original album covers, this set is complemented by a 72-page booklet featuring rare photographs, insightful essays by Maurizio Corbella and Niccolo Galliano, and a comprehensive discography and tracklist. For the first time, Umiliani's extensive contributions to Italian jazz, film scores, and library music are showcased in one collection. His work at the Sound Work Shop studio, which he opened in 1968, played a crucial role in shaping the sound of Italian popular music. The studio was a hub of creativity where Umiliani explored a vast array of genres, from funk and psychedelic rock to avant-garde and electronic music. This collection reveals Umiliani's genius not just as a composer, but as a producer and visionary who controlled every aspect of his music's creation and distribution. The box set is a comprehensive portrait of a modern musician whose influence on Italian music during the 1970s remains indelible, making this collection essential for historical reasons.

Review: Four Flies Records continues to explore the vast archives of synthesizer-loving cult Italian composer Piero Umiliani. This fine compilation focuses on the more cosmic and intergalactic side of his electronic work, drawing together a mixture of classic cuts, overlooked gems and previously unreleased material recorded between 1972 and '83. There's plenty of highlights to be found amongst the 16 tracks on show, with our picks including the echoing melodic motifs, spacey flourishes and chugging low-end of 'Soundmaker Blues', the deep space creepiness of 'Fruitori', the intergalactic minimalism of 'Batticuori', the Cold War-era spookiness of 'Apocalisse Atomica', and the gently funky 'Eliogabulous'.

Review: The work of long-serving, previously cult Italian composer Piero Umiliano has come under the spotlight of late, with reissues of both his oddball soundtracks to bizarre European movies, and fresh pressings of some of his most enticing library music LPs (most notably collectors' favourites Polinesia and Continente Nero. This vast box set digs deeper into his work as a composer for music libraries, offering up CD editions of 13 albums Umiliani wrote and recorded between 1971 and '83. There's naturally plenty of variety across the albums -horror-friendly synth sounds, suspenseful electronica, camp disco, grandiose orchestral works, Afro-cosmic and psychedelic funk all feature - while the compositions themselves are frequently eccentric, entertaining and ear-pleasing in the best possible ways. A superb, in-depth celebration of one of Italian music's cult figures.