[English Version] GOBLIN and the Musica Della Paura: Progressive rock, cinema anda psychedelia

 

Hello my dears. I am the Raven who speaks to you.

In today's topic I will discuss cinema again, but now focusing on the musical aspect. Music and cinema are certainly inseparable elements, given the great role played by a soundtrack in the feelings we have when watching a film. Excitement, fear and anxiety: with little attention, if we manage for a brief moment to withdraw all the focus given to images, we will realize that our feelings are being equipped with not only visual stimulation, but sound stimulation as well. A single note, scales or arpeggios: the role of music in the immersive experience is certainly undeniable. And wise are those who are interested in knowing also the great figures responsible for this aspect of a film and not just the cast and direction. There are many brilliant musicians who, if they had not contributed with their creativity and thinking, certainly the scenic and directing work of the films would be drastically impoverished.

I always tend to hit this key, mentioning the musical aspect when it really makes a difference in films. And today I dedicate some of my time to talk about the work of some musicians in particular and an aesthetic that became known because of them as “Musica della Paura”. I'm talking about the 1970s italian psychedelic rock band known as GOBLIN. The classic formation of the band was Massimo Morante on guitar, Claudio Simonetti on keyboards and organ, Fabio Pignatelli on bass and Agostino Marangolo on drums.

Even before being associated with cinema, Goblin emerged like any other band. Their pretensions and goals were musical and like all bands at that time the musicians wanted to get together, record and play live. The 1970s were the heightened decade of a musical genre known as progressive rock. In this genre, musicians place a high value on a technical, bold style of composition. The aim was to make music in a way that was not predictable, very experimental and that would allow, more than anything, to keep the creativity and spontaneity of the musicians always flowing. It was in this decade that big names and precursors of the genre such as “Pink Floyd”, “King Crimson”, “Genesis”, “Yes” and “Emerson, Lake & Palmer” presented their most relevant and influential works.

The italians of Goblin have not stopped drinking from this source. Did they have the same technical skills as these great bands mentioned? Certainly not. But they had the ability to create a type of music so eccentric and unusual that it was as if we were listening to something completely alien to that time. And the conduct of their career led them to work exclusively for cinema with soundtracks, which within the progressive genre makes them a unique band. The seventies was a decade that carried, mainly in its first years, many post-Woodstock ideological influences. There has never been a period in the world where music so inspired the lifestyle of people. And psychedelic music was undoubtedly a genre that had quite an impact on other branches of art, such as painting and cinema.

Goblin knew they couldn't be a second Pink Floyd in Europe. But what they didn't know is that it would be possible for them to create ambient soundtracks and use their influences to explore territory totally unknown to rock bands of their generation and the generation before. This was the insight of legendary director Dario Argento, who was directly responsible for giving Claudio Simonetti and Goblin the spotlight on the european continent in a way that, by other means, they might not have been able to. Goblin would not appear in commercials and TV shows if it was just a traditional prog rock band: they created their space and put themselves in the spotlight because of the scenes in the films, where the music was the background, setting and creating tension, flirting with the fantastic, the occult and the unimaginable (as we see in the movie Suspiria, for example) . The “Musica della Paura” by Goblin consists of strange and extravagant sounds that seem to have come from another world, a bizarre world that incites fear of the unknown. And the psychedelia of progressive rock couldn't be better in this sense: it was the tool to enter domains of the senses never before explored and to bring to the cinema screen feelings elicited in concomitance with the fantastic scenes created by the seventh art, through the eccentric directors the band worked with.

And the band's history is marked by continuous work with one director in particular, one of the most influential directors of giallo and fantastic horror that Italy (and also Europe) has ever produced: Dario Argento. Argento bears a huge responsibility for the popularity achieved by Goblin within the cinematographic circle. He didn't just provide opportunities, but literally gave them a career, putting the band on contact lists of studios in Europe as well as the US. Goblin created music for some Argento's most fascinating films: “Profondo Rosso”, “Suspiria”, “Tenebre” and “Phenomena” are some of the highlights. Not to mention that it was Dario Argento who also suggested Goblin to George Romero (the father of zombie cinema) in the opportunity he had to work with him. At first, Romero would use for the film “Dawn Of The Dead” songs present in the Cinema Library. This library, for those unaware, is a collection where there are several tracks for free use, which do not have copyright attached to them. George Romero's films were never expensive or had spare cash to spend, even after the huge success of his first and best film, the indie classic “Night Of The Living Dead”. It was only when Argento got his hands on “Dawn Of The Dead” to distribute the film in Europe that he told Romero that he would be better off writing original music for him. With the thumbs up from Romero, Argento called Goblin and they recorded the film’s soundtrack. The european edition had almost a 20-minutes cut, but contained a much more striking and iconic soundtrack. The band didn’t met Romero in person, but the considered definitive edition of the film is without a doubt the uncut one... and with the Goblin songs on it!

Argento's trust and loyalty to Goblin is a historical fact in the european cinema: it is a fact that the italian director, more interested in aesthetics than scripts, in sensations than words, believed that it was Goblin's musicians who could really understand his vision and would be the best suited to create the sounds that would stimulate people to feel what he expected, putting them in the right mood for the expressionist scenes he filmed. And I say without fear: it was one of the most successful partnerships in the history of cinema, when we talk about the joint and conceptual work between a director and a musical band (or musician). It's like Argento and Goblin were made for each other. “Profondo Rosso” and “Suspiria” soundtracks are masterpieces of the seventh art. The musical atmosphere created is so exotic and original that it is practically impossible to copy or recreate. These are tracks that deserve to be listened carefully, in an appropriate mood. Look for Suspiria’s soundtrack, put on headphones, turn off the lights, close your eyes and travel.

I believe that something very important to mention in the history of Goblin is the proximity that Claudio Simonetti has with Brazil. And as this also influenced him musically, it gave him subsidies to create such exotic, distinct and unpredictable tracks. He was born in Brazil, where he lived until he was 12 years old. He only got to know Italy in 1964, when his father decided to return to the old continent (and rightly so, after all, a military dictatorship was beginning in Brazil, one of the most macabre eras in the country's history). But 12 years, especially the first ones, as it is a key period for the formation of personality, well... it was a period that left deep marks on Simonetti. When he moved with his family to Italy, he certainly took the brazilian soul and identity with him, as it was all he knew. To this day he claims to like brazilian music, it's something that has never been dissociated from him, although his favorite musical genre is rock, obviously.

The brazilian influence in his personality and musical style captures something warm, more open and spontaneous, something noticeable in the way he wrotes music. There is an old interview where he tells that he was literally born in the middle of Carnival and that his mother, a brazilian woman, later told him that, when he was born, there were people dancing in the middle of the hospital. Typical Brazil, right? Brazilian humor certainly had a significant impact on Goblin’s aesthetics, which is able to communicate a warm aura to horror, not just a cold one, and generating the expected impact in the same way.

In conclusion, for those who have not been introduced to Goblin's music, I believe that the best way is to watch the iconic films, where their best works are located. Why is this important? Simple: because the music is for ambiance, it is made for the scenes. Then, later, to go deeper and better recognize the musical minutiae, listen to the soundtracks separately, so as not to be distracted by all the sensory stimuli that an Argento film is capable of causing. Thus, they will make a satisfactory gestalt, in the sense of knowing all the musical layers that Goblin has to offer and understanding why they worked for the cinematographic scenes.

“Profondo Rosso” will provide you with a hefty amount of haunting organ lines, backing throbbing guitar riffs and pulsating bass and drums. Here, Goblin's progressive rock influences continue to stand out, as Argento wanted. In “Suspiria”, your experience will be completely different. To be honest, it's very difficult to say what musical genre characterizes this soundtrack, it’s very eccentric. There wasn't so much control from Argento, he left the band free to experiment in the densest and most unusual way possible and they didn't miss this opportunity. The objective was to create a song that portrayed a witches' coven, hidden behind the façade of a ballet school, conducted by a grand witch with occult powers. A rich concept for the band to come up with completely unpredictable ideas, adding to the instrumental tracks music boxes, pagan sounds, screams, ghostly chants and a percussion that conveys the feeling of something tribalist. In my opinion it's the most original Goblin soundtrack ever. It's very organic and experimental. You don't hear anything like it anywhere: it wasn't heard in the 70's and I believe that hasn't changed, almost 50 years later.

These two albums with a more italian spirit are the best introductions to the band's work. Something more american, where it will be possible to notice a less european aesthetic (but where it would still be present) is certainly the soundtrack of “Dawn Of The Dead” and, for listeners, it is perhaps the most natural path to follow afterwards. But anyone who likes the band will undoubtedly take a look at other works made with the italian director, because discovering Goblin is automatically discovering Argento. And vice versa. The synchrony and harmony between them, as I mentioned earlier, is something so natural that it is impossible to assume any dissociation. What they created, each in their respective role, is part of the total concept of these historic and landmark cinematographic works of european cinema.

Corvid greetings!