CAM Sugar has announced Tropicale, a compilation tracing the relationship between classic Italian cinema and Latin and Caribbean soundscapes. The collection’s stated focus is the period “When the Dolce Vita discovered exotica, calypso, mambo, samba, and other tropical rhythms (1959-1969).”
Composed of 26 rare tracks pulled from the CAM Sugar archive, the album features music from Ennio Morricone, Piero Piccioni, Bruno Nicolai, Armando Trovajoli, and more influential composers. The release features eight previously unreleased tracks and 13 songs making their digital debut.
Order the Tropicale compilation now.
Tropicale covers an Italian post-war cultural period defined by the pursuit of escapism through La Dolce Vita, the sweet life. The cinematic works featured on Tropicale include everything from screwball comedies to melodramas to esoteric documentaries.
Tropicale includes two songs by Morricone, one of the greatest film composers of all time: “Franca” from the 1962 teen comedy Diciottenni al Sole (Eighteen in the Sun) and “Bianco e Nero” from the oddball 1964 documentary I Malamondo.
The composer Piccioni’s appearances on the compilation include “Easy Calypso” from Una Vita Violenta, a 1961 drama directed by Paolo Heusch and Brunello Rondi based on a novel by Pier Paolo Pasolini and “Cha Cha Cha cantato” from Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1962 directorial debut La Commare Secca, also based on a Pasolini short story.
Four works by Italian jazz legend Trovajoli are included. Among them are the previously unreleased “Solitudine” from 1964’s Il Mito; the crime jazz of 1960’s Chiamate 22-22 Tenente Sheridan, 1960; “Frenesia” from Piero Vivarelli’s 1964 movie Il Vuoto; and previously-unreleased “La Cento Chilometri (Mambo)” from the 1959 comedy La Cento Chilometri.
Order the Tropicale compilation now.