Edda dell'Orso's vocals in the breezy “Magico incontro” are very similar to Ennio Morricone's easy listing style of the early seventies, but Bruno Nicolai distances himself from his peer by using sustained chords and haunting theme recapitulations to infer an omnipotent force of darkness that remains on the sidelines, watching and waiting for the right moment to pounce.

That quality is quite prominent in simple cues like “Medium,” where Nicolai adds shrilling strings and electronic buzzing. He then uses eerie strings and a pulse on the left channel, while an electronic chime (pretty much identical to an elevator ding) is repeated on the right channel.

The electric bass rhythm in “Insidia” bears a strong similarity to Morricone's suspenseful music for Revolver, with constant chord shifts to further stress the cue's mood of danger. What's really fresh in Nicolai's cue is the use of a heavy drum kit, multiple waves of chimes and harpsichord, and elastic notes that Nicolai stretches to disturbing heights.

“Suggestione” replays the electronic chime motif, and pretty much illustrates Nicolai's use of subtle colours to infer suspense. “Esorcismo” is another fine example where unresolved chords and the repetition of theme fragments create tension, with watery electronic processing and waves of dissonance teasing the listener's expectation for resolved chords or thematic statements that never arrive.

Though running over 70 mins., most of the album consists of the final film versions plus many alternates scattered throughout. The dramatic cues mostly manage to offer a reasonable level of variation, but the 7 versions of the main theme, “Magico incontro” (include an English vocal version), while quite beautiful, do give the album a lengthened narrative that becomes a bit too repetitive. The alternates can easily be programmed out, but it's another case where, much like CAM 's Goblin CDs, the inclusion of many bonus cues can cloud a score's actual scope, offset its dramatic high points, and prolong its logical closure.

© 2007 Mark R. Hasan