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Ba Da Bing is releasing the soundtrack to 2022’s paeon to cuisine prep, Flux Gourmet. A vibrant, four-coursed, 23-track double album, Flux Gourmet includes contributions by Heather Trost, Jeremy Barnes, Marta Salogni, Cavern of Anti-Matter, and Roj (Broadcast), as well as Strickland’s own compositions as part of The Sonic Catering Band. British Director and sonic pioneer, Peter Strickland, known for The Duke of Burgundy (2014), Berberian Sound Studio (2012) and Björk: Biophilia Live (2014), has always pushed visuals and narrative to absurd heights. In Flux Gourmet, performance artists taking part in a residency dedicated to sonic catering combining cooking, sound and theater. Food is amplified, microphones are jammed against blenders, and the sizzling sound of the frier turns becomes an ominous rattle. The film’s soundtrack is equally as process oriented, experimental, and kaleidoscopic as its protagonists’ practice. Contributors are Cavern of Anti-Matter, Jeremy Barnes, Heather Trost, Roj (formerly of Broadcast), Tim Harrison, Dan Hayhurst and Nurse With Wound.

Assignment K (with lots of pencil scribbles everywhere). The Strange Affair (with lots of pen scribbles everywhere).

As usual with Basil tapes / things there is little else to go on, no tracklist, no list of musicians, no singer names, no dates or anything. I have actually tried to establish the name of the singer on the song from Side One (we have called it “Love Is To Walk Away “ as it is unnamed) but having played it to a handful of knowledgeable collectors and enthusiasts who I would count as experts in this field, no one has a clue who it might be. If you think you know please get in touch. We know who it isn’t.

We can tell you that Assignment K dates from 1968, was a film about a toy maker who has a double life as an international spy. It was directed by Val Guest, who’d just finished trying to rescue the cinematic hotchpotch that was Casino Royale - he had been brought in by the Bond producers after Peter Sellers had walked off the movie. We imagine Assignment K may have been a slightly less stressful few months of shooting. As for the Kirchin score that we have here, we can tell you very little indeed, apart from the fact that the bass player was Ron Prentice (an ex blacksmith turned musician and craftsman) who worked on several Bond scores, but we know little else. And we only know this because it says so in the academic tome “Jazz On The Screen” by David Meeker.

The Strange Affair is also from 1968, and was not only controversial but also a reasonably unsuccessful movie. Directed by David Greene who also directed, amongst other films, I Start Counting and the quite brilliant Sebastian. In this rather grubby flick a policeman called Peter Strange (played by Michael York) falls for an underage girl (played by Susan George), finds himself compromised by a pair of pornographers and gets lured into an errand for a smack gang. We can tell you little else because I have no more information about it all.

But we do know that this music has all the classic Kirchin mid-period sonic hallmarks that have always set him apart.

Ennio Morricone in his long and wonderful career has composed a large number of soundtracks for Thrillers and Noir. Here is a selection of ten scores which once again demonstrate his immense musical genius. THE Palermo Connection by Rosi (1990), Violent City by Sollima (1970), What Have YOU Done TO Solange? by Dallamano (1972), Behind THE Trial (1978-1980), THE Flower IN HIS Mouth by Zampa (1975) THE Human Factor (1975), Short Night OF Glass Dolls by Lado (1971) Almost Human (1974), THE Death Dealer (1974), Three Columns IN THE News (1990) by Vanzina, musically represent the entire dramatic and my- sterious side of Ennio Morricone who wrote, orchestrated and conducted soundtracks for two genres that always had a huge following of fans all over the world.

In his long and successful career Ennio Morricone composed many dance songs as it was in fashion in the late sixties and early seventies. Themes that were usually not directly connected with the subjects of the soundtrack, but which were played in disco clubs, on jukeboxes, turntables and on the radio. This collection contains a selection of very cool pieces such as the brilliant main theme from Grand Slam (1967), the shake rock (opening credits) from Dario Argento’s classic Four Flies ON Grey Velvet (1971), the danceable from the noir film Violent City (1970), the beat version of the opening credits of “Pioggia sul tuo viso” by The Sorrows, from HOW I Learned TO Love Women (1966), “Per Vittorio (Bossa)” elegant bossa nova with flute and percussions from THE Success (1963), the tribal shake from I Cantori Moderni which winks at the Dies Irae from Garden OF Delights (1967), “Scuola di ballo al sole” a wild surf piece from THE Hawks AND THE Sparrows (1966), the supreme bossa nova from ONE Night AT Dinner (1969) with the super iconic voice of Edda Dell’Orso, the shake music of “Ostinazione al limone” from What Have YOU Done TO Solange? (1972), “Donnabossa” from Full Hearts AND Empty Pockets (1964), a delicate bossa nova with a prominent harpsichord.

The studies with Goffredo Petrassi and the association with Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza let the Avant-garde playing an important role in the career of Ennio Morricone, who wrote many contemporary pieces for himself, but then the author composed soundtracks where dissonance played a major role. For the Italian edition of the film Space: 1999 (1975), the cult British TV series, he composed a very neurotic Jazz with muted horns. Also for the science-fiction film THE Humanoid (1979) Ennio Morricone created hallucinating strings scores mixed with electronic effects. For Sacco E Vanzetti (1971) an electronic score by Walter Bianchi evokes all the drama of the undeserved death sentence of the two protagonists. Experimental music of great impact in the film and off the screen for famous thrillers such as THE Death Dealer (1974), Short Night OF Glass Dolls (1971). Avant-garde music has always been present in Elio Petri’s films set to music by Morricone such as Property IS NO Longer A Theft (1973). Avant-garde music in the noir cinema of Violent City (1970) and A Pure Formal- ITY (1994) and in auteur films such as Garden OF Delights (1967) and Sarah’s Last MAN (1972).