Italian horror soundtrack composer Fabio Frizzi brings show to the DNA Lounge
Celebrated Italian horror soundtrack maestro Fabio Frizzi brings his current tour to the DNA Lounge Wednesday night, performing score to a composer's cut of the film Zombie along with classic music from his other collaborations with director Lucio Fulci.
Composer, keyboard player and guitarist Frizzi first started making soundtracks in the early 1970s and had already worked with Fulci on a number of comedies and spaghetti westerns several years before he and the director started working on a series of surreal, gore-filled horror movies that began with the 1977 giallo, Sette Note En Nero (aka The Psychic or Seven Notes In Black).
While that soundtrack and film showed similarities to the fruitful creative relationship director Dario Argento and Italian progressive-rock band Goblin, Frizzi and Fulci came into their own starting with Zombie (aka Zombi 2) in 1979, a seafaring Jaws-meet-undead horror thriller which was marketed in Italy as a sequel to George Romero's Dawn of the Dead. Prominently featuring Frizzi's haunting synths and heavy percussion, the soundtrack and film earned a cult following among horror film fans in the U.S. and beyond.
Subsequent collaborative efforts including City of the Living Dead, The Beyond and The House by the Cemetery (sometimes referred to as Fulci's "Gates of Hell" trilogy) further established the two artists as major players in '80s horror cinema. While Fulci's declining health later in the decade would curtail his productivity, the pair worked together on one last film -- A Cat in the Brain in 1990 -- prior to the director passing away in 1996.
Frizzi has experienced a resurgence during the past decade with reissues of his classic soundtracks and new scores made for films by American horror director Todd Sheets (House of Forbidden Secrets and Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich), More recently, the composer has been touring with his Frizzi 2 Fulci ensemble, playing the music of those influential '80s movies.
His current American jaunt presents what he has billed as the composer's cut for Zombie, a new version of the soundtrack that will be performed live with Frizzi 2 Fulci during a screening of the film followed by a greatest hits set of his best-known material. For this appearance at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco Wednesday night, Frizzi and company are joined by San Francisco club institution DJ Omar (Popscene, Leisure) spinning tunes before the show.
Fabio Frizzi
Wednesday, Sept. 25, 7 p.m. $30-$75
The DNA Lounge