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Italian Soundtracks by Label >> Cam
The C.A.M. Cms. 30.000-series
Before I start with a few words on the C.A.M. Cms.-30.000-series, which ranks among the most elusive series´ for any record collector to assemble (I am quite sure that only a handful complete collections of this series do exist on the whole globe, most of which few located in Italy ...), I want to "say" a few words on the C.A.M.-soundtrack-label:
C.A.M. is an acronym for "Cinema´s Musical Artists" or "Cinema Artistique Musicale" and must have been founded in the 1950ies (or even earlier). From its beginning it was solely devoted to soundtrack music and, being Italian´s "Varese"-label as far as the quantity of vinyl and CD-output is concerned (to put this correctly: "Varese" is America´s C.A.M.-label, since C.A.M. was first, of course), started issuing soundtracks in the early 60ies, exactly 1962: The first and most elusive of its soundtrack-series, the so-called "Cms. 30.000-series" (at least that´s how collectors refer to these waxings), was founded!
Its print-run was VERY low as common these days and as these vinyls were mainly intended for promotional use within the industry ("distributed" mainly to movie and music critics, to radio stations for air-play when the movie was released to the theatres and for library purposes to re-use these tracks for commercials and whatever they (seemed to) fit to). Actually the known print-run was as low as 500 copies only and the only possibility to get a copy of these recordings was to have a good connection to one of the few record shops that actually distributed a few of these recordings into the informed public.
None of these recordings, which were all in mono, ever received any outside-Italy distribution aside from the few copies that fellow-collectors and fanatics like me (but actually not me, because I started collecting later) ordered through specialized outlets like "Bongiovanni" (the "Bongiovanni"-sticker was in fact put on most (all?) the copies (usually on the labels), which this store sold and you´ll still find the this sticker on not that few copies that show up mainly outside Italy today ...). Other outlets that distributed these rare waxings included most notably the mail-order only "outlet" Music & Cinema Antique, run by the later producers of the mid-80ies "Phoenix PHCAM" OST-series (11 recordings).
From 1962 until 1965 C.A.M. actually released 73 recordings as part of the C.A.M. Cms. 30.000-series, starting with Cms. 30-031 and lasting until Cms. 30.130. Constant rumours, that also Cms. 30.131 and Cms. 30.132 were released, UMILIANIs highly acclaimed score "UNA BELLA GRINTA" and RUSTICHELLIs horror-score "LA FRUSTRA E IL CORPO", are erronous. Both releases were planned and the covers were pictured in an mid-60ies CAM-catalogue, but until today no single copy of any of these 2 recordings has ever shown up. However, at least one cover from the "Una bella grinta"-recording does exist (I know somebody owning it)!Most likely a handful of inhouse covers were made at C.A.M. or Campi, presumably as advance covers for the sole purpose to be available for photographing when the catalogue was made. Considering this, it is therfore more than likely, that also a few "La frustra e il corpo"-LP-covers have been manufactured. Still, both vinyls never made it into existence ...
Aside from the these two scores, another reason for constant questioning is the way this series was numbered: Why did they start with Cms. 30.031? To indicate that these are 33rpm-recordings ...? And more important: Why did C.A.M. decide to release some catalogue-numbers, some not? In other words: why were no recordings released as # 33 to 36, 39 & 40, and so on ...? This strange numbering system always entails the question of completeness: Can any C.A.M. Cms.-collection ever be complete without these "missing" numbers? Yes, because of reasons unknown today (and maybe even not clear in the 60ies), these numbers never saw an accompaning LP release! They were simply left void! Especially when C.A.M. started the Cms.-collection, they had "troubles counting" (as I´d put it sarcastically), but it went better as the series got along with less and less void numbers in the higher "ranks".
The next (minor) question, if one can assume that every number followed its predecessor in time or not, is most likely correctly answered with "no", since some infrequent dates on the albums back covers indicate that this was not the case ... in other words: C.A.M. maybe released "Toto di notte #1" in 1962, although its number would indicate 1963, but then again maybe just the movie was released in 1962 and the LP was issued later ...? If so, then why? (And: Does anybody know a movie titled "Toto di notte #2"?). Anyway, questions above questions, most of them only "important" to crazies/fanatics like me and a few others ...
The sound reproduction quality is amazingly good, considering the standard of recording and pressing techniques used in the 60ies. Although some of the earlier releases do feature a certain amount of hiss (especially LE COMMARE SECCA, LE DOLCI NOTTE and LA CITTA PRIGIONIERA: I have not yet had the pleasure to find a mint-sounding copy of any of these, although I own copies which surfaces seem unplayed (mint all the way)), nearly all releases have a fresh mono sound accompanied by the use of heavy vinyl (after all, they were intended for promotional use by radio stations when the movie in question was released to the theatres ...!). It is pure joy to listen to these recordings, which - unsurprisingly - feature a clearer sound than the mid-90ies CD-reissues. After the first year of the C.A.M. Cms.-series, the few "minor-quality" pressings were past and after TOTO DI NOTTTE #1 all recordings play with any surface noise at all (as long as the recording in question has not been played with a substandard needle or, later, when it was "en vogue" to do so, played or "cleaned" with undestilled water). If one is lucky to find one of the probably handful of still sealed (or unplayed or little played) copies, one will be able to enjoy a listening pleasure not to be matched by todays CDs ...
Regarding the cover artwork, one has to admit that although some of it is quite simplicistic (eg UNIVERSO DI NOTTE and alikes), it is nevertheless (or even for that reason) highly effective. The use of colours and simple motifs does indeed refer to the movies the music was composed for and although some of the covers do not feature much "artwork" (eg the aforementioned item, but the colour blue is indeed appropriate to symbolize the "universe by night"), the use of different shades of the main colour are still nice to look at. Concerning the paper used for the covers, as well as the question of lamination versus non-lamination, C.A.M. followed no distinctive pattern: most of the covers feature soft to medium thick cardboard, which never was as strong as the one used by RCA Italiana and CineVox for all their 60ies releases. Many of the earlier covers were laminated, then along the way the lamination "got lost" and was resumed again for nearly all issues with a number higher than Cms. 30-100. Of course, laminated covers are preferably over non-laminated ones, but there is no way getting around the fact that the ones issued without lamination were only issued that way (there are no laminated and non-laminated covers of the same pressing existing), since they were either done this way or that.
A "cool" thing to mention is that very few of these LPs were issued with two different covers, with a F/O one and with a non-F/O one (eg. "IERI, OGGI, DOMANI" and "MONDO CANE N. 2").No doubt, the F/O ones are scarcer and of highest collectability!
The following pages do contain a COMPLETE set of pictures taken from ALL existing C.A.M. Cms.-recordings! As one can see, the covers are very delightful to watch and have a distinctive style resulting probabaly from very few artists, who designed these covers (their names are unknown to me, only sometimes a studio named "DELTA" is mentioned). In fact it is quite startling that C.A.M. invested time and energey to have professionals do such stunning cover artwork for just a few hundred copies, but then again - such print runs were common these days (Ariete and CineVox had the same 500-copies print-run, only RCA Italiana already adopted 1000 copies in the mid 60ies, but they also manufactured only 500 copies of some releases: e.g. "Viva l´Italia" and "Settimo parallelo"!
At the time, when the Cms.-series was released, the Italian soundtrcak-"landscape" was dominated by composers one could describe as the "founding fathers" of Italian film-composition, at least as far as it is documented on vinyl. Ennio Morricone was a name not yet associated with any genre, as he had just started composing for the movies a few years ago (his first soundtrack-release dates from the late 50ies), hence only one recording in the Cms.-series contains his compositions ("Malamondo"). By the way, the same is true for Bruno Bicolai ("Mondo Cane # 2"). Jazz was the leading style of film-scoring and therefore jazz composers dominated the Cms.-series (with only one major exception: Carlo Rustichelli, the "grand-daddy" of Italian film-scoring). The two jazz-composers, who still dominate the Cms.-series, are the two Pieros, who in fact not only dominated this vinyl-series, but also Italian (jazz-using) cinema from the 60ies well into the early 70ies: Piero Piccioni (eleven Cms.-recordings!) and Piero Umiliani (five Cms.-recordings), my two soundtrack GODs (if I may say so ...)! Piccioni was closely followed by Rustichelli with eight Cms.-recordings, followed by Trovajoli with six, Ortolani and Lavagnino with each four, Savina, Oliviero and Angelo with each three and Rota, Marinuzzi, Fusco, Migliardi and DeMasi with each two and quite a couple of scores from composers, who "only" issued one of their soundtrack-compositions as part of the Cms.-series, but most of them being highly enjoyable nevertheless!
For those, who care to know, I started collecting soundtracks in the early 80ies and very soon concentrated on Italian soundtracks from the beginning of the LP-format until app. the mid-70ies and even I do not yet own all important LPs ... So, if you have any available for sale or trade, please do not hesitate to send an e-mail ....
Enough "said", the following list and pages contain the complete 73 C.A.M. Cms. 30-000-recordings for easier reference. Please enjoy these beauties and have fun! If you have any questions, that have been left unanswered (and I am sure there are some ...), please do not hesitate to drop me a line e-mail! I answer all questions as fast as possible, plan to collect them and want to put them into a FAQ-section (which is planned for 2003!). The same goes of course, if you have any info or items for sale or trade available!! Happy viewing!
WANTED
Piero UMILIANI: UNA BELLA GRINTA (CAM CMS. 30-131), offer* 1.500,-- Euro Carlo RUSTICHELLI: LA FRUSTA E IL CORPO (CAM CMS. 30-132), offer* 1.500,-- Euro * of course that much will only be paid for a copy in beautiful condition! For worn copies I am still willing to pay good money, but of course not THAT much!
AVAILABLE items (visually graded: cover/record; play-graded upon request):
Cms 031: Il brigante (Nino Rota), M-/NM Cms 032: Vanina Vanini (Renzo Rossellini), M-/M- Cms 037: Senilita (F/O) (Piero Piccioni) NM/NM Cms 041: Una vita violenta (Piero Piccioni) M-/NM Cms 044: Parigi o cara (Fiorenzo Carpi), M/M Cms 046: Mysterium catholicum (F/O) (Nino Rota), M-/NM Cms 047: Toto' di notte N. 1 (Armando Trovajoli), NM/NM Cms 050: La citta prigioniera (Piero Piccioni), NM/EX+ Cms 055: La vita provvisoria (Carlo Savina), MT/MT Cms 058: Il peccato (Antonio Perez Olea),M/M Cms 059: Italia proibita (Gino Peguri), MT/MT Cms 076: Ieri oggi domani (F/O) (Armando Trovajoli) NM/EX+ Cms 087: La ragazza di Bube (Carlo Rustichelli), EX+/EX+ Cms 088: I promessi sposi (Carlo Rustichelli), EX+/M- Cms 093: Kali-Yug, la dea della vendetta (Angelo F.Lavagnino) NM/SEALED! Cms 099: L´ora di uccidere - La morte vestita di $I (Carlo Savina), M-/SEALED! Cms 101: Nudi per vivere (Ivan Vandor), M-/MT Cms 105: Mondo matto al neon (Piero Umiliani), M-/M- Cms 107: Un affare tranquillo (Michel Michelet), M-/MT Cms 110: Le voci bianche (Gino Marinuzzi Jr.),M-/M Cms 120: Il vendicatore mascherato (Gioacchino Angelo), M-/MT Cms 122: Corrida! (Mario Migliardi), M/EX+ Cms 123: La sfinge sorride prima di morire stop Londra (M. Migliardi),M-/MT Cms 126: Bianco, rosso, giallo, rosa (Piero Umiliani), M-/NMYep, I do have quite a couple items from the C.A.M. Cms.-series available, but please note that I have only one spare copy of each available. If you want any of 'em, please do not hesitate, since when they're gone they're gone and finding more copies will not be easy ... Wants-lists welcomed (trade preferred!). WANTED: There are 2 Cam Cms LPs, which are NOT soundtracks: one is LA GOIA and the other one is the one I still need ... And in that context I would also like to point out, that I am also still searching for half a dozen of the Cam EPs. These EPs can somehow be called the smaller twins of the Cms-series, since they were issued exactly at the same time as the Cms-LPs and had similar production values: soft paper covers, superb minimalistc artwork, great sound and even greater (mostly jazzy) music! (The later Cam AMP 45-series accompanied the Cam Sag LPs, by the way).
Consulting and Programming:
ARoMaXT/Markus Hasleder |
Design: Edith Vosta |
Italian translations: Enrico Tichelio |
Medienpartner: Mundipedia |