1969 was obviously a very productive year regarding compilations and also a year to choose for looking back and summing-up! DET, a subsidiary company of C.A.M., decided to release at least 12 compilations, 11 dedicated to leading and up-coming composers (old and new talent) and one to the definite leading genre of these years: the Italo-western ("spaghetti-western").

A couple of things have to be pointed out regarding these recordings: First their great production values: again prime vinyl was used, the pressings are immaculate, however the recording (= source) quality does vary, due to the recording techniques in the (early) 60ies (some tracks were rather poorly recorded, esp. a few early 60ies tracks on the Rustichelli LP and the last two tracks on Side B of the Cipriani waxing). Anyway, quite a couple of tracks were until then unavailable on other releases, which does more than make up for the very few shortcomings.

Second, the cover-artwork: All except the Italo-western-compilation were not just "ordinary" F/O-releases, but TRIPLE fold-outs, including many photos and detailed biographies of each composer. Definitly these albums were designed to present these composers to a larger audience/public (in which context it is noteworthy that in the Italian OST-history there´s only ONE older composer-compilation existing, which is the C.A.M. CDR. 33/17-release presenting the "granddaddy" of Italian´s cinema, Carlo Rustichelli. This LP served doubtlessly as a model for this LP-series!). All glossy laminated covers are printed on prime quality medium strong cardboard, the liner notes are VERY informative and great to study and all tracks are well chosen! By the way, although the catalogue #s are NOT consecutive, the compilations are numbered from # 1 to # 11.

Since (at least most of) these recordings can still be found today (if one´s willing to invest a minimum of time and some reasonable amount of money), there´s a fair guess that the print-run of these items did exceed the usual 1000 copies, which further strenghtens the assumption that they were in fact not directed at "movie industry"-professionals, but actually at the larger public.

Definitly 11 albums worth to be owned as presentation of old and new talent in the 60ies. Just study the list of composers presented: great, isn´t it? (although a few are doubtlessly missing: what about Mario Nascimbene, Bruno Nicolai and Piero Umiliani, one is tempted to ask ??).

The toughest to find (probably a lower print-run ...?) and highest-$$-crossing item from these 12 is in fact not one of the 11 composer-LPs, but the 12th, the "the west"-compilation, which is NOT one of the usual LPs always presenting the same Ennio Morricone et al. tracks, but a well chosen selection of really rare tracks, which are very difficult to find on other recordings (although they´ve all been issued on 45 rpm´s those days). Also featuring great cover artwork on laminated prime quality paper and top pessing quality, too, as to be expected, but this time no F/O-cover!

A question left unanswered is again referring to the numbering-system: why are the numbers MDG 2001 to 2003, 2010 to 2012 and 2016 missing? Are there no records with these #s existing and if so: why? A safe thing to say is that if they exist, then they are neither soundtrack-composer-compilations, since these are numbered # 1 to # 11, nor soundtracks at all, because if so, they would have popped up. Maybe there has been a counting problem or - more likely - DET did issue non-soundtrack recordings with these numbers (like RCA did with RCA OLS # 2, a highly acclaimed jazz album!). Anyway, if anybody does know more, please do share the info with this sites´ community!!

Again, enough said: have fun with the next pages and 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!!

AVAILABLE items (visually graded: cover/record; play-graded upon request): DET MDG 2008: La musica nel cinema Vol. 4: Ennio Morricone, M/M-