Berto Pisano

One of the leading composers from the ‘golden age’ of Italian film music (i.e., the 60s and 70s), Berto Pisano (Cagliari, 1928 – Rome, 2002) started out as a double bassist in the Italian jazz scene, first playing in the band Quartetto Aster (subsequently Asternovas) led by crooner Fred Buscaglione, and later playing mostly with Piero Umiliani (in the late 50s he was a member of Umiliani’s octet together with his brother Franco, who would also become a film composer) and Armando Trovajoli, both of whom introduced him to the film industry.  

Pisano wrote soundtracks for over 50 films and TV programs, as well as original songs for major Italian artists like Mina. He was particularly talented in writing and arranging strings, as demonstrated by scores such as Sissignore, Interrabang, and Kill. Due to this particular talent, he often conducted the orchestras or ensembles used to record the scores composed by colleagues like Piero Piccioni (Travolti da un insolito destino nell’azzurro mare d’agosto – Swept Away is a case in point). 

From the mid-70s onwards, he wrote mainly for low-budget – and sometimes dull – genre films, from sex comedies to erotic, thriller and horror movies, but always in his exquisite compositional style, thus ennobling B or even C movies with his typical sensual and languid themes.    

Some of his major works – such as La Novizia –  were long thought lost before being rediscovered and made available for the first time ever by Four Flies Records, with the help of the Pisano Family, in digital format and/or on vinyl.