Quartet Records, in collaboration with Universal Music Publishing Italia and EMI Music Publishing, presents a remastered reissue of Ennio Morricone’s fascinating score for Folco Quilici’s OCEANO (1971), a pseudo-documentary film about a young Polynesian, Tanai, who goes in search of the island of his dreams. On an epic sea voyage from Polynesia to Alaska, aboard a tiny fragile raft, he is guided by the voices of his ancestors.

Morricone’ score for OCEANO seeks to merge nature with mythology. It breathes, vibrates, transmits, and is characterized by its episodic and atmospheric structure, taking the form of an evocative soundscape. The composer draws on resources that recall a primitive, spiritual component: tribal percussion (tablas and bongos), solo woodwinds (flutes and clarinets), guitar, sitar, clanging metal and harp. The fusion of timbres in this instrumentation is unconventional. He expressively sets to music ideas associated with wind or nature, sound textures that construct Tanai’s intimate journey: we hear the sea, we feel the air roaring over the sail of his canoe, the danger lurking in the ocean, his loneliness. The music is another character that gives the film a lyrical dimension and complements the visual element, transcending its narrative function to become a gateway to meditation on the mystery of the sea and existence. Through his unmistakable style, Morricone invites us to immerse ourselves in a world of introspection, beauty and silent emotion.

The original 40-minute program was released on vinyl in 1971 in Italy and Japan, and both LPs quickly became collector’s items. The same program was reissued by RCA on CD in 1993 paired with Morricone’s score for L’AVVENTURIERO. In 2010, the complete 70-minute score with all the music recorded by Morricone was released on CD by the GDM label, which quickly sold out. This is a reissue of that release, supervised by Dániel Winkler and Claudio Fuiano, and entirely restored and remastered by Chris Malone from the original master tapes. The beautiful package includes in-depth liner notes by Miguel Ángel Órdóñez.

01. Oceano 4:03
02. Isola di Pasqua 2:01
03. Vulcano 1:01
04. Speranza per una Terra Amica 1:36
05. Le Maschere Morte 2:43
06. Il Vento è il Vento e Soffia Dove Vuole 4:47
07. Tanai 2:18
08. Odissea 1:58
09. Notte 1:40
10. Piccola Ouverture 1:46
11. Viaggio 3:03
12. Il Sole è il Sole e Brucia Ciò Che Vuole 3:30
13. Partenza 2:14
14. Il Vento è il Vento e Soffia Dove Vuole (#2) 10:42
15. Viaggio (#2) 1:23
16. Oceano (#2) 2:03
17. Isola di Pasqua (#2) 4:11
18. Notte (#2) 4:24
19. Partenza (#2) 1:13
20. Odissea (#2) 3:34
21. Oceano (#3) 6:19