The phenomenal Italian composer's obscure work for horror, kitsch, and thriller films from his native land is somewhat overlooked in the canon of the man who gave signature to spaghetti Westerns. Such an enormous amount of work in the life of this genius composer is chronicled in cinema and, thanks to Dagored, many of these obscurities are being reissued on vinyl and CD, remastered straight from the original Cinevox archives. His work for the 1970 Italian thriller by Elio Petri, known in the U.S. as Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, is a strictly minimalist soundtrack, using his dreamy atmospheric melodic style and unorthodox instrumentation. As with most of Morricone's classic '70s soundtracks, he creates tension via the repetition of plucked strings and vibraphone as a central theme, and consistently makes compelling compositions from elusive reduction rather than grandiose cinematic gestures. ~ Skip Jansen