Between the 1960s and the 1980s, Italian cinema captured Milan and its social transformations through its most emblematic places – iconic, altered or now vanished. From the old San Siro stadium to the Velasca Tower, from the Fiorucci store to the lights and mist of Metanopoli, we trace a journey made of alienation, dreams and contradictions in words and music with a playlist for drifting and (re)discover the city.

On the occasion of the release of the second volume of CAM Sugar Synth Utopia digital album series, the founder of Synth History Danz CM dives into the enduring legacy of Italian and French cinema proto-electronic scores, from Ennio Morricone to Vangelis, and many more.

Director–composer partnerships have always shaped the identity of Italian cinema, and the collaboration between Paolo Virzì and his brother Carlo, both hailing from Tuscany and born in 1964 and 1972 respectively, is no exception. From their early work on Ovosodo to their latest effort Cinque secondi (CAM Sugar), their creative language has continually evolved, giving rise to truly memorable film scores. We spoke with Carlo Virzì about it.

From Larry Clarke’s Kids to Wes Anderson’s latest cinematic effort The Phoenician Scheme, via Martin Scorsese, Sofia Coppola and Todd Haynes, over the last three decades Randall Poster has imposed himself as cinema’s go-to man for all things music. If there’s a secret on how to turn a soundtrack into a timeless treasure in its own right, Randall knows it. We spoke to him to understand what Hollywood most listened to man drops his needle on and why.

The Mattei Affair, composed by Piero Piccioni in 1972, is a pioneering record that anticipates the developments of electronic music to come and reveals an unknown side of the Turin-born composer. On the occasion of the first-ever digital release of the score, born from the collaboration between CAM Sugar and the Piccioni archive, we look into it.

The Brazilian DJ and producer talks about her relationship with cinema and the soundtracks that have shaped her sonic imagination.

The Sicilian composer revisited the sonic imagery of Tomasi di Lampedusa’s novel, drawing inspiration from the landscape and musical traditions of the island of the Leopards, unafraid to engage with the work of Nino Rota. We interviewed him to explore his musical vision in greater depth.

Red Light Disco curator Eli Roth speaks to Edwige Fenech, the face of 1970s and 1980s Italian softcore and giallo cinema, on the hunt for lost soundtracks.

In his collaboration with South Korean director Bong Joon-ho, Jung Jae-il has become the composer who best captures the critical issues of our contemporary society. Following his soundtracks for Okja, Parasite, and Squid Game, his work on Mickey 17, starring Robert Pattinson and now in cinema, further cements this status.

We interviewed the composer behind The Brutalist soundtrack, whose artistic courage and radical vision is rooted in an East London cafè, and football too.

The Italian composer was a pioneer of electronic music, in a cultural season in which Italy and its synthesisers reached global appraisal and were loved by international rock stars.

The French actress and musician joined Philippe Sarde in studio to bring to life, fifty and counting years after its composition, a song written for Romy Schneider but never recorded.

Composer Fabio Massimo Capogrosso on reinterpreting the musical heritage of Fiorenzo Carpi’s Pinocchio for Francesca Comencini’s ‘Il tempo che ci vuole’ and collaborating with Marco Bellocchio.

Since the 1950s, the beach and the road have forged the archetype of an all-Italian way to comment on the myth of the holidays. Equally frantic and alienating, from Il sorpasso and Swept Away to Cario diario and Call Me By Your Name, soundtracks have been crucial in portraying these scenarios.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the film (and the soundtrack by Piero Piccioni), we have collected five curiosities about Lina Wertmüller’s masterpiece. There are works that are often hastily defined as timeless, timeless masterpieces. And yet, films such as Travolti da un insolito destino nell’azzurro mare d’agosto (aka Swept Away) (1974) by […]

Swept away on a boat off the Sicilian coastline, we recount through words and images the Ortigia’s instalment of gggglllloooossssaaaa, an itinerant interdisciplinary venture, which jointly with CAM Sugar has celebrated the island’s soundscape.

In the years of La Dolce Vita, an elective affinity blossomed between italian cinema and tropical rhythms which, sixty years on, continue to soundtrack the Italian summer. A new collection unveils this untold story.

The soundtrack composer of Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness is subverting the status quo of contemporary film music. Is a new wave of composer-director creative partnerships possible?

The graphic designer takes us on a tour of his home studio and discusses the influence of collecting books and ephemera on design.

The recently rediscovered vocal version by Florinda Bolkan of the Ennio Morricone’s classic is a sensual invitation to share the dinner table and perhaps more . 

From Ennio Morricone and Piero Piccioni to Bach and Vivaldi, soundtracks are a tool to better decipher the approach of the author and director to cinema and the meanings assigned to the seventh art.

What remains and what has changed in the way of experiencing the Milan derby more than forty years after Eccezzziunale…veramente. There was a time, at the beginning of the 1980s, when Italian cinema loved to tell tales of urban phenomena, with an eye halfway between blunt sociology and sharp cabaret gags. You had the Yuppies, […]

The 1973 Cannes Film Festival came at a peculiar time for France. Whereas on the other side of the Alps, neighbouring Italy was fine tuning its Molotov cocktails and getting ready for a crescendo of social tension and political violence, France seemed to have slipped back into calm.