Macchi, Egistio: E.S.P. LP

In the 70′s, the Italian public television RAI used to broadcast disturbing paranoiac dramas, weird documentaries on the bottom of the sea and indigestible so-called “educational” movies. Obviously, all that stuff needed some music. Or “sonorizzazioni” (soundtracks), as they were called. These soundtracks were handled by shady characters, on the border between avant-garde classical, electronic space age and a healthy Italian pop touch. Some names are familiar: Ennio Morricone, for example. Or the mythological Piero Umiliani, too.But the biggest of all was Egisto Macchi. His Voix, a ghostly fresco of lunar vocals and abstract phonemes, is one of the masterpieces of the Italian “library music”.ESP is a four-part television series produced by Rai in 1973, directed by Daniele D’Anza, and aired from Sunday, May 27 1973 to Sunday, June 17, 1973 on the National Program.