Fabio Frizzi — The Eyes of the Cat
Making quite the name for themselves by pairing famous writers with astounding soundtracks, Cadabra raises the bar by making their latest a triplet. Heading back to 1978's The Eyes of the Cat, this release sees the graphic novel by the legends Alejandro Jodorowsky and Jean “Moebius” Giraud getting a wonderful score by the near-mythical Fabio Frizzi. For this release, Frizzi returned to his 1978 self and utilized his vintage synthesizer collection. This adds an air of familiarity to fans of his late 70's/early 80's work with Lucio Fulci, but there is so much more. Despite the soundtrack's short run time, The Eyes of the Cat manages to intrigue and inspire as well as classic era Frizzi.
A short graphic novel, Jodorowsky & Moebius' The Eyes of the Cat is the perfect inspirational piece for Frizzi to craft his magic. Having made his mark on the world in the splatterific heyday of late 70's/early 80's Italian horror, working with the grim and twisted mind of Jodo and unmistakable style of Moebius is a no-brainer. Unfortunately, it has taken nearly 45 years for this to occur, but inspiration and art are timeless. Frizzi chose to score this work with many of the instruments that he had in his collection at the time. These iconic sounding keys ( including a 1981 Roland Jupiter-8, a 1971 Minimoog, a 1970 Mellotron M400, among others) not only hearken back to Fulci's most well-known and influential periods, but also add perfect timeliness to the sound of this graphic novel. However, this is classic era Frizzi through the lens of modern Frizzi: all the flash and pizzazz of his youth with the knowledge and skill of today. While there are still some very welcome and familiar elements here, the beauty is in the restraint and skill shown to avoid falling down any campy rabbit holes or succumbing to worn out tropes. Frizzi created something very fresh and distinct that manages to point back at his youthful career as inspiration. This melding of classic and modern works very well to craft not only a score for this graphic novel, but as a fantastic standalone composition.
Fabio Frizzi has been a fixture of the horror/cult film scene for nearly 50 years, and throughout that time has continued to grow and evolve. Cadabra Records finally pairs him up with renowned director Alejandro Jodorowsky, albeit for his graphic novel collaboration with Moebius. This limited edition run is on 150-gram vinyl with multiple variants, so make sure to get it while you can.