Magenta mainman Robert Reed has released a video for his new cover of Ennio Morricone's Chi Mai, which is released today. It's a tribute to the influential film composer who died last month.
Reed's new version is available from his Bandcamp page and released today. Also a timely reminder that Bandcamp waive all artist fees on a Friday to help artists whose income has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"‘I really wanted to do something to mark the passing of Ennio Morricone," Reed tells Prog. "He was such an influence on me as a writer. He was often overshadowed by the big Hollywood film writers like John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith, but it did give Ennio the advantage of being able to develop and maintain his own identity. Although, regrettably, he will be most remembered for his Spaghetti Western themes, there was so much more to his music.
"Chi Mai is prime example of his ability to create such emotion from a seemingly simple melody. Mike Oldfield was also capable of doing this, and I think that Ennio's writing style sits very comfortably next to Mike’s. It’s always difficult and dangerous to do a reinterpretation of such a well know theme, but it was exciting to break it down and see how Ennio wrote and arranged it. I was really shocked at how many different and complex rhythms are in the piece, but it doesn’t feel like that to the listener. This was his genius.
"I think Ennio, along with John Williams and Hans Zimmer, are our modern day Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. I’m sure if they were around today, all three of those would be either doing film scores or writing prog!’
Reed is currently putting the finishing touches to something a little different, an electronic album. He also plans to release the next Sanctuary album, this time a double, in time for Christmas.
