Mythical Creatures

In Italy in 1975, Giallo director Dario Argento had just fired the composer of his latest film, Profondo Rosso (Deep Red), and was unsuccessfully attempting to woo Pink Floyd to complete the job. He turned to a little known Italian progressive rock band Cherry Five. This decision changed film composition forever. Suddenly here was a hysterical, somewhat bombastic, prog-rock score that didn't so much evoke a mood as assault the images, and in turn, play havoc with the audiences senses. Cherry Red changed their name to Goblin and the soundtrack was so well received that it made it into the Italian charts and continues to sell a ridiculous amount of copies today. It was the beginning of an extremely fruitful relationship with Argento that culminated in the gory occult masterpiece Suspiria, where Goblin's heightened, almost operatic rock music caused Argento's bright woozy images, to take on a feverish hallucinogenic quality. Film music had never called attention to itself in this way before, it's never been this hysterical, this overblown, this terrifying.

It's a testament to the power of this iconic score that the level of interest continues to this day. Goblin keyboardist Maurizio Guarini, on the line from his adoptive home in Toronto, is a little hazy when it comes to specifics about of how it all evolved.

“It was a long long, long time ago. I just remember going to Dario's house and he was talking about this movie. For sure he gave us the right message to write the right score for the movie, because after that something magic happened.”

Maurizio left Goblin during the recording of Suspiria, working as a session musician, for the likes of Italian film composer Fabio Frizzi, on nasty classics like Zombi 2, The Beyond and Gates of Hell. Of course he would return a few years later, but in Goblin's world that's just what happens. Over the years it's been a revolving door of musicians, the band has been dormant, dissolved or resuscitated repeatedly, providing from the outside at least, an appearance of a tempestuous creative environment.

“I think talking about internal problems is always true when you're talking about bands,” Guarini suggests. “We're not the only ones. Especially with a band like us, we're so different musically. Some are let's say jazzy, or funk or rock or classical, so we have different influences. The reasons, we can start arguing about something musically, that's the richness of Goblin I would say. “

The latest incarnation of Goblin is a quintet that features Guarini, original keyboardist Claudio Simonetti and original guitarist Massimo Morante all from the Profondo Rosso days. With renewed interest in not only their own oeuvre, but also in classic horror movie scores in general, they're in the unenviable position of having to remain in the past. Despite recent recordings, such as 2006's Back To The Goblin, the obsession with the work they were doing 38 years ago is surely something that is frustrating to the band members.

“If it's my opinion, I would say yes,” Guarini admits. “I would like to go very high continuously. Just say no to the past because I think we need to innovate every once in a while. But on the other side I understand that people are so attached to what we did at that time and I have to say that throughout there is some magic.“