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ITALIAN QUADRAPHONIC RELEASES
Data gathered from the Italian magazine "Musica & Dischi"
Introduction
Documentation on the italian quadraphonic releases are scarce at best.
The best sources for these kind of information would be the official catalogues of the record companies, however these are extremely hard to find.
The alternative source for information has been the monthly magazine "Musica & Dischi", a magazine specific for record delaers and stores, and available only on subscription until few years ago. The magazine was composed by two separate part: the magazine itself, in color, named "Musica & Dischi" with full articles, charts, photos, advertisement and so on, and "Rassegna di Musica & Dischi", which listed the new releases of every record companies, divided by companies, and with separate entries for LP, MC or 8T. Few times appears a section specifically for quads.
I use MD for "Musica & Dischi" and RMD for "Rassegna di Musica & Dischi" as abbreviation.
The Italian "Discoteca di Stato" has a complete edition of this publication.
So, flipping pages by pages, here's what emerge from this source.
1973-1975
Jan/Feb 73 has no info whatsoever.
On March 73, MD pag. 6 has a box that says "Ampex has already released 50 Q8 in USA and is Ampex Italia is currently distribuiting 8 titles". No information on what was distribuited.
April 1973, MD pag. 28 has a one-page article about Quadraphonic on tapes (reel, 8T and MC, and MC is "unlikely to happen").
May 1973, MD p. 34-35 has a two-page article about Quadraphonic on Vinyl (and various formats, QS SQ and CD4).
The first real intresting information shows on MD July 1973, page 39,
Vedette Records has an advertising for the first two Q8 released in Italy,
- Zoom (Q8S 3055)
- Mi ritorni in mente (Q8S 3054)
That does clarify one thing: the Ampex Italia named in Apr. 73 titles were not of any Italian artists.
September 1973 sows the q8 offering from Vedette has multiplied; RMD for Vedette, that shows on their logos banner the new "4 channel quadrasound" and that will remain always up to dic. 75, list these on a specific section:
Music fantasy Pinto Varez Orchestra Q8s 3052
Largo e appassionato Armando Sciascia Orchestra Q8S 3053
Moog moods The Rocking Dorsey Dodd Q8S 3062
Plays Italy Al Korvin Q8S 3063
Samba vivo (no artist given) Q8S 3064
Rhapsody (no artist given) Q8S 3065
Mi ritorni in mente Anthony Donadio sax e Orchestra Q8S 3054
Zoom - film themes Armando sciascia Orchestra Q8S 3055
Ciak - film themes Armando Sciascia / Peter Hamilton / Cesco Anselmo orch. Q8S 3056
Oct. 73 doesn't list nothing new.
November 73: MD advertisment for Senn-Sound, which shows 2 Q8 player for home and 1 Q8 player for car. Typical Japanese cheap equipment.
December 1973 RMD shows, on the CBS-Sugar, a tiny "dischi quadrifonici" with two SQ entries of Columbia Masterworks classical LP:
Vivaldi MQ 31798 Q
Mozart MQ 31369 Q
January 74 RMD shows two new Q8 from Vedette
Hymne a l'amour Tony Tomas musette magique Q8S 3068
Mood Magic 2 Dorsey Dodd Q8S 3069
January 74 RMD shows also some SQ entries for MPS/Basf
Musiche per strumenti a fiato di autori boemi Danzi Quintett Mps 25 21809-0
Traumserenade Orchestra Arno Flor Basf 20 21790-6
Hawaiian trumpets The Tattoos Basf 20 21625-2
Sehnsuch nacht der heimat Orchestra Arno Floro Basf 20 21788-4
February 74 MD pages 7-9 has an article where they posed several question to people of the record companies about quadraphonic; relevant infos:
CBS-Sugar: they are currently distribuiting +- 50 LP and 26 Q8 (all imports!); Gigliola Cinquetti is the first italian artist to release a quad album (no other info given; the album probably is "E io le canto cosi, CGDQ ????, the stereo release has the cat. n. FGL 5094).
DECCA: Decca France is producing classical recording in QS
EMI: short mention for Riz Ortolani (Riz Plays Ortolani, EMI 3C 064 17953 Q) and nothing else about quad; however they do present a series, "stereo sound 360" that seems to me kind of "unmarked" quads - many titles are releases of EMI Studio2 UK, among these the always-present "Mandingo - The Primeval Rhythm Of Life".
RCA: mention of 4 Q8 just released, no titles given (which are: Patty Pravo "Pazza Idea", Gabriella Ferri "Sempre", Morricone "Soundtracks", Lucio Battisti "Il nostro caro angelo").
Vedette inform of a new title coming on Q8 on advertisement:
hot film themes armando sciascia orchestra (no cat. n.)
February 74 RMD shows on the CBS-Sugar a list of several clasical Masterworks LP.
March 74, MD page 23: advertisment for Ampex Q8 duplication facility.
April 74, MD page 14: advertisment for Emi "Stereo 360". Page 35: advertisment for first 3 PDU SQ lp (wallestein, cosmic century; popol vuh, seligpressung; ash ra tempel starring rosi). No Q8 release for these mentioned anywhere.
May 74: nothing new about quad.
June 74: RMD: the PDU section shows the thre titles mentioned above.
July 74: RMD for Decca shows 3 classical releases (7195, 7187, 7194). RMD for PDU shows several classical entries and a new pop entry:
Bert Kaempfert's mood Alfred Scholz PLD.SQ 5087 Q
August-September 74: nothing new about quad.
October 74
RMD for EMI list "Nomadi interpretano Guccini", with these cat.n.: LP 3Cc064-17990 Q; MC 3C244-17990; 8T 3C344-17990: No Q8 listed.
November 74, MD page 31: advertisment for Senn-Sound / Vis Radio tapes without any mention of Quad. Cover art shown includes the tape for Giancarlo Zucchi "Ballate il liscio", with cat.n. VIS 5026, and no mention of its Q8 release, on Senn-Sound 4024.
November 74, RMD the PDU section shows many classical SQ LP and the already-known others plus an addition: Tangerine Dream "Alpha Centauri" Pld 5096 SQ and "Atem" Pld 5084 SQ. Previous releases were stereo-only.
Dec.74 to Apr. 75: nothing.
May 75: MD page 43 review of EMI SQ Lp "Sheherazade", cat.n. 3C065 02527q (3C prefix indicates Italian pressing).
June 75: nothing.
July 75: MD page 37 advertisement page for Senn-Sound, listing several Q8:
Sax with love Don Barry q8 4057
Sax with love 2 Don Barry q8 4062
Sax with love 3 Don Barry q8 4063
Sax with love 4 Don Barry q8 4064
Music from movies (no artist given) q8 4001
Weird thing that the album "Sounds like Santo & Johnny" is shown and listed as stereo MC and 8T but not on Q8, which was released (Q8 4000). Already sold-out?
That's the end of the "recognizable" italian quads; following, there are several entries for Vedette of albums that we know released as SQ (Nov. 75 list "Plays anni 30" by Al Korvin, VPAS 935, and some more) but these are not recognizable as quad anywher on MD or RMD. No mention of Q8 either.
Four holes on the ground (aka: the missing infos)
As someone probably already noticed, nearly no mention for RCA: as a matter of fact, the RMD section for RCA doesn't show ever any sign of Quad. The only mention is in the interview, and the only other source of information about it to determine the RCA Italiana quad releases has been a 1975 Catalog, which list the 4 Q8 mentioned above and the CD4 release for Morricone "Soundtracks".
Vedette seemed to start with great fanfare then… interest vanished? Until someone can find a Vedette catalog for these years, there's no way to know for sure. However, there has been more tapes released for Vedette than the ones lised above, for example:
Operette allo specchio Francesco Anselmo Orchestra Q8S 3081
Since the begin is Q8S3052, there are 30 possible quad8 for Vedette. Maybe more?
CBS-Sugar: at least there is another SQ LP, Pooh "Alessandra", CBSQ 69023. Why they didn't mix for quad the following album, "Parsifal", which was in stores by fall 1973 and going high on the chart, is unknown. Is worth notice that even the Gigliola Cinquetti SQ LP was a stereo release for 1972, as "Alessandra", so it may be a case of quad mixes done in early 1973 and then shelved for a year or so. Since the Cinquetti is trumpeted as the first Italian artist for CBS-Sugar with a quad release, the Pooh SQ has been released later.
Senn-Sound: it's hard to say something about this Italy-Switzerland company: it moves on the "budget line" release, with lots of covers done by unknown artists and some specific release, however they released a lot of quads - probably the company that released the higher number of Q8 in Italy (until the Vedette status could be clarified). Senn-Sound tapes starts with Q8-4000 (Sounds like Santo & Johnny) and the higher number known by now is Don Barry "Sax with love 4" (q8 4064). This may be the sign of the end for these Q8, since the last three releases were Don Barry only, and Sax music was a rage for all the seventies, especially in cars. In any case… it will make for a whopping 65 Q8 releases.
Since Senn-Sound was based also in Switzerland, it's no suprise that they had releases also in french and german language. "Top Hits 8" (Q8 4009) is a quad cart that has all french song.
Before going wild for such a big number of quads, let me say that quality-wise, Senn-Sound tapes are hit or miss with all the possibles inbetween: can have a good recording and very discrete quad mix (such as the Giancarlo Zucchi mentioned above, or "Forever Naples": one may not like polka or neapolitan traditional songs with mandolin, however these are good recordings) to the lousy "Top Hits 1" where the quad mix was done from a stereo tape of no-named artist covering (badly) the hits of the moment and passing thru equalizer and, as the icing on the cake, distortion and saturation.
That's (nearly) all, folks. Too bad isn't longer.
Data gathered from the Italian magazine "Musica & Dischi"
Introduction
Documentation on the italian quadraphonic releases are scarce at best.
The best sources for these kind of information would be the official catalogues of the record companies, however these are extremely hard to find.
The alternative source for information has been the monthly magazine "Musica & Dischi", a magazine specific for record delaers and stores, and available only on subscription until few years ago. The magazine was composed by two separate part: the magazine itself, in color, named "Musica & Dischi" with full articles, charts, photos, advertisement and so on, and "Rassegna di Musica & Dischi", which listed the new releases of every record companies, divided by companies, and with separate entries for LP, MC or 8T. Few times appears a section specifically for quads.
I use MD for "Musica & Dischi" and RMD for "Rassegna di Musica & Dischi" as abbreviation.
The Italian "Discoteca di Stato" has a complete edition of this publication.
So, flipping pages by pages, here's what emerge from this source.
1973-1975
Jan/Feb 73 has no info whatsoever.
On March 73, MD pag. 6 has a box that says "Ampex has already released 50 Q8 in USA and is Ampex Italia is currently distribuiting 8 titles". No information on what was distribuited.
April 1973, MD pag. 28 has a one-page article about Quadraphonic on tapes (reel, 8T and MC, and MC is "unlikely to happen").
May 1973, MD p. 34-35 has a two-page article about Quadraphonic on Vinyl (and various formats, QS SQ and CD4).
The first real intresting information shows on MD July 1973, page 39,
Vedette Records has an advertising for the first two Q8 released in Italy,
- Zoom (Q8S 3055)
- Mi ritorni in mente (Q8S 3054)
That does clarify one thing: the Ampex Italia named in Apr. 73 titles were not of any Italian artists.
September 1973 sows the q8 offering from Vedette has multiplied; RMD for Vedette, that shows on their logos banner the new "4 channel quadrasound" and that will remain always up to dic. 75, list these on a specific section:
Music fantasy Pinto Varez Orchestra Q8s 3052
Largo e appassionato Armando Sciascia Orchestra Q8S 3053
Moog moods The Rocking Dorsey Dodd Q8S 3062
Plays Italy Al Korvin Q8S 3063
Samba vivo (no artist given) Q8S 3064
Rhapsody (no artist given) Q8S 3065
Mi ritorni in mente Anthony Donadio sax e Orchestra Q8S 3054
Zoom - film themes Armando sciascia Orchestra Q8S 3055
Ciak - film themes Armando Sciascia / Peter Hamilton / Cesco Anselmo orch. Q8S 3056
Oct. 73 doesn't list nothing new.
November 73: MD advertisment for Senn-Sound, which shows 2 Q8 player for home and 1 Q8 player for car. Typical Japanese cheap equipment.
December 1973 RMD shows, on the CBS-Sugar, a tiny "dischi quadrifonici" with two SQ entries of Columbia Masterworks classical LP:
Vivaldi MQ 31798 Q
Mozart MQ 31369 Q
January 74 RMD shows two new Q8 from Vedette
Hymne a l'amour Tony Tomas musette magique Q8S 3068
Mood Magic 2 Dorsey Dodd Q8S 3069
January 74 RMD shows also some SQ entries for MPS/Basf
Musiche per strumenti a fiato di autori boemi Danzi Quintett Mps 25 21809-0
Traumserenade Orchestra Arno Flor Basf 20 21790-6
Hawaiian trumpets The Tattoos Basf 20 21625-2
Sehnsuch nacht der heimat Orchestra Arno Floro Basf 20 21788-4
February 74 MD pages 7-9 has an article where they posed several question to people of the record companies about quadraphonic; relevant infos:
CBS-Sugar: they are currently distribuiting +- 50 LP and 26 Q8 (all imports!); Gigliola Cinquetti is the first italian artist to release a quad album (no other info given; the album probably is "E io le canto cosi, CGDQ ????, the stereo release has the cat. n. FGL 5094).
DECCA: Decca France is producing classical recording in QS
EMI: short mention for Riz Ortolani (Riz Plays Ortolani, EMI 3C 064 17953 Q) and nothing else about quad; however they do present a series, "stereo sound 360" that seems to me kind of "unmarked" quads - many titles are releases of EMI Studio2 UK, among these the always-present "Mandingo - The Primeval Rhythm Of Life".
RCA: mention of 4 Q8 just released, no titles given (which are: Patty Pravo "Pazza Idea", Gabriella Ferri "Sempre", Morricone "Soundtracks", Lucio Battisti "Il nostro caro angelo").
Vedette inform of a new title coming on Q8 on advertisement:
hot film themes armando sciascia orchestra (no cat. n.)
February 74 RMD shows on the CBS-Sugar a list of several clasical Masterworks LP.
March 74, MD page 23: advertisment for Ampex Q8 duplication facility.
April 74, MD page 14: advertisment for Emi "Stereo 360". Page 35: advertisment for first 3 PDU SQ lp (wallestein, cosmic century; popol vuh, seligpressung; ash ra tempel starring rosi). No Q8 release for these mentioned anywhere.
May 74: nothing new about quad.
June 74: RMD: the PDU section shows the thre titles mentioned above.
July 74: RMD for Decca shows 3 classical releases (7195, 7187, 7194). RMD for PDU shows several classical entries and a new pop entry:
Bert Kaempfert's mood Alfred Scholz PLD.SQ 5087 Q
August-September 74: nothing new about quad.
October 74
RMD for EMI list "Nomadi interpretano Guccini", with these cat.n.: LP 3Cc064-17990 Q; MC 3C244-17990; 8T 3C344-17990: No Q8 listed.
November 74, MD page 31: advertisment for Senn-Sound / Vis Radio tapes without any mention of Quad. Cover art shown includes the tape for Giancarlo Zucchi "Ballate il liscio", with cat.n. VIS 5026, and no mention of its Q8 release, on Senn-Sound 4024.
November 74, RMD the PDU section shows many classical SQ LP and the already-known others plus an addition: Tangerine Dream "Alpha Centauri" Pld 5096 SQ and "Atem" Pld 5084 SQ. Previous releases were stereo-only.
Dec.74 to Apr. 75: nothing.
May 75: MD page 43 review of EMI SQ Lp "Sheherazade", cat.n. 3C065 02527q (3C prefix indicates Italian pressing).
June 75: nothing.
July 75: MD page 37 advertisement page for Senn-Sound, listing several Q8:
Sax with love Don Barry q8 4057
Sax with love 2 Don Barry q8 4062
Sax with love 3 Don Barry q8 4063
Sax with love 4 Don Barry q8 4064
Music from movies (no artist given) q8 4001
Weird thing that the album "Sounds like Santo & Johnny" is shown and listed as stereo MC and 8T but not on Q8, which was released (Q8 4000). Already sold-out?
That's the end of the "recognizable" italian quads; following, there are several entries for Vedette of albums that we know released as SQ (Nov. 75 list "Plays anni 30" by Al Korvin, VPAS 935, and some more) but these are not recognizable as quad anywher on MD or RMD. No mention of Q8 either.
Four holes on the ground (aka: the missing infos)
As someone probably already noticed, nearly no mention for RCA: as a matter of fact, the RMD section for RCA doesn't show ever any sign of Quad. The only mention is in the interview, and the only other source of information about it to determine the RCA Italiana quad releases has been a 1975 Catalog, which list the 4 Q8 mentioned above and the CD4 release for Morricone "Soundtracks".
Vedette seemed to start with great fanfare then… interest vanished? Until someone can find a Vedette catalog for these years, there's no way to know for sure. However, there has been more tapes released for Vedette than the ones lised above, for example:
Operette allo specchio Francesco Anselmo Orchestra Q8S 3081
Since the begin is Q8S3052, there are 30 possible quad8 for Vedette. Maybe more?
CBS-Sugar: at least there is another SQ LP, Pooh "Alessandra", CBSQ 69023. Why they didn't mix for quad the following album, "Parsifal", which was in stores by fall 1973 and going high on the chart, is unknown. Is worth notice that even the Gigliola Cinquetti SQ LP was a stereo release for 1972, as "Alessandra", so it may be a case of quad mixes done in early 1973 and then shelved for a year or so. Since the Cinquetti is trumpeted as the first Italian artist for CBS-Sugar with a quad release, the Pooh SQ has been released later.
Senn-Sound: it's hard to say something about this Italy-Switzerland company: it moves on the "budget line" release, with lots of covers done by unknown artists and some specific release, however they released a lot of quads - probably the company that released the higher number of Q8 in Italy (until the Vedette status could be clarified). Senn-Sound tapes starts with Q8-4000 (Sounds like Santo & Johnny) and the higher number known by now is Don Barry "Sax with love 4" (q8 4064). This may be the sign of the end for these Q8, since the last three releases were Don Barry only, and Sax music was a rage for all the seventies, especially in cars. In any case… it will make for a whopping 65 Q8 releases.
Since Senn-Sound was based also in Switzerland, it's no suprise that they had releases also in french and german language. "Top Hits 8" (Q8 4009) is a quad cart that has all french song.
Before going wild for such a big number of quads, let me say that quality-wise, Senn-Sound tapes are hit or miss with all the possibles inbetween: can have a good recording and very discrete quad mix (such as the Giancarlo Zucchi mentioned above, or "Forever Naples": one may not like polka or neapolitan traditional songs with mandolin, however these are good recordings) to the lousy "Top Hits 1" where the quad mix was done from a stereo tape of no-named artist covering (badly) the hits of the moment and passing thru equalizer and, as the icing on the cake, distortion and saturation.
That's (nearly) all, folks. Too bad isn't longer.