Cold Spring is proud to present the first ever release of the music soundtrack for ‘Salò, or The 120 Days Of Sodom’, the controversial 1975 movie version of the unfinished 1785 novel by the Marquis de Sade directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Comprised of beautiful and occasional discordant classical compositions, the music stands in stark contrast to the shocking and cruel events unfolding onscreen.
Pasolini was brutally murdered in Ostia, Italy three weeks before the release of the film. In the wake of this tragedy, the legendary composer Ennio Morricone wrote ‘Addio a Pier Paolo Pasolini’ (Goodbye to Pier Paolo Pasolini) for the filmmaker, which was included in the final edit.
Following the narrative of one of Pasolini’s defining cinematic moments, the soundtrack opens with ‘Son Tanto Triste’ (conducted by Morricone), descends into the melancholic minor chords of Bach, Chopin, Orff, Puccini and Graziosi, incorporates sinister renditions by the cast, and includes Morricone’s own sombre tribute to the director.
The soundtrack will be released on 13th February 2026, exactly 249 years after the Marquis de Sade was arrested and imprisoned in the dungeon of the Vincennes fortress for charges of “debauchery and immoderate libertinage” that scandalized his contemporaries.
Disgusted by the flood of crass sexploitation movies which filled the space opened up by his ‘Trilogy Of Life’, Pasolini turned to the most nihilistic thinker in European history for what became his final film. His version of De Sade’s ‘120 Days Of Sodom’, amplified with motifs from Dante’s ‘Inferno’, confronts the ultimate implications of fascism in a series of sexual and moral atrocities.
With the setting transposed to Mussolini’s miniature Fascist Republic of Salò, Italy in 1944, the film’s content and imagery is extreme and retains its power to shock half a century on. It remains a cinematic milestone – culturally significant, politically vital and visually stunning. “It has emerged to appal a new generation grown complacent on consumerism and passive on permissiveness *****” EMPIRE
LP limited to 500 copies on blood red vinyl in gatefold sleeve ORDER
CD includes 12 minute bonus track ‘Salo Haunted Suite’ ORDER