Piero Umiliani – Preistoria

There are quite some prehistoric caveman-style libs, like the ones with primitive drumming and so on. Really a huge fan of all of that stuff, but if I had to pick the more interesting ones I would go for these:

These two Vandroogenbroeks on Coloursound are just on another level. Birth Of Earth must be my favourite Coloursound. It is so exciting to listen to the creation of life on earth. Absolutely captivating sounds and it always surprises me what general knowledge these people had without google (haha!). The describtion of the tracks gives you information about the different time periods and tells you when it all took place (for example: the Pre-Cambria - 3750 to 570 million years). It all goes down chronologically and for me it is far more than a library record. More like a educational album and the cover art is nuts, too. Incredible must have!

Lost Continents is what the title says. Less caveman-style but still, it fits in the category quite well. Cues to accompany scenes about mythical, legendary but unknown places on earth like Atlantis, Mu or Gondwana, where scientists and archaeologists still search for evidence obsessively, even today. Sinister, dark and mysterious vibes on that one!

Next good (but totally weird!) one is Preistoria on Fonit composed by Mario Molino. Besides some outlandish electronics and hypnotic drumming there are some cues that are vocal only. They are the most interesting ones and they consist of groaning & moaning, screaming & hollering. I fell off the chair with laughter the first time i heard it. Totally unique and something you will never hear anewhere else (i promise!). Still wondering whether this is Molino getting down on some mescaline or magic mushrooms or just too much Barolo. One thing is damn sure: these guys just could not be sober when recording this. Really bonkers...

Last but not least is grandmaster Umiliani's masterpiece Preistoria from the quite hard to find Serie Sonorizzazioni. This record describes prehistoric times perfectly in orchestral accompaniment, jazzy arrangements and even some experimentals and when you hear the first note, you find yourself in a prehistoric scenic landscape immediately when you close your eyes. From all those records mentioned above, this is the most listenable actually, haha! For me this record is far more interesting than Piero Umiliani - Il Dono Del Nilo, that is [almost] from the same category and was reissued some time ago.

If you plan to do your next prehistoric documentary, these should be your first picks for background music...