Italian film composer Stelvio Cipriani has died today (October 1) at the age of 81. He had been suffering from ischaemia since December 2017. Studying at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory from the age of 14, Cipriani spent his early career playing in cruise-ship bands, leading to encounter with jazz musician Dave Brubeck, before accompanying italian actress and singer Rita Ravone on the piano.

His first soundtrack was for the spaghetti western The Bounty Killer, kicking off an extremely prolific career in film composition – including seminal horror classics such as Umberto Lenzi’s Nightmare City and Ovidio G. Assonitis’s Tentacoli – which was featured in FACT’s 100 greatest horror soundtracks.