Pasolini’s Salò Film Score Gets First Official Release on Vinyl

Cold Spring will release the soundtrack to Pier Paolo Pasolini‘s 1975 film Salò, or The 120 Days of Sodom on 13th February 2026. The release marks the first time the film’s music has appeared in this format. The limited edition vinyl pressing runs to 500 copies on blood red vinyl in a gatefold sleeve, with a CD version containing a 12-minute bonus track titled ‘Salo Haunted Suite’.

Title: Salò or The 120 Days of Sodom Original Soundtrack
Release Date: 2026-02-13
Label: Cold Spring
Description: Salò soundtrack released by Cold Spring February 2026. Morricone, Bach, Chopin compositions from Pasolini's 1975 film on limited vinyl and CD.

The soundtrack comprises classical pieces by JS Bach, Frédéric Chopin, Carl Orff, Giacomo Puccini, and Arnaldo Graziosi, alongside vocal performances from the cast. Ennio Morricone conducted ‘Son Tanto Triste’, composed by Franco Ansaldo, which opens the album. Morricone also contributed ‘Addio a Pier Paolo Pasolini’ (Goodbye to Pier Paolo Pasolini), written after Pasolini’s murder in Ostia three weeks before the film’s release. The piece was added to the final edit.

The release date corresponds to 249 years since the Marquis de Sade was arrested and imprisoned at the Vincennes fortress on charges of debauchery. Pasolini’s film adapts de Sade’s unfinished 1785 novel, relocating the narrative to the Republic of Salò in 1944, Mussolini’s final fascist stronghold in northern Italy. Pasolini incorporated structural elements from Dante’s Inferno into the film’s architecture.

Pier Paolo Pasolini was born in Bologna in 1922 and worked as a poet, novelist, filmmaker, and essayist. He directed his first feature film, Accattone, in 1961 after establishing himself as a literary figure. His filmography includes The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964), the ‘Trilogy of Life’ consisting of The Decameron (1971), The Canterbury Tales (1972), and Arabian Nights (1974), and the documentary La rabbia (1963). He published poetry collections throughout his life, including Le ceneri di Gramsci (1957) and Trasumanar e organizzar (1971). On 2nd November 1975, he was beaten to death on a beach in Ostia. The circumstances of his murder have remained contested, with the initial conviction of Giuseppe Pelosi later disputed by alternative theories involving political motives.

Ennio Morricone composed over 400 scores for cinema and television between 1961 and his death in 2020. His work with director Sergio Leone on the ‘Dollars Trilogy’ and Once Upon a Time in the West established his international profile. He scored films by Bernardo Bertolucci, Gillo Pontecorvo, Terrence Malick, Brian De Palma, Quentin Tarantino, and Giuseppe Tornatore. He received an Academy Award for The Hateful Eight in 2016, along with two Grammy Awards and a Golden Globe. He conducted and arranged for orchestras throughout his career while teaching composition at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

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