Crime And Dissonance

Ennio Morricone is arguably the most prolific film composer of the modern era, having scored in excess of five hundred films since the mid-20th century. Having worked with the greatest directors of our generation (including Martin Scorsese, Sergio Leone, Roman Polanski and Quentin Tarantino), Morricone's most widely recognized contribution to film scores is to the Spaghetti Western genre that director Sergio Leone brought to mainstream audiences starting in the 1960's. With Morricone's astute insight into music's emotional impact on an audience, Leone was able to make A Fistful of Dollars a total sensory experience that wowed international audiences and popularized the new genre.

To singularly align Morricone with one style of music however would be to overlook a tremendous body of work that spans nearly every predefined genre, and some styles that people have yet to pinpoint as a genre. His impact on film goers and music fans has been so wide and his musical compositions so ingrained in the general populous' psyche it would be a difficult job to say exactly how many artists were touched by his innovations.

Few musicians have been as inspired by Morricone's body of work as John Zorn and Mike Patton. With Crime and Dissonance, Patton's own Ipecac Recordings present thirty songs over a two-disc set that highlights Morricone's works from the late sixties through the mid-70's. The selections were hand picked by Alan Bishop, chosen for their rarity and musicianship with liner notes by John Zorn.