FILM WORKS XIX: THE RAIN HORSE

A really good start for this new year. Soon Zorn will publish other works, and this is a pretty fascinating one, with good compositions, essential strumentation and relaxing atmospheres. Absolutely enjoyable for all Zorn fans. Waiting for The Dreamers, pick up this and listen..

Rating: B+

In his long career, John Zorn has done everything from extreme avant-garde to relaxing, trance-inducing music, everything from avant-garde classical to metal, from free jazz to klezmer, and all of these sides of Zorn I love. There's one side of Zorn, however, that I only discovered recently, and that's his soundtrack side. As it turns out, I love this free-wheeling, happy, and altogether accessible (which can't be said about much Zorn work) music as much as I love the rest of his stellar work. While I've so far only heard 2008's Filmworks XIX: The Rain Horse, I am certain that if the other eighteen are at all like this, they rank among Zorn's very best.

It was almost a shock to me when I first played this CD, hearing such sweet and beautiful sounds coming from the same man famous for producing some of the most tortured sounds ever to come from a saxophone (note: John Zorn does not actually play any instruments on The Rain Horse). This music is truly, stunningly beautiful. With light keyboard melodies, aching violin lines, and pulsing bass, The Rain Horse is an astounding work. As such, it's hard to pick any highlights - every track feels perfectly in place on the CD and each is excellent - but the four that really stand out to me are the opening "Tears of Morning," "Wedding of the Wild Horses," "Dance Exotique," and "Parable of Job."

"Wedding of the Wild Horses" is perhaps the most diverse song on the CD and is easily my favorite. It combines catchy, toe-tapping bass with jazzy keyboards and just the slightest touch of avant-garde in the violin and, occasionally, the keyboards as well. On the other hand, you have "Dance Exotique," which has a punchy, exotic rhythm that carries it for its (admittedly short) duration. And then there are the klezmer influences on "Parable of Job," which has always been a favorite of mine in Zorn works (klezmer, that is, which is featured some on Kristallnacht and his Masada series. as well as The Circle Maker, which just happens to be the best klezmer cd ever released).

All in all, this is one of Zorn's greatest achievements, and a clear highlight of 2008. It's forty minutes of music composed for an 11 minute film (Zorn says in the liner notes that he does not know which cuts will be used in the film), but it was composed with the soundtrack CD in mind, not necessarily the film. And, not surprisingly, the result of composing for the soundtrack CD is an amazing soundtrack CD. Anybody looking for an entry into Zorn's music who is afraid of his more inaccessible work should start here, as this is by far the most beautiful and easygoing I've heard him. And, being a John Zorn product, that this is excellent is a given.

For the longest time I shied away from Zorn's filmworks. I was initially hypnotized by Zorn, as most are, due to his masterpiece Naked City and subsequently fell victim to his catalogue of Avant Garde music. For no discernible reason I felt for the longest time that taking this highly experimental element away from his music would also remove any enjoyment to be drawn from it. However, showing his abilities as a composer, Zorn certainly dispelled that wayward thought with The Rain Horse.

We see here Zorn at his most accessible giving us music perfectly fit for sitting out on the porch during the summer or taking a relaxing drive. The assembled band consists of cello, piano, and bass. Just 3 guys playing their hearts out in a studio, no overdubs, special guests, or studio trickery. The outcome: pure delicate beauty. As you would expect from a soundtrack the incorporates a strong visual element to it. I feel much the same while listening to this album I do while listening Tchaikovsky, although Zorn produces this feeling mostly through jazz tinged with traditional Jewish music.

As with most truly great and beautiful albums I have few words with which to properly translate the music. This album will serve as a fantastic addition to anyone's collection working just as well for seasoned Zorn fans as for those seeking a springboard into his music.

This album (Dimitri Geller's the Rain Horse movie's soundtrack) is one of the most accessible Zorn's work (as many others from his Filmworks series). No avant-jazz trumpet sounds, no hardcore scratches. Chamber acoustic trio of his regular collaborators ( Erik Friedlander / cello, Rob Burger / piano and Greg Cohen / bass) play melancholic jazzy instrumental music based on klezmer.

It's a beautiful music! Acoustic piano plays a jazzy, slightly swinging melodies, when cello's sad but optimistic strings sound brings you somewhere in the ocean of your fantasy.

Zorn's best soundtrack music has unique ability - being just a back-up for some visual works (at least in theory), this music is such full bodied, that easily could require visual illustration for itself. So, you don't need to watch original movie to feel all the music in full, but when listening to it, your imagination easily build a visual line!

With no drums or percussion added, the acoustic bass is only rhythm instrument added on this record. So, sound is soft, rich and melodic. Using same roots as Zorn's Masada, klezmer there is just a deep inspiration for saloon music. All emotions are subtle and refined, but deeply under the skin it's the same music!

Highly recommended for everyone searching on different and beautiful music. Excellent entry for Zorn's world as well!

Four and half, rounded till 5!

No appreciation of John Zorn would be complete without a study of his many film scores, all of them for movies unlikely to ever open at your local multiplex: indie art projects, obscure documentaries, and so forth. Number nineteen in his Filmworks catalogue, released in 2008, was commissioned for an austere but often stunning piece of alt-animation by Russian artist Dimitri Geller: a wordless dream-parable of death and rebirth in the natural world.

Geller originally approached Zorn to borrow songs from his Book of Angels archive for the film. But Zorn, as always an incredibly prolific composer (scroll down his page in these Archives for proof), offered instead to write an original score, and in typical fashion recorded and mixed the entire album in a single day.

It's a thing of beauty too, and one of the few soundtrack albums able to stand apart from its parent film as a totally unique and equally worthwhile experience. Hardly surprising, since Geller's 15-minute movie used only a fraction of the music cues collected here, each one a miniature instrumental objet d'art all by itself.

The music couldn't be simpler: graceful yet haunting melodies, drawn from eastern European traditions and arranged for an uncluttered acoustic trio of cello, upright bass and piano, the latter sometimes gently muted by an application of (!) Silly Putty. Is it Jazz? Classical? Gypsy Folk-Art? Whatever the answer, the full album is a joy to hear, and in its own modest way remains one of the highlights of John Zorn's immense musical library.