John Zorn - "The Song Project" Vinyl, Box Set of Six 45 rpm Singles, Colored Vinyl, Limited Edition (Tzadik)

Photographs cannot express or expose the beauty of this beautifully designed package from the world of John Zorn.  "The Song Project" is a box set of six 45 rpm colored vinyl singles, that comes with a booklet with photos as well as lyrics/introduction by one of the key figures in this project, Jesse Harris.   Zorn commissioned or asked Mike Patton, Harris, and Sofia Rei, to not only sing but also write lyrics to music written and recorded by Zorn and from his vast catalog of goodies.  I'm not clear if Zorn chose the songs, or if the singers went through the catalog to choose the music pieces to collaborate on, nevertheless an interesting and well-developed project.

Zorn strikes me as a community.  Which sounds egotistical, but the way it works is that Zorn carefully picks his artists to work with.  None of them are 'studio' musicians, many of them are composers/artists in their own right, but also are willing to collaborate with Zorn and whatever system he puts in place.  Zorn is the producer/composer/arranger.  Still, I feel each singer/lyricist and musician stamps their own identity to the project.  Zorn's aesthetic is not to close down the world, but to open it up to new possibilities and adventures.  It's impossible to pigeon-hole Zorn musically because he is all over the map, and that is very much part of his appeal/aesthetic.  For one to discover him, the listener will have to really put time into it, because his landscape is huge.  Which again, is part of the Zorn aesthetic. 

"The Song Project" is twelve songs, which could easily be one vinyl 12" album, but there is something special about getting up and down toward the turntable to turn the record over, or go to the next 45 rpm disc.  When I hear this box set, I'm hearing an album, not separate twelve songs.   I played all the vinyl in order, but if one chooses to (of course) they can mix it up - but for me, it's a consistent piece from the first single to the last.  There are three singers, and sometimes the other sings harmony or backup to the other.  Same musicians are on all the tracks, and Zorn is set as the conductor/arranger as well as the composer of the music.  The singers are responsible for the lyrics and in most cases sing their own work along with Zorn's music.  Sean Lennon wrote one of the lyrics, and that is sung by Patton and Rei.  There are traces of thrash/noise/rock, but the majority of the pieces are melodic and beautiful.  It's pop music made by adults and a great band of musicians.  

Oddly enough, this box set reminds me of my dad's (Wallace Berman) Radio Either series, which was also a box set of his verox collages.   One can look at them separately as pieces of work, but in actuality, it is one work in separate pieces.  For me, the singles, although separately issued in the box (with each one with a Zorn artwork cover) can be apart from the box set.  It's one work of art, and I think the format of putting them out as singles in a set that's in a box is very much of an object as well as how one approaches the material on this project.   Heung-Heung Chin did the design work, and the backing band is pretty much The Dreamers, who I wrote about before on this blog.  

Ennio Morricone - "Crime and Dissonance" CD, Compilation, 2005 (Ipecac Recordings)

Ennio Morricone is the most magnificent composer in the 20th century.   He does film work, and of course, a film composer is an integral part of the film aesthetic, but I often feel that Morricone's music is usually more important than the actual films he worked for.  It allowed him to experiment, mix music genres, and make awesome (soundtrack) albums.  Mike Patton, a superb singer for various groups and sessions, has his own label, Ipecac, and here he has put together the more experimental and moody works in one package.  It's an excellent introduction to Morricone's inner-world and avoids a lot of his famous melodies, but a focus here on his more experimental touches. 

If you take the entire works of Morricone, it can be divided into sections.  The spaghetti westerns,  Mafia/crime narratives, high-comedy or farces, soft-sex films, and horror.  This collection consists mostly his work on horror films as well as crime.   As a package, it is going to either attract one to listen more, or you may run away from the speakers.  If you stay, you're going to be awarded many hours of pleasure, if you track down the original editions of these masterful soundtracks.  

Beside Patton, John Zorn is the only other artist to capture the whole spectrum of Morricone's work.  He initially did an album of his music, and that was my first introduction to this Italian composer.  It's a love affair that never ends.