Film Works Xvii - Notes On Marie Menken

4 1/2 stars-- two more superb scores.:
"Film Works XVII" collects two very different soundtracks for documentaries-- the guitar driven score for "Notes on Maria Menkin" and the all-percussion performances for "Ray Bandar: A Life with Skulls". Unlike previous film works records serving as anthologies of multiple scores, this time composer John Zorn has chosen to intersperse the scores together, creating a bit of a montage of sorts. The music for "Notes on Maria Menkin" is far reaching and varied-- featuring a trio of guitarist Jon Madof, bassist Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz (both of the band Rashanim) and drummer Kenny Wolleson, with Zorn joining in on several tracks on various instruments, Zorn seems to be exploring by and large the exotica flavors of "The Gift", with shades of surf ("Tango Exotique"), Morricone ("Moonplay"), frantic jazz ("Gogogo"), Derek Bailey ("Zenscapes") and that sort of breezy L.A. in the '50s sound ("Mood Mondrian") blending seemlessly. The net result is a highly satisfying score that stands nicely from the movie with standout performances throughout, particularly from Madof, who is a revelation of sensitive guitar playing. In some ways, it seems to me he's done himself a disservice in the environment of Rashanim, his playing here is full of mood and delicate energy and is a real highlight of the score. Offsetting this nicely is the score for the Bandar documentary-- Zorn performs on thumb pianos and is accompanied by percussionist Cyro Baptista (and Wolleson on one track) for a really fascinating score of circular sounds-- melody and rhythm blend, it's at times difficult to discern the thumb piano from the percussion; the melodic elements from the rhythmic elements, and by and large the music works out to be downright hypnotic. I suspect that the reason for the intercutting is that quite frankly, all five tracks laid one against another would probably not work as well as mixing them through-- they serve nicely as intriguing interludes throughout. It seems to me that Zorn has really been on quite a roll with the film scores as of late-- in the past five years he's composed two downright masterpieces ("In the Mirror of Maya Deren" and "Invitation to a Suicide") and has maintained a consistently high level of quality with the film scores of the past several years. The material on "Film works XVII" rates very highly, even in comparison to such great efforts. Highly recommended.