Film Works VII: Cynical Hysterie Hour

Product Description

Released in Japan for only a few short months in 1990, this is the original music Zorn created for a series of shorts by one of Japan's most endearing cartoonists, Kiriko Kubo.

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The influence of cartoon music on John Zorn has always been apparent, but this disc captures the jazz saxophonist-composer actually scoring one of them, Kiriko Kubo's Cynical Hysterie Hour. It's a memorable trip filled with some great diversity and great playing (courtesy of fellow seminal jazz musicians sitting in, including Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell, Arto Lindsay, Bobby Previte, and Wayne Horvitz), all in the span of a half hour. Like all of Zorn's output, it's downright dreamy at times (just check out "Through the Night" or "Scary Moonlight") and, at other points, frenzied and full-volumed. A far cry from Raymond Scott, Cynical Hysterie Hour throws jazz, folk, punk, and even the sounds of video games together and (all the while) has fun. --Jason Verlinde