Jan 20: Listen to Soundtrack Composer Bobby Johnston on Morricone Youth [ARCHIVE]

On Morricone Youth this weekend, host Devon E. Levins welcomed film and television soundtrack composer Bobby Johnston for an exclusive interview and in-depth listen to his music. Listen back to the on-demand archive HERE.

LA-based/NYS-born composer and multi-instrumentalist Bobby Johnston has composed over 25 original film and television scores, including those for Wristcutters: A Love Story, Spooner, No Impact Man: The Documentary, horror director Stuart Gordon's King of the Ants, Edmond and Stuck, and "Splat Pack" director Darren Lynn Bousman's The Barrens and Mother's Day. Emerging in the indie film scoring scene in 2001, Johnston is known for an unconventional approach to film composition using only acoustic instruments and usually performing every instrument himself, with the exception of an occasional instrumental soloist such as Ozomatli trumpet player Asdru Sierra, Big Sir vocalist Lisa Papineau or percussionist Greg Ellis. Johnston has been hailed as "a new voice in film" by Film Score Monthly and his scores have been featured extensively on the radio program This American Life as well as on two of the show's greatest hits CDs. Many of Johnston's scores have been commercially released by La-La Land, Lionsgate, Citadel and Lakeshore Records. 2012 was a busy year scoring four films, including Larry Clark's most recent Marfa Girl which won the Marcus Aurelius award for Best Film at the Rome International Film Festival, while Lakeshore released three of his soundtracks on CD and digitally (No Impact Man: The Documentary, Crazy Eyes and Mother's Day). Learn more by visiting Mr. Johnston's website.

...and the playlist can be found HERE.

Morricone Youth Plays Dances of Vice NYE 2013

Carter Burwell Guests on Morricone Youth, Dec 9 Sunday @ 2-4p ET on EVR

Host Devon E. Levins is excited to welcome one of his favorite film soundtrack composers working today, the acclaimed Carter Burwell live in the studio for an exclusive interview and in-depth listen to his music on Morricone Youth this Sunday at 2pm ET HERE.

With over 80 feature film and television credits, composer Carter Burwell is best known for his longstanding relationship with the Coen Brothers, scoring every film to date (with the exception of O Brother, Where Art Thou?, of course).  His identifiably haunting and brooding style has graced films in nearly every genre, using the occasional big-studio project to finance his work on groundbreaking independent films.  New York City born and bred, Burwell never really considered music as a career while studying animation at Harvard with Mary Beams and George Griffin, electronic music with Ivan Tcherepnin, and independent study at the MIT Media Lab (then known as the Architecture Machine Group).  Upon graduation in 1977, he became a teaching assistant in the Harvard Electronic Music Studio, animated the film Help, I'm Being Crushed to Death by a Black Rectangle, which won first place at the Jacksonville Film Festival and second at the Ottawa International Animation Festival, and worked as Chief Computer Scientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Long Island, where he wrote software for image processing, lab automation and protein analysis.  Simultaneously, he moonlighted in punk and no wave bands for fun including The Same, Radiante and Thick Pigeon with Stanton Miranda (Factory Records) while writing music for dance (RAB, which premiered at the Avignon Festival in 1984) and theater (The Myth Project at Naked Angels in 1989).


A mutual friend referred Burwell to Joel and Ethan Coen for their debut feature, Blood Simple (1984), leading to the kidnapping caper Raising Arizona (1987), his first fully orchestrated work for gangster film Miller's Crossing (1990), groundbreaking Barton Fink (1991), seven-time academy award nominated Fargo (1996) and through to the ten-time academy award nominated western remake of True Grit (2010).  Burwell's workload increased steadily in the '90s as he took on more mainstream projects: Doc Hollywood (1991), Wayne's World 2 (1993), and Airheads (1994), and winning wide acclaim for Rob Roy (1995), kicking off his most prolific period of over 35 films in the next five years including Conspiracy Theory (1997), The Jackal (1997), Gods and Monsters (1998), glam rock chronicle Velvet Goldmine (1998), Spike Jonze's debut Being John Malkovich (1999), and Gulf War epic Three Kings (1999).  Burwell remained in-demand through the 2000's, reteaming with Spike Jonze for Adaptation and Where The Wild Things Are, Julian Schnabel's Before Night Falls (2000) and several installments of the Twilight Saga movie series, while teaching and continuing to compose for dance (The Return of Lot's Wife) and theatre (Cara Lucia, Theater of the New Ear).

Carter Burwell's most recent score was for Seven Psychopaths, a British comedy written, co-produced and directed by Martin McDonagh starring Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Tom Waits and Christopher Walken released in the United States on October 12, 2012.  The film marks the second collaboration between McDonagh and Burwell, following In Bruges (2008).  It's a tale about a struggling writer who dreams of finishing his screenplay, "Seven Psychopaths," only requiring a little focus and inspiration.  His best friend, an unemployed actor and part-time dog thief, wants to help by any means necessary along with a partner in crime, a religious man with a violent past.  For some reason the writer has failed to notice that he is a character in a film of the same name, and that nearly every other character in the film and his life is a psychopath.  Lakeshore Records released the soundtrack digitally on October 23, 2012 via iTunes, with a physical release November 20, 2012. For more information on Carter Burwell, visit his website.

Morricone Youth Live Scores The Adventures of Prince Achmed @ Nitehawk 12/7 and 12/8

Lotte Reiniger • 1926 • 65 Mins. • Germany • English & German Subtitles • Digital

This is a LIVE + SOUND + CINEMA event!
MORRICONE YOUTH play live music & soundscape to the film.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed is boldly innovative in its approach to animation and charmingly in its adaptation of the ancient “Arabian Nights” tales. The rarely-seen animated feature was produced and directed by Lotte Reiniger, one of the very few women animators to achieve international recognition. The film brilliantly invents a variety of remarkable characters, frightening creatures, exotic locations and challenging topographies using silhouettes, providing a unique monochromatic experience which, in its bold simplicity, puts today’s complicated digital animation to shame. The story is rich with wildly imaginative scene. The film also serves up a wonderfully old-fashioned sense of exotica with glorious Arabesque architecture and set designs, and even the characters’ costumes. The film’s artwork is fluid and graceful, spiced with humor. "The Adventures of Prince Achmed" is not only the oldest surviving animated movie, it's a beautifully innovative and enchanting masterpiece.

The last live scoring screenings sold out so buy tickets in advance HERE!

Chess Music For The Moving Image 11/30/12 Philadelphia Museum of Art

Chess Music for the Moving Image: The Queen Stripped Bare By Her Pawns, Even 
November 30, 2012  Performed by: Morricone Youth

"Chess Music for the Moving Image: The Queen Stripped Bare By Her Pawns, Even" is an interactive multimedia performance  of chance in the spirit of composer John Cage and dance choreographer Merce Cunningham performed by MORRICONE YOUTH, a New York City collective dedicated to the music of  film and other visual medias.  Audience members will be invited
to participate in a game of chess that determines the musical progression of reinterpreted iconic French composed soundtracks interwoven with dance performances and video projections based on the movements of the chess pieces.  The performance is inspired by Marcel Duchamp's painted works leading up to and including The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even (1915-1923).  In 1912, Duchamp began to depict  motion and introduce concepts such as "the moving image" into his two-dimensional painted works, influenced by the then emerging new art form known as "cinema."  In 1918, Duchamp took leave from the The Bride Stripped Bare and the art world in general to focus on studying the game of chess before returning to the work in 1920.  In the live and projected chess match, the Bride will be represented by the Queen and the Bachelors by her  Pawns, Knight and Bishop.  

The intersecting work of John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Marcel Duchamp explored the collision between chance, collaboration, and often the game of chess.  The chess game will determine the musical progression of the concert and the movements of the dancers. Matthew Caron and Rebecca Gaffney will create spontaneous visual juxtapositions for each move on the chess board using an array of live cameras, prepared video clips and "ready made" objects curated in the spirit of Marcel Duchamp. This program is offered in conjunction with the exhibition Dancing around the Bride: Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg, and Duchamp, on view October 30, 2012–January 21, 2013. Two time American Women’s Chess Champion Jennifer Shahade emcees.  

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The Bride (Queen) 

 "Un Homme et Une Femme" from Un Homme et Une Femme (1966) 
composed by Francis Lai 

Station Master (Rook) 
"(Where Do I Begin?) Love Story" from Love Story (1970) 
composed by Francis Lai 

Servant/Flunky (Pawn) 

"Ballade of Melody Nelson/L'Hotel Particulière" from Histoire de Melody Nelson (1971)  
composed by Serge Gainsbourg 

Gendarme (Knight)

 "Where Did Our Summers Go/I Don't Know Why" from La Leçon Particulière (1969) 
 composed by Francis Lai 

The Priest (Bishop) 

"Hello Goodbye" from Hello Goodbye (1970) 
composed by Francis Lai 

Delivery Boy (Pawn)

 "La Valse d'Amélie/L'Autre Valse d'Amélie" from Amelie (2001) 
composed by Yann Tierson 

Cavalryman (Pawn)

 "Les Parapluies de Cherbourg" from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) 
 composed by Michel Legrand 

Undertaker (Pawn)

 "Windmills of Your Mind" from The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) 
composed by Michel Legrand 

Busboy (Pawn)

 "Yesterday Yes A Day/First Class Ticket" from Madame Claude (1977) 
composed by Serge Gainsbourg 

Policeman (Pawn)

 "Strip-Tease" from Strip-Tease (1963) composed by Serge Gainsbourg

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MORRICONE YOUTH
www.morriconeyouth.com
info@morriconeyouth.com  

Guitar    Devon E. Levins
Bass/Vocals    John Castro 
Keyboards   Dan Kessler 
Tenor/Soprano Saxophone    Fraser Campbell 
Drums/Percussion    Timur Yusef 
Vocals/Accordion    Magda Giannikou 
Live Video Projections    Matthew Caron    Rebecca Gaffney 
Dancers     Medianoche    Ariel Rios 

The Copycat Tribute to Serge Gainsbourg 11/28/12

November 28, 2012
TrashyTravel.com presents
The Copycat Tribute to Serge Gainsbourg
Bands play sets of originals and covers in the back room
DJ Xerox spins all covers up front.
Tonights Bands
Les Sans Culottes-10
Morricone Youth-9
NO COVER
$5 Intoxicated Man Cocktails all night at 

Ottos Shrunken Head

538 East 14 Street, Near avenue B
9 pm to 4 am
L Train to First Avenue

11/18/12 Archive: Lalo Schifrin on Morricone Youth

Photo Credit: Greg Gorman

Listen back to the on-demand archive HERE or via the free EVR Mobile App.

If you are a fan of Morricone Youth, you are a fan of Lalo Schifrin. On this Sunday's special episode, host Devon E. Levins welcomed the acclaimed film and television soundtrack composer, pianist, conductor and arranger for an exclusive interview and in-depth listen to Lalo Schifrin: My Life In Music, the new four-CD boxed set released this week by Aleph Records of music from the legendary composer’s storied career in film, jazz, and classical music.

The boxed-set features music from three-dozen films, jazz and symphonic pieces composed by Schifrin, and unreleased music from films including Charley Varrick, The Beguiled, Joe Kidd and Coogan’s Bluff. Along with over five hours worth of music, a forty-eight page book is included with archival photos and notes.  This release spans music from all aspects of Mr. Schifrin’s career, from the early beginnings of his film music to the big hits that include Mission Impossible, Dirty Harry, Enter The Dragon, Amityville Horror, Bullitt! and Cool Hand Luke.  Also represented is music from his jazz and classical compositions including work commissioned by Dizzy Gillespie, as well as the Grammy-nominated Jazz Meets The Symphony series. The release corresponds with Mr. Schifrin's 80th birthday this year as he continues to work in all three idioms.

Schifrin has written over 100 film and television scores and has been the recipient of five Grammys® (twenty-two nominations), one Cable ACE Award, six Academy Award® nominations and the prestigious Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award as well as a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  Earlier in his career, Schifrin played piano, composed and/or arranged for Argentine tango bandoneón master Astor Piazzolla, jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and bandleader Xavier Cugat's Latin dance orchestra. Beginning In the late 1960s and through 1980s, he maintained a long working relationship with Clint Eastwood, particularly the Dirty Harry films. In the classical composition field, Schifrin has composed over 60 works.  His music is a synthesis of traditional and twentieth-century techniques, and his early love for jazz and rhythm are strong attributes of his style with a tendency to juxtapose universal thoughts with a kind of elaborated primitivism.

Happy 84th Ennio Show 11/11/12 2-4p ET

Tune into your source for all things soundtrack, Morricone Youth, on East Village Radio this Sunday, November 11, 2012 from 2-4p ET, for Morricone Youth's sixth annual tribute to the namesake of the show, Ennio Morricone. Considered as one of the most influential film composers of all time, composing for over 500 films and selling over 40 million records worldwide, Morricone wrote the film scores to such classics as Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns including "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" (1966), John Carpenter's remake of "The Thing" (1982), Brian De Palma's "The Untouchables" (1987) and Guiseppe Tornarore's "Cinema Paradiso" (1988).


Il Maestro turned 84 yesterday on Saturday, November 10. Host Devon E. Levins will be dedicating an entire two hours to his music in his honor.
Listen live or to the archive HERE!

MORRICONE YOUTH Lives Scores "Nosferatu" 10/27 and 10/31

F.W. Murnau • 1922 • 94 Mins. • Germany • Silent/English Intertitles • Digital This is a LIVE + SOUND + CINEMA event! MORRICONE YOUTH play live music & soundscape for NOSFERATU: A Symphony of Horror Our special Halloween presentation of Nosferatu includes a live pre-show where Morricone Youth performs classic horror movie scores to a curated montage of our favorite scary flicks and a costume contest hosted by Nitehawk’s own Kris King - prizes and candy!

Watching Nosferatu is like standing in the same room as death itself. It's a brooding chamber piece of gothic ruminations, occult imagery, and of the flickering light of the world waging a losing battle against the overwhelming darkness. Tod Browning's Dracula may be the more immediately recognized of the two earliest vampire features but it is Murnau's silent masterpiece to which the entire genre—and then some—owes its existence. Count Orlock, as played by the inimitable Max Schreck (literal translation: "maximum terror"), seems to embody death as it exists for all of mankind, simultaneously bringing in his wake a plague that knows not the limits of gender, class, or beauty. That he requires blood to sustain his torturous existence and that people will fall prey to his thirst are givens here. Orlock, more rat than human, only beckons to his bloodthirsty cravings out of primal, instinctive need, like a junkie looking for the next fix, regardless of how much it prolongs their suffering. Truly, there are things worse than death. Morricone Youth is a New York City music collective formed in 1999 dedicated to performing and recording old film and television soundtrack and library production music. In addition reworking soundtrack covers, the band composes original music much in the same vein for the "imaginary film" as well as for live settings to accompany moving pictures. Thanks to Rocket Rob Patton for the flyerage. We recommend buying tickets in advance online HERE as past live score screenings have been selling out.

Dances of Vice: Experiment in Terror, A Classic Horror Film Music Retrospective (1954-1981) 10/26/12 10:30p