History Music / JohnZorn

* The free {{Jazz}} and klezmer collectives Masada and Bar Kohkba,,...
* The Dreamers, a blend of jazz and exotica , which is among his most accessible work.
* His soundtracks are compiled under the ongoing series ''Filmworks''.

The {{Grindcore}} band "Fuck the Facts" was named after a track on the debut album of Zorn's Naked City band. Another band that ranks Zorn among its influences is Music/{{Candiria}}. The tracks "Bonehead" and "Hellraiser" from "Torture Garden" (1990) are used in the opening scene from ''Film/FunnyGames'' (1998 and 2007).

* AlphabeticalThemeNaming: His albums with the band Masada are titled after the first ten letters of the Hebrew alphabet: Alef, Beit, Gimel, Dalet, Hei, Vav, Zayin, Het, Tet and Yod – and contained compositions with Hebrew titles.
* AlliterativeTitle: His 1992 album with Naked City "'''G'''rand '''G'''uignol". His 1997 album "'''D'''uras: '''D'''uchamp", his 2001 album "'''M'''adness, Love and '''M'''ysticism" and his 2007 album "From '''S'''ilence to '''S'''orcery". His 2010 album "'''W'''hat Thou '''W'''ilt".
* {{Ambient}}: One of many genres he touched. "Absinthe" (1993), with his band Naked City, features a blend of ambient noise styled compositions. "Execution Ground" (1994) with his band Painkiller has a second disc with ambient dub versions of two tracks.
* AnimalisticAbomination: His album "Chimeras" (2003) references the Myth/ClassicalMythology creatures chimeras.
* AsTheGoodBookSays: "IAO" (2002) is inspired by Kabbalism.

* ChristmasSongs: "A Dreamers Christmas" is a 2011 album by Zorn's band The Dreamers with covers of Christmas carols.
* ClassicalMusic: One of many genres he touched. Prime examples are his 1983 "Angelus Novus", his 1993 "Kristallnacht", his 1998 "Aporias: Requia for Piano and Orchestra, his 1999 "The String Quartets", his 2000 "Cartoon S/M", his 2001 "Madness, Love and Mysticism", his 2001 "Songs from the Hermetic" (2001), "Chimeras" (2003),...
* ConceptAlbum: Zorn has released many albums that are tributes to certain artists, works or historical events. "The Big Gundown" reimagines Music/EnnioMorricone's works, ''Music/{{Spillane}}'' and "The Bribe" combines music and spoken word to bring a salute to the novels of Creator/MickeySpillane. "Spy vs. Spy" reimagines Music/OrnetteColeman. "Kristallnacht" (1993) commemorates the 1938 Kristallnacht events in Nazi Germany against Jewish civilians by combining klezmer with DeathMetal.

** "Grand Guignol" with Naked City features covers of pieces by Music/ClaudeDebussy, Alexander Scriabin, Orlande de Lassus, Music/CharlesIves and Music/OlivierMessiaen.

* CreepyDoll: His album cover for ''Music/MusicForChildren'' (1998) featured a disturbing girl doll with breasts.
* {{Crossover}}: He has worked together with Music/MikePatton, Music/BillLaswell, Thurston Moore (Music/SonicYouth), Music/BillFrisell, Music/EugeneChadbourne, Music/MrBungle, Music/DerekBailey, Marc Ribot (of Music/TomWaits fame), and the JapaneseRock band ''Boredoms.'' The live album ''The Stone: Issue Three'' (2008) is an improvisation between Zorn, Music/LouReed, and Music/LaurieAnderson.

** "Heretic" is the soundtrack to an underground porn movie, "Jeux des Dames Cruelles", and features photos in the artwork.
* DeathMetal: One of the many genres he experiments with, often combined with {{Grindcore}} and {{Thrashcore}}. His "Spy vs. Spy" (1989) album and his work with Naked City and Painkiller are prime examples.
* DistinctDoubleAlbum: "Lacross" (1978), "Cartoon S/M" (2000), "Execution Ground" (1994), the Masada albums,... "Archery" (1982/2001) is a triple album.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: His album "First Recordings 1973" (1995) features all music Zorn made in the dawn of his career, when he was just 20 years old. While occassionally showing sparks of his later audacious experimentations a lot of it is not very impressive yet.
* EndangeredSpecies: His album with The Dreamers, "0'0" (2009) refers to the Hawaiian songbird family Mohoidae, which was threatened with extinction back then and has now effectively gone extinct.
* EnnioMorriconePastiche: "The Big Gundown" (1985) reinvents several movie soundtracks for which Music/EnnioMorricone wrote the scores.
* EpicRocking: His tracks can be very long. "Leng Tch'e" (1992) consists of one 31:37 minutes long track. Then there is "Redbird" on "Redbird" (1995), which is 41:01 minutes long. On ''Music/MusicForChildren'' "Cycles du Nord" takes up 20:54 minutes and is nothing but three wind machines and some feedback playing. "Mount Analogue" (2012) consists of one track, "Mount Analogue", which is 38:21 long. "The Hemetic Organ" (2012) is completely improvised and live, 36:25 long. The 31:55 track "Batrachophrenoboocosmomachia" on the Painkiller album "Talisman: Live in Nagoya" (2002). The longest track in his work so far is the 47:49 "The Dream Membrane" on the album "The Dream Membrane" (2014) with David Chaim Smith and Bill Laswell.

** On "The Book Of Heads" (1995) Zorn rubbed ballons on guitar strings until they popped, hold talking dolls up to the microphone, pulled guitar strings out of the bridge notch, hit the strings with pencils and played with rice!
** Zorn used water, glass bowls, metal pipes, wax paper, mud and staple guns on his album "Songs from the Hermetic Theatre" (2001).
** The track "Cycles du Nord" on ''Music/MusicForChildren'' (1998) is a 20-minute composition for wind machines.
* {{Exotica}}: His 2001 album "The Gift".
* FaceOnTheCover: Interestingly enough, Zorn doesn't feature his own face on album covers much, if any. A notable exception is "First Recordings 1973" (1995), a collection of recordings he made when he was 20 years old and in college. He used a childhood foto of himself in front of a desk.
* UsefulNotes/{{Feminism}}: His 2009 album "Femina" is a tribute to the artistic creativity of women.

* GardenOfEvil: The Naked City album "Torture Garden" (1990) is a shout-out to Octave Mirbeau's eponymous novel.

* UsefulNotes/{{Gnosticism}}: He has released several albums with a band called the Gnostic Trio: "The Gnostic Preludes" (2012), "The Mysteries" (2013) and "In Lambeth" (2013).
* GratuitousForeignLanguage: His 1997 album "New Traditions in East Asian Bar Bands" (1997) has narration in Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese. "Kristallnacht" and his Masada and Bar Kohkba albums have tracks with Hebrew titles.
* GratuitousPanning: On "Spy vs. Spy" (1989) Zorn is recorded on the right channel, while Tim Berne appears on the left.
* {{Grindcore}} and {{Hardcore}}: One of many genres he touched. His bands Naked City, Painkiller, Hemophiliac and Moonchild Trio specialize in it. Mick Harris (Music/NapalmDeath, ''Scorn'') played drums in Painkiller.

** Zorn has released several albums that are odes to artists and works he likes: Creator/MickeySpillane, Creator/JeanLucGodard, Music/EnnioMorricone ("The Big Gundown" (1985)), Music/OrnetteColeman, Marguerite Duras, Marcel Duchamp, Bruno Schultz, Creator/ArthurRimbaud, ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}'',...
** He has also contributed to tribute albums to Music/TheloniousMonk and Music/KurtWeill. On his debut album "The Classic Guide To Strategy" (1983) the first two tracks are homages to Franchise/LooneyTunes composer Carl Stalling, while the other six are all shout-outs to Japanese avantgarde musicians.

** His album "Elegy" (1992) is dedicated to Creator/JeanGenet.
** The track "Notre dame de l' oublie" on "Absinthe" (1993) is dedicated to Music/OlivierMessiaen.
** "Cycles du Nord" on ''Music/MusicForChildren'' (1998) is a 20 minute windmachine composition dedicated to Music/EdgardVarese.
** "Redbird" (1980) has tribute compositions for artist Agnes Martin.

** The track "Shibboleth" on ''From Silence to Sorcery'' (2007) is a tribute to the Jewish poet Paul Celan.
** "Alhambra Love Songs" (2009) features musical tributes to Music/VinceGuaraldi, Creator/ClintEastwood, Creator/DavidLynch, Music/MikePatton and visual artist Harry Everett Smith.
** "Dictée/Liber Novus" has two compositions: "Dictée", a homage to writer and conceptual artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, and "Liber Novus" was inspired by the "Red Book" of UsefulNotes/CarlJung.
** "Interzone" (2010) and "Dreamachines" (2013) pay tribute to Creator/WilliamSBurroughs and Creator/BrionGysin. "Nova Express" (2011) is also inspired by Burroughs' prose.
** "At the Gates of Paradise" (2011) is inspired by Creator/WilliamBlake and the gnostic texts of the Nag Hammadi library. "A Vision in Blakelight" is also inspired by Blake.
** "Rimbaud" (2012) is a tribute to Creator/ArthurRimbaud.
** The track "À Rebours" on "Music and its Double" (2012) is dedicated to composer ''Gyorgy Ligeti,'' while "La Machine de l' Être" on the same album is inspired by Antonin Artaud.
** The music on his album "On the Torment of Saints, the Casting of Spells and the Evocation of Spirits" (2013) was inspired by Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''Theatre/TheTempest''.
** "Of Wonder and Certainty" from "The Dreamers" (2008) is dedicated to Music/LouReed.
* IKissYourHand: The cover of "Madness, Love and Mysticism" (2001) features a woman with a male hand in her mouth.
* {{Improv}}: A majority of his work is improvised together with other artists, what lead him to be categorized as {{Jazz}}, more based on the method than the actual music. But Zorn also makes ''game piece'' improvisations, where the improvisations are more controlled according to a set of rules. His albums ''Music/{{Spillane}}'', "Godard/Spillane" and "Xu Feng" are prime examples of this technique. On "The Hermetic Organ" (2012), "The Hermetic Organ, Vol. 2" (2014) and "The Hermetic Organ, Vol. 3" (2015) Zorn improvised an entire piece on an Aeolian Skinner pipe organ live at St. Paul's Chapel at Columbia University. Music/LouReed, who attended the first performance, called it "a night of culmination and conquest." "Downtown Lullaby" (1998) is a collective improvisation album.

* LocationSong: The album "Ganryu Island" (1985) is named after a small Japanese island of the same name, where samurai warriors Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro engaged in battle.
* LuckyCharmsTitle: The tracks on the Hemophiliac album "50th Birthday Celebration Volume 6" are all symbols. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50th_Birthday_Celebration_Volume_6]]

** "Redbird" (1995) is just a reddish color, with the album title and his name on it.
** The cover of "IAO" (2002) is completely white.
** "Alhambra Love Songs" (2009) is also white, but has the title and text on it.
** "Interzone" (2010) is a grey, white album with some weird symbols on it. "Enigmata" is a 2011 white album with an enigma symbol on it.
** "Nosferatu" (2012) is completely black, with red lettering.
** "The Hermetic Organ" (2012) has a blue cover with a symbol on the cover.
** "Rimbaud" (2012) is a blue cover with just the written name Rimbaud on it.
** "Music and Its Double" (2012) is a completely white cover, with some abstract imagery on it and the artists' name and title.
** "The Concealed" (2012) is a white cover with just a circle, triangle and square on it.

* NightmareFuel: "Kristallnacht" is an album about UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust. As such it's quite disturbing. The second track, "Never Again", consists of twelve minutes of the sound of glass breaking, chopped-up Hitler speeches, footsteps, discordant violins, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking klezmer]], and [[HellIsThatNoise a high-pitched squeal]]. The liner notes warn that the song can cause nausea and headaches.

* NoiseRock: Several albums fall into this trope. The most extreme record is "Weird Little Boy" (1998), an AvantGardeMusic album by Zorn's one-off band Weird Little Boy where the experimental noise is so out there that it divides fans whether it's one of their best or their worst. Trey Spruance, who played on the record, disowned it and advised people not to buy it.
* NoTitle: "Euclid's Nightmare" (1997) has 27 untitled tracks, of which several are intentionally identical - tracks (7) and (18); tracks (3) and (20); and tracks (5), (14), and (27
* NumberOfTheBeast: Zorn signed and numbered 666 copies of the album "The Satyr's Play/Cerberus" (2011) and produced 66 copies of a limited edition book version which were individualised and hand bound in black goat skin.
* ObligatoryBondageSong: A lot of albums with Naked City have covers featuring people in sado-masochistic poses and bondage, including ''Music/{{Radio}}''. The track "S & M Sniper" from "Torture Garden" (1990) is a song example. "Submission", "My Master, My Slave" and "Dominatrix 5B" from "Heretic" (1992) too.
* OneWordTitle: The albums "Elegy" (1992), "Kristallnacht" (1993), "Redbird" (1995), "IAO" (2002), "Chimeras" (2003), "Magick" (2004), "Mysterium" (2005), "Rituals" (2005), "Femina" (2009), "Interzone" (2010), "Enigmata" (2011), "Nosferatu" (2012), "Rimbaud" (2012), "Lemma" (2013), "Dreamachines" (2013),... and that's just the albums in his own catalogue!
* {{Opera}}: His album "Rituals" (2005) is an opera, first performed at the Bayreuth Opera Festival in 1988. The Moonchild album "Astronome" (2006) was staged as an opera by Richard Foreman.
* PunBasedTitle: His album "Lemma" (2013) is a nod to the mathematical equation ''Zorn's lemma'' by namesake Max Zorn. They aren't related, by the way.

* RefugeInAudacity: Zorn's music changes styles and moods so abrupt that his work is bound to polarize people. Some of his album covers have also pushed boundaries by showing scenes of violent deaths or creepy sexual images. His song titles can sometimes be audacious too: "Igneous Ejaculation", "Fuck the Facts" (from "Naked City" (1990), "Perfume of a Critic's Burning Flesh", "Jazz Snob Eat Shit", "Pigfucker" (from "Torture Garden" (1990)), "Sweat, Sperm + Blood", "Coprahagist Rituals"(from "Heretic" (1992)), "Guts of a Virgin", "Handjob" and "Purgatory of Fiery Vulvas" (1991) with Painkiller.

* RockMeAsmodeus: His album "Asmodeus: Book of Angels Volume 7" (2007) is a literal example.
* SatyrPlay: His 2011 album "The Satyr's Play/Cerberus" provides music to the tale.

** "You Only Live Twice, Mr. Bond", "Never Say Never Again" and "Thunderball" on "Locus Solus" (1983) are a reference to the Franchise/JamesBond films ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice'', ''Film/NeverSayNeverAgain'' and ''Film/{{Thunderball}}''. The track "Jedi Mind Trick" on that same album is a reference to ''Franchise/StarWars'', while "White Zombie" references the horror classic ''Film/WhiteZombie''.
** "Kagemusha" on "Ganryu Island" (1985) is a shout-out to Creator/AkiraKurosawa's samurai film ''Film/{{Kagemusha}}''.
** "The Big Gundown" (1987) is a reference to the film ''Film/TheBigGunDown'', for which Music/EnnioMorricone wrote the soundtrack. All the other tracks also reference films for which Morricone composed the music, including ''Film/TheBattleOfAlgiers'', ''Film/DuckYouSucker'', ''Film/OnceUponATimeInTheWest'' and ''Film/OnceUponATimeInAmerica''.
** ''Music/{{Spillane}}'' (1987), "The Bribe" (1999), "Godard/Spillane" (1999) are a homage to the detective novels by Creator/MickeySpillane.
** The 1988 album "News for Lulu" and the 1993 follow-up "More News For Lulu" are a reference to the character Creator/LouiseBrooks plays in ''Film/PandorasBox''.
** "Spy vs. Spy: The Music Of Ornette Coleman" (1989) brings homage to Music/OrnetteColeman while the title is a shout-out to ''ComicStrip/SpyVsSpy''.
** The band Naked City is inspired by a 1945 photograph book by Weegee. The cover of "Naked City" (1990), recorded with his band Naked City, is a real photo of a man gunned down, "Corpse with Revolver C.A. 1940", taken by famed photographer Weegee. The album has covers of music by Music/EnnioMorricone, Music/HenryMancini, Music/OrnetteColeman, Music/JohnBarry and Music/JerryGoldsmith. The track "Batman" references ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'', "Reanimator" the film ''Film/{{Reanimator}}'', "Snagglepuss" the Hanna Barbera cartoon character of the same name.
** "Torture Garden" (1990) references ''Le Jardin des Supplices'', a novel by Octave Mirbeau. The track "Hellraiser" is a shout-out to ''Film/{{Hellraiser}}'', while "Shallow Grave" references ''Film/ShallowGrave'' and "Billy Liar" ''Film/BillyLiar''.
** "Grand Guignol" (1992) and "Heretic" (1992) are dedicated to film director Jack Smith. The former album also justifies its obsession with taboos, fear, terror and evil by making a comparison to the works of Creator/{{Aristotle}}, Creator/{{Aeschylus}}, Creator/WilliamShakespeare, Creator/MarquisDeSade, Creator/FranciscoDeGoya, Creator/EdgarAllanPoe, Creator/SalvadorDali, Georges Bataille, Creator/AlfredHitchcock, Irving Klaw, Francis Bacon, Dan Oniroku, Creator/HerschellGordonLewis, Hermann Nitsch and Music/{{Carcass}}.
** The Painkiller album "Guts Of A Virgin" (1991) has a track called "Dr. Phibes", a reference to ''Film/TheAbominableDrPhibes''.
** "Heretic" (1992) has a track called ''Film/TheConquerorWorm''.
** "Leng Tch'e" (1992) is inspired by Georges Bataille's writings about a 1905 photograph of a slow slicing execution method practiced upon a Chinese man.
** The 1993 album ''Music/{{Radio}}'' has tracks called ''ComicStrip/KrazyKat'', ''Film/ShockCorridor'' and ''Literature/AmericanPsycho''. The liner notes name various people as inspirations for the music.
** "Absinthe" (1993) has titles which are shout-outs to the works of Creator/PaulVerlaine and Creator/CharlesBaudelaire. The cover is a photograph by Hans Bellmer.
** The 1996 collaboration with Music/EugeneChadbourne, "In Memory of Nikki Arane" (1996), is a reference to a character from ''Film/TheKilling'', who is also featured on the cover.
** His 1998 "Angelus Novus" has a track called "For Your Eyes Only", referencing ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly''.
** "Xu Feng" (2000) is named after Taiwanese martial arts actress Xu Feng. She also appears on the cover. The titles of the tracks are all shout-outs to martial arts movies, including ''Film/TheHiddenFortress'' and ''Film/ATouchOfZen''.
** "IAO" (2002) is inspired by Creator/AleisterCrowley and film director Creator/KennethAnger. The title is a shout-out to the Kabbalistic identity of IAO, the initials of Isis, Apophis and Osiris, used as a magical formula in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
** The cover of "Chimeras" (2003) is a detail of the Creator/HieronymusBosch painting "The Last Judgment", a tryptich where only a fragment has survived. The 2010 reissue of this album features Alice Liddell on the cover, the girl who inspired Creator/LewisCarroll to write ''Literature/AliceInWonderland''.
** "Magick" (2004) has a drawing from Creator/GustaveDore on the cover. The individual titles refer to the "Necronomicon", the book from Creator/JosephCampbell's novels.
** The debut album by Moonchild, "Moonchild: Songs Without Words" (2006) takes inspiration from Creator/AleisterCrowley, Antonin Artaud and Music/EdgardVarese. One track is named "UsefulNotes/{{Caligula}}".
** "Nosferatu" (2012) is based on ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}'' and released to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Creator/BramStoker's death in 2012.
** His album "On the Torment of Saints, the Casting of Spells and the Evocation of Spirits" (2013). The cover is Creator/SalvadorDali's painting "Art/TheTemptationOfStAnthonyDali".
** "Shir Hashirim" (2009) has a sketch by Creator/AugusteRodin on the cover and is inspired by the Hebrew "Song of Songs".
** The Gnostic Trio album "In Lambeth" (2013) has a title that provides a shout-out to a line from Creator/WilliamBlake's poem "Jerusalem".
* SkullForAHead: "The String Quartets" (1999) features a skull on the album cover.
* SomethingBlues: The track "Alhambra Blues" on "Alhambra Love Songs" (2009).

** His band Naked City features contributions from NoiseRock band members like Music/{{Boredoms}}, Music/NapalmDeath, and Music/{{Carcass}}, but more significantly, the band's guitarist was jazz guitarist Bill Frisell and its bass guitarist was Music/HenryCow guitarist Fred Frith, both of whom have illustrious solo careers.
** On the album "Grand Guignol" (1992) Bob Dorough, composer for ''WesternAnimation/SchoolhouseRock'' and Music/MilesDavis, is special guest.
** On his 2009 album "Femina" Music/LaurieAnderson provides the narration.

* ThemeNaming: He has composed "game pieces", which are best described as musical {{Improv}} under a series of strict rules. He literally named several of these game pieces after sports, including ''Track & Field''(1974), ''Baseball'' (1976), ''Lacrosse'' (1976), ''Dominoes'' (1977), ''Curling'' (1977), ''Golf'' (1977), ''Hockey'' (1978), ''Cricket'' (1978), ''Fencing'' (1978), ''Pool'' (1979), and ''Archery'' (1979).
* WhosOnFirst: A track on Music/JohnZorn, Derek Bailey and George Lewis's album "Yankees" (1983) carries this title.

* OverlyLongTitle: His album "On the Torment of Saints, the Casting of Spells and the Evocation of Spirits" (2013). The Moonchild album "Astronome" has nothing but long titles for tracks, including: "Act One: A Secluded Clearing in the Woods; A Single Bed in a Small Room; The Innermost Chapel of a Secret Temple"

** "Shir Hashirim" (2009) has a sketch by Auguste Rodin on the cover and is inspired by the Hebrew "Song of Songs".

** His album "On the Torment of Saints, the Casting of Spells and the Evocation of Spirits" (2013). The cover is Creator/SalvadorDali's painting "The Temptation of St. Anthony".

John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is one of the most eclectic composers and musicians alive today. He is a multi-instrumentalist, often classified as a {{Jazz}} or AvantGardeMusic artist, but his music is far more diverse. The man is the best musical example of GenreRoulette. There are few Western musical forms he hasn't had a go at: {{Jazz}}, AvantGardeMusic, ClassicalMusic, {{Rock}}, PunkRock, SurfRock, Exotica, ElectronicMusic, {{Ambient}}, Klezmer, {{Improv}}, {{Hardcore}}, {{Grindcore}}, DeathMetal, Thrashcore, {{Reggae}}, noise, NoiseRock, {{Blues}}, movie soundtracks... Not only that, but he mixes all of them together and switches back and forth between them, much like somebody surfing TV channels. He had said on many occasions that composer Mauricio Kagel was his first musical hero, who sparked his interest in experimental music. Another big influence is Carl Stalling, best known as the composer of the original WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes cartoons.

* The Dreamers, a blend of jazz and {{exotica}} , which is among his most accessible work.

John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is one of the most eclectic composers and musicians alive today. He is a multi-instrumentalist, often classified as a {{Jazz}} or AvantGardeMusic artist, but his music is far more diverse. The man is the best musical example of GenreRoulette. There are few Western musical forms he hasn't had a go at: {{Jazz}}, AvantGardeMusic, ClassicalMusic, {{Rock}}, PunkRock, SurfRock, ElectronicMusic, {{Ambient}}, Klezmer, {{Improv}}, {{Hardcore}}, {{Grindcore}}, DeathMetal, {{Reggae}}, noise, {{Blues}}, movie soundtracks... Not only that, but he mixes all of them together and switches back and forth between them, much like somebody surfing TV channels. He had said on many occasions that composer Mauricio Kagel was his first musical hero, who sparked his interest in experimental music. Another big influence is Carl Stalling, best known as the composer of the original WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes cartoons.

* DeathMetal: One of the many genres he experiments with, often combined with {{Grindcore}} and {{Trashcore}}. His "Spy vs. Spy" (1989) album and his work with Naked City and Painkiller are prime examples.

* HemoErotic: The band Hemophiliac

John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is one of the most eclectic composers and musicians alive today. He is a multi-instrumentalist, often classified as a {{Jazz}} or AvantGardeMusic artist, but his music is far more diverse. The man is the best musical example of GenreRoulette. There are few Western musical forms he hasn't had a go at: {{Jazz}}, AvantGardeMusic, ClassicalMusic, {{Rock}}, PunkRock, SurfRock, ElectronicMusic, {{Ambient}}, Klezmer, {{Improv}}, {{Hardcore}}, {{Grindcore}}, DeathMetal, {{Reggae}}, {{Blues}}, movie soundtracks... Not only that, but he mixes all of them together and switches back and forth between them, much like somebody surfing TV channels. He had said on many occasions that composer Mauricio Kagel was his first musical hero, who sparked his interest in experimental music. Another big influence is Carl Stalling, best known as the composer of the original WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes cartoons.