Ennio Morricone is probably the most famous film composer of the 20th century. He is also one of the most prolific composers working in any medium. No exact figure is available, but he's scored several hundred films over the past several decades, perhaps as many as 500. While these have been in almost every imaginable musical style (and for... [+] Read More

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Adding modern touches to traditional-based Swedish folk music has made Garmarna one of top groups of the Scandanavian Folk resurgence of the 90's. Their debut album, Vittrad, released in April 1994, was nominated for a Swedish Grammy while their second album, Guds Speleman, released two years later, received the Swedish Grammy award as "Album... [+] Read More

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Best known in the U.S. for its hard rock material, Golden Earring has been the most popular homegrown band in the Netherlands since the mid-'60s, when they were primarily a pop group. The group was founded by guitarist/vocalist George Kooymans and bassist/vocalist Rinus Gerritsen, then schoolboys, in 1961; several years and personnel shifts... [+] Read More

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The Nordic group Hedningarna was formed in Sweden by multi-instrumentalists Anders Stake, Björn Tollin and Hållbus Totte Mattsson; although the group's self-titled 1989 debut LP was an instrumental effort, by the release of 1992's Kaksi!, Finnish vocalists Sanna Kurki-Suonio and Anita Lehtola had joined the lineup. Trä followed in 1994, and two... [+] Read More

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Eclectic guitarist Marc Ribot has recorded a wide variety of music over his career, working with Elvis Costello and on Tom Waits' Rain Dogs. He has also recorded compositions for classical guitar by Haiti's Franz Casseus, a friend of his parents, and has participated actively in New York City's downtown avant-garde music scene for some time,... [+] Read More

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Morphine are a rarity -- bluesy, bare-bones rock & roll without any guitars. Instead of guitar riffs, the trio relies on sliding two-string bass lines, raucous saxophones, and wry, ironically detached vocals. During the mid-'90s, Morphine gained a sizable cult following in America, primarily due to good word of mouth, heavy college airplay, and... [+] Read More

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Maybe there’s just a feeling something is missing. It’s hard to pin down, difficult to articulate; a matter of lying in bed at night, kept awake by a mysterious yearning for more Wallace Stevens quotes set to low-down combustible grooves. Maybe it’s a sudden desire to hear words like “myxamatoid” and “spraddle” deployed in popular music instead... [+] Read More

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Radiohead was one of the few alternative bands of the early '90s to draw heavily from the grandiose arena rock that characterized U2's early albums. But the band internalized that epic sweep, turning it inside out to tell tortured, twisted tales of angst and alienation. Vocalist Thom Yorke's pained lyrics were brought to life by the group's... [+] Read More

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In the 1970s, Tom Waits combined a lyrical focus on desperate, lowlife characters with a persona that seemed to embody the same lifestyle, which he sang about in a raspy, gravelly voice. From the '80s on, his work became increasingly theatrical as he moved into acting and composing. Growing up in southern California, Waits attracted the... [+] Read More

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