Ennio Morricone - Mondo Morricone
Italian soundtracks were a mysterious world to me. I always heard that there were amazing Morricone scores, but outside of the Spaghetti Westerns I'd never heard them. I remember going to a shop called 53 Dean Street which was a soundtrack specialist and thinking, where on earth do I start? So that's one thing a good compilation should do - open up doors. This came out in the mid-nineties, and I couldn't believe what I heard. The melodies are simple, subtle, Morricone does it all with so little and makes it sound so easy - those shifts in mood and tempo, and often with the same three-note motif all the way through. I'm sure it did come easily to him - he was writing around 20 soundtracks a year in the early seventies.