Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone changed what film music could sound like. For Sergio Leone's westerns he threw twanging electric guitar, cracking whips, gunshots, wordless chants and Alessandro Alessandroni's whistling into the orchestra, creating the unmistakable sound of A Fistful of Dollars and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
His range was enormous. Across more than 400 scores he moved from the operatic grandeur of Once Upon a Time in the West and the hymn-like beauty of The Mission to giallo thrillers for Dario Argento, avant-garde improvisation with Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza and lush, swinging Italian pop arrangements. He finally won a competitive Oscar for Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight in 2016.
If you like Ennio Morricone you should check out: Goblin, Vangelis, John Carpenter, Hans Zimmer, Max Richter, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Ludwig Göransson
