Only two? That's damn tricky. I think I've got some 25-30 titles of his, and this doesn't even make for 1/10 of what he's done. But:
Kristallnacht from 1992. His composed ensemble work marking a final consolidation of his coming to terms with his Jewish background and upbringing. Being a student of the Shoah myself when I first heard this, it made an impeccable impression - and that near-12 minute noisepiece "Never Again" in particular. Consisting of dubbed and intertwining layers of high-frequent recordings of glass shatterings, its sole intention is to actually reach out from audio sonic realms and affect the physical body, which indeed it does if listened to for more than, say, two minutes. It stands out from the strictly scored, melodic charts of the remaining album, which is performed in real time by an ace sextet.
And then either Bar Kokhba (by Extended Masada, 1996) or Six Litanies for Heliogabalus (by the Moonchild Trio, 2007). The first one presents Zorn's finest entry into hypercharged jazz/New Music/klezmer-sonorities; full-on force and dynamic beyond imaginable. Heliogabalus, on the other hand, transgresses his former forays into improvised jazz-core and sets fresh standards of brute power in some densely ministered, impulsive pieces of immense attack and fury. This is one of the few instances where Zorn himself appears in a determining instrumental role with the Moonchild trio, IIRC.
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Originally Posted by Bake 1
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