John Zorn's most recent soundtrack release, Hiding and Seeking,�reveals again�Zorn's softer side. We became familiar with this side after the releases of The Gift�(Tzadik, 2001), which Zorn described as an "exploration of easy listening", and the soundtrack Filmworks XIII: Invitation to a Suicide (Tzadik, 2002), which explored his debts to the works of composers�Nino Rota, Astor Piazzola and Ennio Morricone. Here Zorn returns with another lyrical, beautiful, yet light and almost mellow, soundtrack to a Jewish documentary, his fifth score for a Jewish film. Menachem Daum and Oren Rudavsky's film, also entitled Hiding and Seeking, is described as a documentary that deals with "faith and tolerance after the holocaust,"�focusing on an Jewish Orthodox father who drags his two sons out of yeshiva and off to Poland in search of his roots.

Zorn is playing again with Jewish and easy listening motifs; he describes�the work as "coming from� a "Martin Denny in the Catskills' mold" and finished writing the music "in about two hours." He employs the members of his Electric Masada - Marc Ribot on classical guitar, Kenny Wollesen on vibes, Trevor Dunn on double-bass and Cyro Baptista on Brazilian percussion, and adding vocalist Ganda Suthivarakom, who contributes sweet wordless chanting vocals to four tracks. Unfortunately all the vocal versions were cut out from the film's final mix, acccording to the notes, "as Orthodox law forbids a woman from singing in public." Pity the believers, who are blind to the marvels of this world.

It's always great to listen to Ribot's guitar playing, so precise, heartfelt�and beautiful, even if it is much more restrained here than in his personal interpretations to Zorn's Masada songbook�on "Masada Guitars" (Tzadik, 2003). The�backing of Wollesen, Dunn and Baptista gives solid support to Ribot and Suthivarakom. Sunny, light and simple music that just "came from the heart," as Zorn wrote in his liner notes.�No provocative sleeve as in "The Gift," no black humor as in "Filmworks XIII," just delightful music for�relaxed�listening.