From the Shutter Island Soundtrack:
The Core presents Giacinto Scelsi, an Italian composer from the 20th century that remained largely unknown for most of his career. The impact caused by the late discovery of Scelsi’s works was described by Belgian musicologist Harry Halbreich:
A whole chapter of recent musical history must be rewritten: the second half of this century is now unthinkable without Scelsi… He has inaugurated a completely new way of making music, hitherto unknown in the West.
Scelsi’s works sound very strange upon first hearing, largely because his music is based around only one pitch, altered in all manners through microtonal oscillations, harmonic allusions, and changes in timbre and dynamics. This produces strange effects, which probably inspired Martin Scorsese to use Scelsi’s work in his movie Shutter Island (link above). Here is another piece by Scelsi, Aion:
His music explores philosophical concepts deeply rooted in many books studied in the Core, especially the Tao Te Ching.
