Krzysztof Komeda – Wyrok – Soundtrack From Jerzy Passendorfer Movie (2008)

Krzysztof Komeda (composer)

Wyrok – Soundtrack From Jerzy Passendorfer Movie (2008)

Although primarily identified as the soundtrack composer of the movies directed by Roman Polanski, Polish pianist / composer Krzysztof Komeda cooperated with the entire Polish film industry during the revolutionary days of the 1960s New Wave of Polish Cinema, producing a long list of incredible cinematic scores. The post-WWII Polish cinema, struggling with the destruction of the country's intellectual fabric, the Socialist regime and the economic hardships, managed to produce some of the most outstanding works of modern cinematography, equal in their power of expression and revolutionary approach to cinema as a modern cultural media to the achievement of the great British, Scandinavian, French and Italian film makers at the same time. Komeda's soundtracks to the Polish (and Scandinavian) films in the mid-1960s and later Hollywood movies by the end of the 1960s are all absolute masterpieces of style, expression and sheer genius in creating a story-telling, often nerve-wrecking melody lines and wonderful themes, which expanded the visual content of the films and added another emotional dimension. 

The music is of course strongly influenced by the Jazz idioms, often even being pure Jazz. It is performed mostly by Komeda himself, accompanied by the members of his Jazz combos at the time, like trumpeter Tomasz Stanko, saxophonists Zbigniew Namyslowski and Michal Urbaniak and others. Sometimes larger instrumentation is also used, especially in the later scores. What is especially surprising and magical about this music is the fact that is stands alone as well as it functions as a part of the cinematic experience. All the albums with Komeda's soundtracks are simply superb pieces of music and in retrospect constitute an incredible body of work of rarely equaled magnitude and importance. Komeda's tragic and painfully premature death ended a career, which in many respects was at its early stage. This album includes the soundtrack of the movie "Wyrok (The Sentence)" by the director Jerzy Passendorfer. Brilliant stuff!

Track Listings:

1. Typish Jazz
2. Light motif
3. Intro - sax
4. Kocia muzyka (Cats' music)
5. Dancing
6. Serenada
7. Swing
8. Light motif - piano
9. Kocia muzyka (Cats' music)
10. Flute - part 1
11. Flute - part 2
12. Light motif - piano
13. Typish Jazz
14. Light motif - piano
15. Typish Jazz
16. Intro - piano
17. Flute - part 3
18. Light motif - sax
19. Light motif - piano

By Adam Baruch
www.adambaruch.com