This Wednesday is an exciting day for New York-based cinephiles, as it marks the beginning of BAMcinématek's retrospective—the first in the U.S.—on Polish master Andrzej Żuławski for the series Hysterical Excess: Discovering Andrzej Zulawski. The series, under a different name, is also playing in Los Angeles at The Cine Family.
For those not in New York or L.A. (and even those who are), we were tipped to a special treat for fans of Żuławski, his regular composer Andrzej Korzynski, and their maddening marital horror film, Possession. The fantastic crate-digging curators of the brilliant Finders Keepers label have released a limited edition version (in green cassette tape!) of Korzynski's score for Żuławski's 1981 masterpiece. Like Morricone's score for Pasolini's Arabian Nights, a great deal of music was composed for Possession but only some of the full score made it into the final film. While this limited release appears sold out on the main Finders Keepers website, the label's U.S. arm, B-Music, is still selling the tape. But even if you can't get your hands on its clam shell case, the tape's main purpose seems to serve as a bizarro teaser for the release of an upcoming collection of music by Korzynski from the label. In Finders Keepers' own words:
As an early taster to our expansive collection of unreleased music by Andrzej Korzynski we bring you this very limited cassette release of his score for Andrzej Zulawski's surrealist 80’s horror classic. These 25 cues were written and recorded exclusively for the 1981 film Possession, but due to the raw, stark and modernist nature of the film less than half of them made it to the actual director’s cut leaving many of the tracks on this package totally unheard outside of Korzynski's studio. The intended Possession score in it's entirety marks an important axis in Korzynski's career where his various musical disciplines overlap - in one respect it marks his first forays into to synth driven electronics and disco drum machines, while other tracks epitomise the well honed techniques used in previous Zulawski scores, such as Third Part Of The Night, which rely on his inimitable orchestral arrangements and combination of clavinet, rhodes, piano and electric guitar.
I'm allowed to share but a brief tease: a solitary, spooky track of the 27 from this release. Hopefully it will get you excited for the Korzynski collection coming this summer.
What you are listening to:
(1) "Mark Sees Everything" from Andrzej Korzynski's full score to Possession.
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