VII. FIELD REPORT: Film soundtracks from Eastern Europe, part 1 [20.10.2001] Emir Kusturica's films (Underground, Black Cat White Cat, etc), with their Goran Bregovic or No Smoking Orchestra sound tracks, have captivated hearts the world over. This is not where the canon of internationally known film soundtracks from Eastern Europe should end however. From folk to experimental to electronic music, Eastern and Central European music is finding its way in to movies from around the world. This month we're taking a minute to examine some of the notable soundtracks coming from these parts.... The Hungarian film "Werckmeister Harmonies" by Bela Tarr is currently opening in the USA, receiving rave reviews. Bela Tarr, whose cult film "Satintango" of 1995 was an international hit, has worked consistently with legendary Hungarian guitarist and composer MIHALY VIG, whose soundtracks to Tarr's films are captured on a glorious pensive and emotional compilation simply called "Filmzenek, Tarr Bela filmjeihez"(Bela Tarr film music.) On the Bregovician tip but even more Eastern, a fiery Bulgarian soundtrack to the excellent film "GYPSY SUMMER - Tales of Surviving" directed by Milan Ognianov features musicians from age 5 to 75, and music from pizzicato street chants to full brass band to heartfelt ballads to polyrhthmic jazz. On the other end of the musical spectrum, whilst remaining in the Balkans and just in time for Halloween, freestyle improvisers SILA from Yugoslavia take the much-tackled "Das Kabinett des Dr Caligari" and score it with bizarre, jarring, haunting, and certainly atmospheric sound manipulations. Excellent: it's fully improvised, recorded simply with two microphones on a cassette deck. Scampering Northward to Poland, we find the very famous TOMASZ STANKO's score for Filip Zylber film "A Farewell to Maria." Swooshing love songs by the Polish jazz master, this soundtrack is a masterpiece with an urban aura that might well have accompanied Taxi Driver or Chinatown. With a nearly transcendental spirit this is a stunning, heartwrencher masterpiece, which leaves you aching for cigar smoke, pomade, a martini, and pearls. And landing in Russia, where the late St Petersburg composer SERGEI KURYOKHIN is honored in the works and distinct memories of peer musicians, Kuryokhin's soundtracks are compiled onto at least two compilations. Mister Designer (film from 1989, soundtrack from 1999) features Kuryokhin's music to Oleg Teptsov's film, which was surprisingly approved of by the "Goskino" state committee and was set to become a full-screen movie (Mister Designer II, for which Kurykhin rewrote the music). Just Opera (1997) is a mysterious compilation that lists neither the film and theater works for which the music was created, nor the musicians nor the times when the recordings were made. The music is outstanding nonetheless, proving the genius of Kuryokhin's compositional instinct. These and more CDs are available on Tamizdat RPM, www.tamizdat.org/rpm.
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