ANDRZEJ KORZYNSKI: The Devil Tapes 7"
It has been exactly ten years since Finders Keepers first intrepidly entered Andrzej Korzynski's cavernous musical vault, but the label now announces the safe retrieval on a true heavy psych holy grail of the Polish composer's mind-bending oeuvre. The comprehensive elusive archive of the deeply psychedelic soundtrack to Andrzej Zuławski's forbidden film Diabeł (The Devil) (FKR 112LP) is perhaps the most detailed dossier one could wish to find -- including audio sketches, rejected proposals and pre-butchered variations that play out like an intense and veritable creative conversation between the director and the maestro, both widely recognized as true mavericks of socialist-era Poland's fertile artistic landscape. Never intended for anything as conventional as a straightforward movie tie-in promotional disc (state owned Eastern European record labels rarely did this), the music in this archive has required special forensic inspection. The 7" here is more than just a companion piece, and it is far from a selection of the (non-existent) poppy title themes to promote a full feature-length album. This standalone release is wholly unique in its own right, giving Finders Keepers listeners a final access all areas snoop into the mind of one of the pillars of our alternative musical community. As those familiar with Zuławski and Korzynski's long-running relationship will understand (a methodology best exemplified in the schizoid soundtrack to the film Possession), their exchanges were deeply nuanced and often complicated, with lots of artistic "tennis" thrown into the mix. The key plot in this behind-the-scene fable is that after delivering his original off-kilter psychedelic score to the director, maestro Korzynski was asked to make the music "totally unique, like something from another planet", to which Korzynski took his tapes, pulled down the vari-speed to a guttural grind and continued to recompose over the top using avant-garde electro-acoustic techniques while deploying psychedelic skills of guitarist Winicjusz Chróst. This limited record release proudly boasts Korzynski's original uptempo awkward psychedelic pop music prior to the doom-laden growls that make the official films soundtrack a true Goliath of Eastern European soundtrack composition. Released alongside long-awaited liberation of Andrzej Korzynski's full psychedelic score for Diabeł (FKR 112LP). Sourced from the elusive original master tapes with the full cooperation of the CeTA archives in Warsaw Transparent red vinyl; edition of 500.
01. The Devil Tapes Part One
02. The Devil Tapes Part Two