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LP
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FKR 062X-LP
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2024 restock. During the maiden voyage into an expansive vat of unreleased music by Polish composer Andrzej Korzynski, Finders Keepers Records originally presented his previously unreleased electro/ orchestral/experimental score for Andrzej Zulawski's surrealist '80s horror classic Possession in 2012. These 25 cues were written and recorded exclusively for the 1981 award-winning film starring Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neil, but due to the progressive, stark and modernist nature of the finished film less than half of them made it on to the actual director's cut -- leaving many of the tracks on this spackage totally unheard outside of Korzynski's studio. The intended Possession score in its 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 epitomize the well-honed techniques used in previous Zulawski scores, such as Third Part Of The Night and The Devil, which rely on his inimitable orchestral arrangements and combination of clavinet, Rhodes, piano and electric guitar. Available once again on black 12" vinyl for the first time since its original release some 11 years ago, Finders Keepers' ongoing commitment to the important restoration of Korzynski's music aims to shed new light on the seldom manufactured productions of the composer whose vast cinematic catalogue warrants overdue global status alongside other golden era Eastern European composers such as Kryzstof Komeda, Jan Hammer, and Zdenek Liska -- not to mention the best of the French and Italian soundtrackers, such as Roubaix, Vannier, and Nicolai. Duplicated and carefully remastered directly from Korzynski's original master tapes this album boasts the uninhibited studio experiments and retains the pre-cut ambience.
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2LP
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FKR 055X-LP
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Twenty-two rare and unreleased vintage tracks from the secret vaults of one of the most enigmatic composers in '60s/'70s/'80s European cinema. Originally recorded in the best studios in Poland, Italy and France for experimental film, political allegories, lost television shows, sound libraries and radio -- these tracks have been hidden behind the Iron Curtain on lost master tapes and film reels until now. Secret Enigma is the first ever dedicated anthology of this great composer's work. Originally released exactly 30 years ago in artistic cinema, Andrzej Korzyński's unique experiments with jazz, pop, rock, orchestral and electronic music make his name synonymous with the most praised (Andrzej Wajda) and the most provocative (Andrzej Żuławski) Polish filmmakers (counting many more in between). As an early patron of the Polish new wave and a key exponent of the development of conceptual Polish pop music his expansive portfolio has remained commercially unreleased and untraveled (like many of the original socialist era Polish made films) and has yet to find its deserved place next to the work of Ennio Morricone, François de Roubaix, and John Barry. Now enhanced by a renewed interest in vintage art house film and a subculture of open minded music collectors many Easter European artists, such as Krzysztof Komeda (Poland), Zdeněk Liska (Czechoslovakia), and now Andrzej Korzynski, have finally begun to earn their place alongside their Central European peers. For lovers of film music and experimental pop this debut anthology and appraisal of Andrzej Korzyński.
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10"
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FKR 063X-LP
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As one of the most triumphant and beguiling directorial debut features to emerge from the fruitful Polish New Wave, Andrzej Zulawski's 1971 film Third Part Of The Night not only earned the thirty-year-old filmmaker a place next to other radical Polish directors such as Skolimowski and Has, but also galvanized a creative bond with long running collaborator and composer Andrzej Korzyński, providing fans of foreign abstract/suspense cinema with a potent creative fusion to match those of Fellini/Rota and Argento/Goblin, amongst others. Quite simply one of the heaviest psych rock film soundtracks of all time, Andrzej Korzyński's short and unreleased score matched the blueprint that adorned the drawing boards of conceptual French jazz orch-rock composers like Jean-Claude Vannier, Francois De Roubaix, and Alain Gourageur, creating a soundtrack that unknowingly begs comparison to Masahiko Satô's Belladonna Of Sadness and Billy Green's Stone. As one of the first progressive pop writers to come out of the vibrant (but carefully scrutinized) Polish beat scene with his bands Ricecar 64 and later Arp Life (and composing for national heroes such as Czeslaw Niemen, Niebiesko-Czarni and Test) Korzyński's growing passion for conceptual rock and jazz music soon lead to instrumental composition and soundtrack scores. Third Part Of The Night (1971) perhaps epitomizes that triangular on-screen unison in its vibrant youth and feeds it through a hallucinogenic mangle finding astonishing beauty (within a repulsive synopsis) against a bleak and shattered backdrop and accompanied by progressive, psychedelic orchestral rock music -- elements which would intensify for all three creatives with the next film, Diabel, which was banned by the Polish government the following year until 1988. Third Part Of The Night also marks the public unison of Żuławski and Braunek whose later private romantic relationship is said to form the basis for another defining Żuławski/Korzyński defining endeavor with the 1981 film Possession exactly a decade later, encapsulating a period that bequeaths a previously unopened vault of some of the composers finest and most inspired sonic adventures.
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LP
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FKR 112LP
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Wipe your blade clean. The bloodline of Eastern European kosmische and groundbreaking, grinding cinematic psych rock finally emerges from fifty years of forbidden forestland to fill your thirsty grails. Poland's prime progressive provocateurs Andrzej Zuławski and Andrzej Korzynski finally expose the jagged roots of Possession and The Silver Globe and give the devil his due via this historical vinyl release. If an opening strapline that reads "Forget everything that you thought you knew about the history of psychedelic rock and horror movies" appeals to you, then further potentially hyperbolic phrases like "Lost Grail" and "Banned Forever" will surely clinch the deal, leaving the hugely significant wider context of this dream come true release surplus to requirement. But as we hope you have come to expect from Finders Keepers releases "The devil is in the detail" and the fact that any mention of the perpetually elusive original master tapes to a 1972 project entitled Diabeł and the phrase "Holy Grail" have become synonymously associated only adds the twisted irony that surrounds this genuine masterpiece of both aforementioned fields. For those fastidious enough to pursue the hunt, these unearthed recordings represent the crowning glory of the lifelong unison of maestro Andrzej Zuławski and filmmaker Andrzej Korzynski, two genuine mavericks of Polish experimental cinema who challenged artistic and societal norms, on both sides of a politically restricted regime and on an international artistic stage, without compromise. Friends since childhood, Korzynski and Zuławski may have become divided by limelight and geography (Zuławski the intrepid emigre), but they remained united in their kaleidoscopic creative vision, resulting in a fractured stream of troublesome and mind-bending golden era collaborations such as Possession, The Silver Globe, and Third Part Of The Night. This long-awaited liberation of the psychedelic masterpiece known as Diabeł finally completes the duo's full vista with what many consider the most vital piece of the prism. Sourced from the elusive original master tapes with the full cooperation of the CeTA archives in Warsaw. Released alongside The Devil Tapes (FKSP 022EP) the original off-kilter psychedelic score rejected by Andrzej Zulawski.
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7"
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FKSP 022EP
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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.
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LP
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FKR 066LP
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2014 release. Opening further doors in the sprawling labyrinth of unreleased music by Polish composer Andrzej Korzyński, Finders Keepers Records presents the soundtrack to the 1977 Polish film Człowiek z marmuru (Man of Marble) by national filmmaker and long-term collaborator Andrzej Wajda. Presented for the first time ever on vinyl, this synthesizer-fuelled soundtrack marks a distinct stylistic maneuver toward a unique brand of Polish cosmic disco, celebrating the cinematic debut of Korzyński's Arp-Life project -- widely respected as Poland's first synthesizer orchestra. Begging direct comparison to Russia's Zodiac and sharing an uncanny resemblance to other 1970s European cinematic disco bands like France's Arpadys or the later projects of Italy's Goblin, this soundtrack features Korzyński and Arp-Life at their best, making fantastical and experimental musical approximations of the burgeoning synth funk disco boom which had erupted on the other side of the iron curtain. Man of Marble was Korzyński's first step into electronic dance music, and with the addition of bonus tracks from the 1981 sequel Człowiek z żelaza (Man of Iron), it provides the perfect companion piece to his recently liberated score to Possession (directed by Andrzej Żuławski). Experimental and fantastical, and taking creative gambles as a necessity, Man of Marble's over-the-top, synth-heavy score depicts a stark, ultramodern contrast, accentuating a plot that switches between past and present tense, illustrating a 1970s researcher who retraces spurious political events that occurred forty years earlier. As with most communist state-owned record labels, Polskie Nagrania Muza, which had previously released works by Korzyński, rarely encouraged the commercial promotion of film composers. Although Korzyński was an occasional exception to this rule (due to his previous career as a radio programmer, pop musician, and writer), Man of Marble would never be commercially released outside of the context of the film. This edition of Man of Marble provides further glimpses into a deeper archive of electronic pop, capturing prime-era Korzyński as a forward-thinking keyboard artist and experimentalist who managed to move with global musical and technological trends under the stifling communist regime.
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CD
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BMS 045CD
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2012 release. 22 rare and unreleased vintage tracks from the secret vaults of one of the most enigmatic composers in '60s/'70s/'80s European cinema. Originally recorded in the best studios in Poland, Italy and France for experimental film, political allegories, lost television shows, sound libraries and radio -- these tracks have been hidden behind the Iron Curtain on lost master tapes and film reels until now. Secret Enigma is the first ever dedicated anthology of this great composer's work. In artistic cinema Andrzej Korzyński's unique experiments with jazz, pop, rock, orchestral and electronic music make his name synonymous with the most praised (Andrzej Wajda) and the most provocative (Andrzej Żuławski) Polish filmmakers (counting many more in between). As an early patron of the Polish New Wave and a key exponent of the development of conceptual Polish pop music, his expansive portfolio has remained commercially unreleased and untraveled (like many of the original socialist-era Polish-made films) and has yet to find its deserved place next to the work of Ennio Morricone, François de Roubaix and John Barry. Now enhanced by a renewed interest in vintage art house film and a subculture of open minded music collectors, many Easter European artists, such as Krzysztof Komeda (Poland), Zdeněk Li?ka (Czechoslovakia) and now Andrzej Korzynski, have finally begun to earn their place alongside their Central European peers. For lovers of film music and experimental pop this debut anthology and appraisal of Andrzej Korzyński's work is well overdue, and is stylistically probably never more relevant.
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