Lubos Fiser "Morgiana" Zdenek Liska "The Cremator" Soundtrack Review

Reviewed by Grey Malkin (The Hare & The Moon).

Previously unreleased, the soundtrack to two of the Czech New Wave's greatest (and, in the case of "The Cremator", most notorious) films have finally been made available by the splendid Finders Keepers label. Finders Keepers have been singular in their admirable determination to ensure that the few dedicated souls passionate about this under sung but crucial moment in European cinema history can enjoy the accompanying music, be it the dark Victoriana of "Valerie And Her Week of Wonders" or the jazzier, contemporary Euro-pop of "Saxanna" (the original teenage witch).

"The Cremator" and "Morgiana" are stylistically and narratively two very different films but they are united in their vaulting ambition and early employ of magical realism along with some of the most incredible cinematography you will ever see. What was in the water in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s?

"The Cremator" is a monochrome allegory involving the eponymous character who, obsessed with the afterlife and his own increasingly demented moral code, carries out atrocities first against his fellow men and then finally his own family. There are obvious references to Nazi Germany and the Czech experience of communist oppression at the time cannot be underestimated when considering the film's social commentary (a number of "The Cremator"s surrealist elements were a deliberate attempt to fly under the censor's radar). A chilling and understated film, it contrasts with the more flamboyant and gothic styling of other Czech gems such as "Valerie" or the day glow anarchy of "Daisies". Instead "The Cremator" is more akin to German Expressionism or Bergman's darker, more nihilistic portrayals of what it means to be human.

Composer Zdeněk Liška's previous work on another Czech classic "Malá Mořská Víla" (The Little Mermaid) was a stunning mix of electronics and baroque orchestral work, filled with harpsichord and chimes.  For "The Cremator" he employs an almost fairy tale like sense of magic and wonder in the use of choir and playful strings, quite at odds with the dark undertow of the movie but deliberately underscoring the increasingly unsettling mismatch of the protagonist's deranged world view and his respectable appearance. Hints of darker goings on begin to emerge from more conventional passages as the music itself indicates that behind the publicly acceptable and polite persona "The Cremator" is both sociopathic and deeply insane; merry-go-rounds and oompah segue into off- key trumpet squalls as both the film and its accompanying soundtrack reveal the dark heart of our narrator.

"Morgiana" was arguably the final film of the Czech new wave and also one of its finest. Communist occupation would eventually result in the country's film industry being under strict government control, effectively calling a halt to what was arguably one of the most unique, creative, colourful and surreal movements in cinema history. Essentially a gothic tale of two sisters (one good, one very bad) and featuring a stellar performance in both roles by Iva Janzurova, "Morgiana" is a psychedelic gothic masterpiece that rivals that other Czech classic "Valerie And Her Week of Wonders" in its sumptuous photography and costumes. The hair is big, the eyeliner thick and the out of time Victoriana of the costumes both evocative and creepy.

Prior to "Morgiana", Luboš Fišer had already scored "Valerie", quite simply one of the all-time great soundtracks with its use of strings, clockwork sound effects, harpsichord and choirs. Enchanting and fairytale like but also at times menacing and melancholy, the soundtrack has gone on to influence a wide range of artists from Espers to Broadcast to my own pop combo The Hare And The Moon. Fišer’s music for "Morgiana" immediately takes a darker tone, befitting the film, but the twisted waltzes and bells evoke much the same otherworldly and magical atmosphere as his soundtrack to "Valerie". Occasionally a tense and ominous trumpet fanfare echoes some of the Hammer soundtracks of the same period and in some respects "Morgiana" is in the mould of those glorious Technicolor horrors. But within both soundtrack and the film there is something deeper at work here, different to its British or Western European counterparts, something timeless and with a melancholy not present in your typical gothic flick.

The Finders Keepers CD release offers a burgeoning booklet of articles on both films and the cinematic movement that they were a part of. Separate vinyl releases for each soundtrack are also available and lovely they are too. Highly recommended, treat yourself and enter a different world.

The CD featuring both soundtracks is available here (at a great price).
 
The vinyl soundtracks are available here.

Soundcloud samples below (please refresh page if these aren't visible).

The Hare And The Moon - The Grey Malkin (Review)

Following on from their rather excellent debut (reviewed here) it's now time for us to draw your attention to it's successful and some might say, superior follow-up.
The modus operandi from album number one is the same - traditional folk material stripped down to it's creepiest elements, colored by a wide range of influences - soundtracks, industrial, doom, drone and a whole lot more. The mysterious Grey Malkin from the Hare And The Moon has admitted that it's his intention to make the music captured herein every bit as unsettling as the lyrics of these often quite morbid traditional tales of murder, mayhem and general woe. He succeeds admirably.
The production quality has been bumped up several notches, enough so for freshly mixed versions of two tracks from the first album, The Rolling of the Stones and Lyke Wake Dirge, to be included here as welcome bonus tracks, both in much more dynamic shape than their original versions.
Of the new material there's a mixture of the familiar (although often pushed in new and unexpected directions) and the new.
She Moved Through the Fair is presented as a stark acapella and is haunting in both senses of the word. An ethereal vocal performance which sounds like it's not meant for mortal ears.
Mary Rose's clever use of clockwork mechanisms for it's rhythm track and beautifully understated wordless vocals create an atmosphere of creeping unease which evokes the likes of Komeda's Rosemary's Baby theme, without appearing derivative. It works well enough for a reprise later on utilising backwards tape trickery which lets face it, is always good stuff.

The album's centerpiece is a clever reworking of Fairport Convention's Crazy Man Michael, albeit one which would most likely give Messieurs Thompson and Swarb nightmares. Using a sinister little snippet of dialogue from the classic TV show Children of Stones to set the mood, it starts out sparsely with female vocal and ritualistic percussion, building hypnotically to crescendo before a quite unexpected break in the percussion gives way to a doomladen dual fuzz riff which one could almost describe as Iommi-esque, if it weren't processed through so many filters. Startling.
It's these adventurous tendencies which ultimately keep the Hare And The Moon near the top of the heap in a very well-populated genre.

Want To Read More? Check Out Grey Malkin From The Hare And The Moon's Desert Island Disc Picks Here.

The Hare and the Moon - Obscure Classics ( Review )

Great Albums You May Have Missed.


The Hare and the Moon ( 2009 )

English folk music has a potential for creepiness that's unmatched by any other genre, and this adventurous duo have a very firm grasp of the unsettling and macabre.
Labeling the Moon and the Hare as just a folk outfit would be doing them a major disservice however, as they integrate a number of other interesting styles into their sound. Essentially they're doing the same thing that Fairport Convention were doing in the late sixties. Unlike Fairport however, the Hare and the Moon have the benefit of growing up at a time where they were exposed to among other things, psychedelia, seventies TV and movie soundtracks, and a little goth and industrial music, all of which make their influence known.
Often using traditional ballads as a starting point, they twist these familiar tracks into brooding minor key epics with buzz drones, layers of heavily distorted and often quite psychedelic guitars, and sparing but effective use of various types of percussion, most effectively tolling church bell and funereal bass drum to create a ritualistic, pagan atmosphere that gives Comus a run for their money.
The much covered child ballad Rolling of the Stones starts out with a piano delicately picking out the melody, bringing to mind a number of half remembered seventies English kids TV themes, before a ghostly female vocal enters with ominous percussion, finally overtaken at the end by a wall of doomy drones.


Lyke Wake Dirge, known to most from Pentangle's Basket of Light is given two similarly moody reinterpretations, one with female vocal, and one with a heavily treated male vocal, bathed in layers of atmospherics.
A key element to their sound is their interest in folk horror which is illustrated best with a trio of highly evocative originals May Day, O Whistle and I'll Come To You and Hob's Lane, presumably influenced by The Wicker Man, M.R James and Quatermass respectively.
So the good news is this is pretty fantastic, striking a perfect balance between the unsettling and the beautiful.  The bad news is that their music is easy to find sound samples of but not that easy to buy, for those ( like me ) who would quite happily hand over a few dollars for it.

Their albums are occasionally repressed in small runs through www.reverbnation.com so keep an eye on them.

They've also got a myspace page with lots of sound samples : http://www.myspace.com/thehareandthemoon
and an excellent facebook page which is updated often with links to lots of videos and a stunning photo album that I'd recommend checking out.

Fans of the Owl Service, the Rowan Amber Mill, Hauntology, UK Cult TV and folk-horror films owe it to themselves to check these guys out.