Andrzej Korzynski - The Devil Tapes - New 7" Vinyl
Format: New 7" vinyl Label: Finders Keepers Cat. No. FKSP022 Barcode: 5060099507854 Released: 20/01/2023
Transparent Red 7" vinyl
It has been exactly ten years since Finders Keepers first intrepidly entered Andrzej Korzynski’s cavernous musical vault, but it is only today that they are able to proudly announce the safe retrieval of what is often considered the true heavy psych holy grail of the Polish composer’s mind-bending oeuvre.
By cruel coincidence, this welcome event has sadly come during the same year as the composer’s tragic passing. However, in true Korzynski style, alongside his previous Finders Keepers releases, the legacy he has left behind in this one final lost soundtrack project alone has come with musical riches beyond anyone’s wildest expectations.
The comprehensive elusive archive of the deeply psychedelic soundtrack to Andrzej Zuławski’s forbidden film Diabeł (The Devil) 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 of whom are widely recognised as true mavericks of socialist-era Poland’s fertile artistic landscape.
This 7” record 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-scenes 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 record proudly boasts Korzynski’s original uptempo awkward psychedelic pop music prior to the doom laden growls that make the official film’s soundtrack a true Goliath of Eastern European soundtrack composition. Which, when recontextualised, will stand as a veritable face- melter for stoner rock fans.
Available for the first time ever on transparent red 7” vinyl. Released alongside long-awaited liberation of Andrzej Korzynski’s full psychedelic score for Diabeł.