Cul-de-Sac / Knife in the Water

In 1963, Director Roman Polanski won the Best Foreign Film Oscar for his debut feature film, Knife in the Water. The success would propel him out of Poland and into the European filmmaking (making Repulsion and Cul-De-Sac)before venturing into more American waters. Much lesser know are his collaborators of this time, specifically Krzysztof Komeda would work with Polanski steadily through Rosemary\'s Baby. He is one of the great un-realized film composers. Having worked with Polanski and Ingmar Bergman, Komeda was poised at the cusp of composer stardom only to die tragically in 1969. I have been waiting eagerly for decent CD releases of any of his work. So lo and behold here comes a soundtrack release of not one but two of his earlier scores.

Polanski\'s focus in his early films was in tense psychosexual dramas, Komeda\'s work would counter-point the building tension of the story with low-key Jazz.  Knife in the Water is an intimate character study contained a single sailboat. Using limited resources, Komeda complimented the environment with a saxophone and string-bass driven score. Its theme (“Knife in the Water”) is a mournfully romantic piece, well suited to a film noir and plays well into the unexpressed tensions between the husband and his wife. It\'s a simple score, a bit repetitive, but the main musical hook sticks in your brain. Cul-de-Sac is a black comedy crime thriller set in a remote Scottish Castle. You know it\'s going to weird, since it has a bald Donald Pleasance. The score is again jazzy, but with more quirky instruments (moog, bongos and his trademark warbling horns) and it\'s a hip album for the time and jumps around wildly in style.

These two scores go well together as a single release, as they would have felt a little slight for individual release. This album will pass outside of the radar of a lot of music lovers, but anyone who even likes Komeda\'s work should be excited by this release.