Thursday 25 June, 2009

Edouard Artemiev - Siberiade (1979)


Siberiade was directed in 1979 by Russian film maker Andreyi Konchalovski, whose most celebrated films are as different as Maria's Lovers and Tango & Cash. Before entering mainstream Hollywood car chase culture, Konchalovski gained some repute as a film director and screenwriter in Europe and the US through relatively successful movies like Uncle Vanya and Siberiade (or Sibiriada, or Сибириада). Siberiade was filmed in 1979, won the Jury Special Prize in Cannes that year, and brought him the international recognition that would eventually take him to Hollywood.
Siberiade, according to IMDB, is a "story about a very small god-forgotten village in Siberia [which] reflects the history of Russia from the beginning of the century till the early 80s. Three generations try to find the land of happiness and to give it to the people. One builds the road through Taiga to the star over the horizon, the second 'builds communism' and the third searches for oil. The oil is found but this is followed by the destruction of the old cemetry and everything the people of the village cared for in order to get the 'black treasure' of Siberia".

The soundtrack, never released on CD, is something of a mystery. There is a clear cut distinction between sides A and B of the record, probably related to the historical phases which the plotline above describes. Side A (except track 7) contains several traditional tunes from Siberia, possibly arranged by Artemiev, through the voice of Dmitry Bouzilev. It seems difficult to believe that Bouzilev is backed by the same outfit that takes the B side, and Artemiev's contribution to these pieces remains doubtful; the label is to blame for such uncertainties.
Side B, by contrast, features synth-washed prog experiments by the Soviet band Boomerang (Бумеранг). This short-lived group includes Edouard Artemiev (better known for his soundtracks for Tarkovski's Solaris and Stalker) and Yury Bogdanov on the synths, backed by drums, bass and guitar, oscillating between more straightforward prog and ambient-like pieces. Tracks A7 and B5 are also played by the USSR State Cinema Orchestra, Révélation being one of the most interesting scores included here. While it may be strange, but not necessarily bad, to see a "world music" label like Le Chant du Monde releasing prog music, it is to be regretted that so little info is included in this edition.

A1. Ma Beauté a Fleuri Trop Tôt
A2. Le Soleil
A3. Les Yeus Emeraude
A4. La Chanson des Tziganes de Sibérie
A5. Le Long Chemin
A6. Dimitri
A7. Révélation
B1. Le Feu
B2. Le Vent de L'espoir (char à vole)
B3. Le Tourbillon de L'histoire
B4. Les Balançoires
B5. La Mort du Héros

Alexey Zagirov - bass
Edouard Artemiev - synthesizer
Yury Bogdanov - synthesizer, guitar
Sergey Bogdanov - percussion
Dmitry Bouzilev - vocals

Released by Le Chant du Monde in 1979.
A Petrol Pump to Prof. DOUBLE AVENUE for the fine vinyl rip.

link@320

18 comments:

AV. LIBERDADE said...

SUPERB...

frankie said...

didn't know sibreia had a forest! thanx for sharing!

black sun said...

big surprise, brother! but I have some trouble with the archive opening: it's the naming of the tracks that stops me to do that... they appear this way: Sibe¦ürie, La Saga De L'immensite¦ü... if you can do something, I'll be grateful...

thanks for keeping your blog alive, anyway!

bravo juju said...

Dear Black Sun

Many applications allow you to extract the file while selecting the labels' font. In any case, it's probably simpler if you just copy/paste the titles from here.

Cheers and good listening.

black sun said...

thanks a lot, j.r.!
I finally cheated the archive, playing the difficult titled tracks with 'media player classic' and saving the files with corrected names. tracks from this soundtrack appeared only on a melodyia artemiev anthology lp, so this is welcome.

thanks again for your wonderful work!

Anonymous said...

I´ve looking for this score since 1979!! Great job my friend from Spain.

Victor León said...

Thank You so much. So generous!!

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful surprise!!! Thank you so much. But, how can I download it?, I dont know how, please help me.

Biglemoi said...

Sounds often like the "Stalker"’s soundtrack, doesn't it? Amazing though, the crackling LP sound is delightful! Very good Blog of yours, will come back!

Anonymous said...

I've been looking for this for years! Thank you, thank you so much.

Sabotaj said...

I love oyu I love you I love you I really love you! Oh yeah.. I love track 12 too, not to forget!

Anonymous said...

what's the archive password please? Thanks for posting.

Anonymous said...

Archive working.Thank you so much. it's really raritet. Thanks for posting. More E.Artemiev-http://forum.funkysouls.com/dump/f57t103975.html

Louis Sherman said...

Stunning! Like many years have gone by trying to catch these tunes from the film...
problem with archive: the naming of the original files creates errors in the extraction in bitzipper and in winrar it needs rename each file after the errors, in the end it comes out fine though. Quite a tease for a moment there.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!

RTC said...

Thanx a million for this!

Metro Ethernet said...

Actually have a very nice blog, I wish I could see everything you have all the time, I'm really entertained by your comments, and best wishes for your blog.

safemeds said...

The most incredible siberian album I've ever heart in my life, I wonder if you have their third album. It's simply incredible!

www.barcelona-3d.com said...

Gosh, there is really much worthwhile data here!