Well, I'm disappointed. All the tracks can be previewed now, and they're edited and abbreviated, possibly from a music+effects track, or maybe ripped from a 5.1 mix if there is one (you can hear dialog bleed). And Finderskeepers now won't reply to inquiries about the release. Unfortunately Lokutus was correct about this one. https://finderskeepersrecords.bandcamp.com/album/ikarie-xb-1
Tell me about it! I was extremely stoked for this release and then very disappointed when I heard it. Finder Keepers does not talk about what the actual sources for these releases were.
In Ikarie XB-1's case it seemed obvious that it was a music and effects track. However, with Mala Morska Vila, there were some variants on the song from the film, a track with the voice and one without. Yet that too had sound effects, and not just ones that Liska might have invented for the soundtrack. Not to mention some music cues are missing.
The Cremator seems to be their best release of Liska yet, which is clean of sound effects. They seem to have an arrangement with Barrandov to release these scores, and yet never specify which elements they had available.
I'm glad to have Liska's music presented at all, but I'd rather a company release his music that has more transparency about the likelihood of releasing more of his scores, and also concerning the state of the original tapes.
Thanks for reminding me about this film. I think I'd seen the AIP cut before (dubbed, re-cut and with a different ending - aerial shots of NY and the Statue of Liberty? Or was that their version of PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES? It gets confusing)...
I see that there's a good YT upload of the original, with English subtitles. I'm going to have to put some time aside to watch that. It looks fascinating, and the music sounds absolutely amazing (although I think I'll just experience it in situ).
I watched this and would like to say something about it, but my head exploded. Let me try to get some thoughts together. Don't expect coherence.
That ending which I miraculously posted is an absolutely chilling stunner. What freakin' great music! It's spine-tingling, like Denny Zeitlin's INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS or Fielding's climactic moments for DEMON SEED! But now I show my numbskullery - I didn't quite understand it. Now, I know this is brainy stuff for people who read Stanislaw Lem (not really, but it's challenging for me in my dotage) but I have a doubt... I know that the AIP dubbed version tacked on shots of Manhattan instead of the enigmatic "city" (?) as glimpsed through the parting clouds in the original. And so yes, hey ho, they're back on Earth. But here's where a show my total nutmegness... My excuse was that I was tired when I saw it, and reading the subtitles made me miss some of the visual clues, while looking at the visulas made me miss some of the subtitles BUT....are we so sure that in the original they're not back on Earth?
OF COURSE IT'S NOT EARTH you idiot! They're away over at Alpha bleedin' Centauri, man! Yeah, okay, but why was the spacecraft named "Ikarae" if it wasn't a reference to Icarus? Calling Professor McCrumbly!
Anyway, I LOVED this film! CALLING THOR! Did you ever see this in your "spaceship quest" of many Earth moons ago? I won't mention how much it reminded me of 2001, Star Trek and (in one part of the story) ALIEN, but I will mention that it's fascinating to watch. It's kind of familiar looking in some ways, yet totally "alien" to our normal pulp SF eyes in other ways. I hadn't seen so many perfect male and female bodies in swimsuits and Speedos, prancing around the enormous space-gym since I watched that Leni Riefenstahl season on the telly in 1979. And the film, although lacking in monster action, is not without humour. The two dance scenes are hilarious, intentionally I'm sure (?)
LOVED the Zdenek Liska score! From the Bleep and Booster tonalities of the credits, through some Colombierish FORBIN PROJECT connections, to that epically jaw-dropping final piece, this is superb! I don't "need" to have it in my collection, because I only buy things which have a connection to my childhood and which help me forget that I'm supposed to be an adult, but I heard the Finders Keepers soundtrack release on YouTube and was happy for 25 minutes. And those two source tracks which appear together about halfway through are a delight! I THINK they were meant to be funny. Certainly the scenes in the film are, especially the dance where they do a kind of "Dance of Death", punctuated by almost comical shifts in the score. Hey, the dance movements were VERY like the way the performers moved in Corman's MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH, once the Red Death himself invaded the ball and turned the crowd into a scary bunch of jerky ballet students. Did Corman actually see IKARIE before he turned it into VOYAGE TO THE END OF THE UNIVERSE? If he did, maybe I've hit on something nobody's ever thought of before - although the odds of that being the case are literally ASTRONOMICAL! As is THIS FILM!
As you can see, my arms grew longer and I could reach the controls at the two extreme ends of my spaceship at the same time. Hence my successful landing on The White Planet.
I have a few comments to make about this album by Zdenek Liska, as heard on Da Toob - but I probably have more questions. I'll do a (Member)-style poll and ask...
1) Do any of you actually own this?
2) If not, have you dipped into it on Da Toob?
3) Do you like it? Why?
4) Do you dislike it? Why?
5) THIS IS THE MOST INTERESTING PART, WORTHY OF A THREAD OF ITS OWN, SO PAY ATTENTION - What are your views on the "futuristic" music heard in Track 6 (at 06:53) and Track 7 (at 08:33)? I generally find it interesting to hear what old guys (or anyone really) thought the future might sound like. It's usually channeled through a distortion of the music of the time. There's a beatnik vibe to some of this which is very amusing, and which is pretty funny (intentionally so?) in the film itself.
6) Are there instances of when "futuristic" music got it right? Did anyone in the 1950s predict that we'd be suffering Reggaeton from the 1990s on?
7) Did you watch the film VOYAGE TO THE END OF THE UNIVERSE? Did you like it? If so, why? If not, why not?
I haven't posted in here Graham b/c you have got it all exactly right! Nothing substantive to add.
And I did buy the digital Finders Keepers album - apparently not complete but good enough for me. Which led me to a blu ray of IKARIE, which I enjoyed a lot for the time and place of its making and the connecition to Stanislaw Lem. Never saw the cut-up dubbed version, thank heavens.
I don't care much about the futuristic funky monkey music question so I'll leave that to others, if there are any others. I mean it's fine for what is, but I was glad when that part of the movie wrapped up.
But the main titles and conclusion especially I dearly love!
I'd love a Criterion release of this movie; the hardware and atmosphere still fascinates me (and there's a great scene of the discovery of a dead astronaut). Fascinating that any music from it exists...
It's on my list of films to buy. I'm thinking about getting the UK release. Nice to see it's also region free.
Years ago I wanted to try to release some of the music from Karel Zeman's wonderful fantasy films scored by Liska, but it never went anywhere, although I was dealing with the people in charge of Zeman's museum. I was never able to reach anyone associated with the composer, and the only thing Zeman's people could find was some M & E tracks and what sounded like a dub right off the soundtrack, including dialogue. Too bad, as Liska wrote some fabulous music for Zeman's movies.
