POKOJ SAREN PIANO (WITH LECH MAJEWSKI)

Pokój Saren (The Roe's Room), an autobiographical opera in 4 acts, is a project that started of a long-term collaboration between two great Polish artists: film director Lech Majewski and clasically trained musician, multi-instrumentalist Józef Skrzek. Pokój Saren premiered in 1996 in Silesian Opera in Bytom and since then it was released in three forms:

The first one, was the opera itself, released on a double-CD album in 1997 with a rich booklet, including the libretto (based on poems by Majewski).

The second one, was a surrealistic film based on the opera. In this film there were no spoken words, but it contained opera as soundtrack - Lech Majewski described it a filmed opera. The film Pokój Saren premiered also in 1997.

The third one is this instrumental album, recorded the same year and released in 1998, containing piano transcription of selected themes from the opera.

According to booklet, the studio that Pokój Saren Piano was recorded was actually a monastic church with an extraordinary acoustics while the monastery was actually an active mental hospital. Perhaps the atmosphere of that place affected the sound of this album - it is really dark, I may say sinister - as much as it's cover.

Pokój Saren Piano is an impressive album of raw but mesmerizing and lyrical music. The sole musician on this recording is Józef Skrzek, playing only the grand piano, making it also rather minimalistic. The atmosphere he creates, although very dark and sad, is really absorbing.

The album has a higly illustrative character. Some themes from this album, notably Jabłko (The Apple) and Deszcz (Rain) were then used by Majewski for a soundtrack to his movie The Garden of Earthly Delights. These are probably the most beautiful tracks of this album.

Fans of dark/illustrative/instrumental/piano music may find this album very interesting. But honestly, I may recommend it to any fan of music.

My rating: somewhere between 4 and 4.5 stars. It's a very good and absorbing album but it's also very sad. You're warned.