Anyone who has made a point of following my entries of ‘The Sound of Trash’ will get the sense that I am fond of abstract sci-fi electronic scores. This post has the dual purpose of confirming that feeling as well as giving you a taste of an upcoming regular article I will be beginning soon. One of my favourite corners of the obscure cinema world is Eastern European sci-fi and fantasy. I love the creativity of Eastern European cinema, and the realms of sci-fi and fantasy allowed the creativity to flow very freely.
Mikhail Karzhukov and Otar Koberidze’s 1963 Russian sci-fi, ‘Mechte Navstrechu’ is a perfect embodiment of everything I love about this type of cinema. It is a visual and aural feast of pure invention. It should be noted that ‘Mechte Navstrechu’ has a slightly confusing history. Originally made for Russian audiences, ‘Mechte Navstrechu’ was purchased by an American company and recut into a film known as PLANET OF BLOOD, aka QUEEN OF BLOOD. The resultant 64 minute film compiles footage from the original Russian film and additional footage for the American version. The two sets of footage exist side-by-side with a certain level of success, however the original Russian film is diluted (as one would expect). If there’s a positive to this bricolage assemblage, it’s that American audiences, whether they knew it or not, were subversively given a taste of Eastern European sci-fi.
The sensational score was composed by Russian electronic wizard, Eduard Nikolaevich Artemyev, and was in fact his debut film. As we’ve learned from my previous entries, electronic music in the early 60s was an entirely new frontier of sound. It stands to reason that electronic instrumentation should have be used to provide the aural component to films that were, by virtue of their genre, intended to explore new frontiers of humanity. Artemyev is perhaps best known for his sound work for Russian juggernaut, Andrei Tarkovsky, composing the score for such classics as ‘Solaris’ and ‘Stalker’ in the 70s. This achievement within the purview of one of cinema’s greats would not have been possible without the early notoriety he attracted for his brilliant work with ‘Mechte Navstrechu’.
The following clip is from the bastardised American version of the film and contains a series of scenes featuring Artemyev’s stunning score. Please enjoy and keep a look out for my further explorations of Eastern European Cosmonautical bliss soon.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Iubwm8gyCA&w=540]
