Unavailable to English language audiences on DVD as of this writing, Jan Jakub Kolski's film adaptation of Hanna Krall's WWII writings is supported by an elegant, semi-tragic score by Michael Lorenc – semi-tragic, because Lorenc main theme uses a rustic melody set to a jaunty rhythm, inferring a sense of irony and absurdity.

Liturgical chorales give the main theme a strong emotional weight, and Lorenc contrasts this sadder theme with a secondary work that evokes a prior, more harmonious life (as in the music box version “Kolysanka Reginy”) that once held elegance and grace (as in the sweeping chamber waltz “Wspomnienie”).

Cello, hurdy gurdy, and solo vocals in “Oddechy” convey a potent, tearful level of tragedy, and Lorenc evokes the lyricism of Zbigniew Preisner, particularly that composer's famous “Concerto in E-minor” from The Double Life of Veronique. Unlike Preisner's mini-concerto, in Lorenc's work the solo vocalist must clearly convey intimacy and emotional trauma without a large orchestra, and she achieves a moving balance using her silky vocals and an occasional loss of breath; as though the pain has made it impossible to follow through with the melodic arc without some wavering.

The melody heard in “Kolysanka Reginy” is eerily placed over long, ominous chords, creating a pulling action as Lorenc has the hurdy gurdy move almost lazily through each bar, mimicking an unsettled mind staring off into the distance. It's a contemporary-styled cue that nevertheless fits in with Lorenc's theme variations, which themselves emphasize emotional content in place of thematic restatement.

The film's main theme also reappears in “Wolnosc,” a cue where Lorenc chillingly uses a spiraling hurdy gurdy in the centre channel, and woodwinds flanking the stereo left and right image – basically three simple instruments that convey an unsettling mood as their efforts to find some musical union among each other never gels into an interactive conversation.

Lorenc also avoids wielding the might of his orchestra to emphasize tragedy, and that's perhaps a key reason why this album will enjoy repeated play: as in his prior scores, the composer knows the effectiveness of simplicity – using a violin solo in the cue “Dziecko z Nieba” instead of dragging in a massive orchestral swell, or a gradual coalescence of instruments for the film's all-strings elegy – and that discretion and sensitivity to the film's topical material distinguishes Daleko od okna as one of the true gems released online this year.

Other scores by Michael Lorenc released by Soundtracks.PL include Przyjaciele / Friends and 300 mil do nieba / 300 Miles to Heaven.

© 2007 Mark R. Hasan