Mihály Víg - Film music from the films of Béla Tarr

Mihály Víg was born in Budapest in 1957 into a family of musicians. At the age of 21 he founded the band "Balaton", with whom he still performs. Between 1982 and 1985 he was a member of the band "Trabant", whose concerts were considered to be legendary events in the Hungarian underground in the second half of the Kádár era.

Víg is best known internationally for his film scores. Along with film directors such as János Xantus, Péter Müller, András Szirtes and Ildikó Szabó, he has worked particularly closely with director Béla Tarr – also as an actor. Víg composed the music for Tarr’s films "Öszi Almanach" (1984; Eng. "Almanac of Fall"), "Kárhozat" (1988; t: "Damnation"), "Az utolsó hajó" (1990; t: "The last ship"), "Sátántangó" (1994; Eng. "Satan’s Tango") – in which Víg played the main role – "Utazás az alföldön" (1995; Eng. "Journey on the Plain"), "Werckmeister harmóniák" (2000; Eng. "Werckmeister Harmonies"«) and most recently "A Londoni férfi" (2007; Eng. "The Man from London"), for which he received the EU XXL film Award in March of this year.


Let me say first of all that it isn't necessary to have already seen the films of Hungarian auteur Bela Tarr to enjoy this incredibly rich CD. It is enough that it happens to be beautiful, varied, original, distinctly Eastern European, and yet strangely universal at the same time. Much like the films actually, that this music was created to accompany. Bela Tarr is probably one of the most singular filmmakers alive today, and not to sound too terribly pretentious, but if you've ever sat and watched a Tarkovsky movie and bemoaned the fact that people just don't make 'em like they used to, then Bela Tarr may offer some consolation. They're highly stylized, almost always black and white, and shot with looooong takes that consist of slow action and subverted narratives. They're also unremittingly melancholy and impossible to forget. Susan Sontag was a vocal champion of his work, and Gus Van Sant claims he stopped making movies like Good Will Hunting and Finding Forrester after seeing Tarr's seven-plus-hour magnum opus Satantango, which will finally be released on DVD later this month. He's worked with his composer Mihaly Vig since 1983, and the CD at hand is comprised of the scores he wrote for the movies Almanac of Fall, Damnation, Satantango, and Werkmeister Harmonies.

Tarr has stated that he uses music, along with time, as a main character in his films. And while the films aren't ever saturated with music per se, the role it plays is highly prominent and one of the key elements in what makes his movies so highly memorable. Generally, film music is composed after the movie has been completed, but Tarr and Vig do the exact opposite; Vig writes the music first and Tarr finds a way to make it work within his vision. In the films of Bela Tarr, there is often a sense of impending doom, collapse, and disintegration. And yet I've read that Tarr himself actually considers his films to be hopeful, in the same sense that Chekhov is. I hadn't quite understood what he meant until listening to this CD over and over again, when I realized that most of the pieces here, even at their darkest, are almost entirely lacking uneasiness. It is as if they were created in counterpoint to the dread inherent in the human condition. In Damnation, the center of action takes place at a cabaret/nightclub called The Titanic, that has long since seen its glory days. It's to the soft bellowing of an accordion that Titanic's patrons hang onto the last thread their humanity. The world seems to stand precipitously close to the abyss in his film Werkmeister Harmonies, yet the fifteen minutes of music that Vig wrote for it and which accompany the film's most evocative scenes is almost celestially hopeful. Those fifteen minutes of music alone are reason enough to buy this album; it's one of the most beautiful things you'll hear all year. [MK]

Tracklist:
1. Föcim. Title theme (Almanac Of Fall)
2. Lukin (Almanac Of Fall)
3. Öskigyó. Ancient serpent (Almanac Of Fall)
4. Lengyelország. Poland (Almanac Of Fall)
5. Pajesz. Peyyes (Almanac Of Fall)
6. Synth (Almanac Of Fall)
7. Csille. Coaltipper (Kárhozat)
8. Kész az egész. Over and done (Kárhozat)
9. Esö I. Rain I (Kárhozat)
10. R&R (Kárhozat)
11. Lassú tánc. Slow dance (Kárhozat)
12. Körtánc I. Circle dance I (Kárhozat)
13. Vonósnégyes. String quartet (Kárhozat)
14. Harang I. Bell I (Sátántangó)
15. Esö II. Rain II (Sátántangó)
16. Halics. Galicia (Sátántangó)
17. Szabad egy tangót?. May I have this tango? (Sátántangó)
18. Körtánc II. Circle dance II (Sátántangó)
19. Pityi (Sátántangó)
20. Harang II. Bell II (Sátántangó)
21. Valuska (Werckmeister Harmóniák)
22. Öreg. Old (Werckmeister Harmóniák)