CADENCE August 2004

Jan Kopinski- EARTH,

EARTH is something completely different, a soundtrack written by saxophonist Jan Kopinski for the old silent Soviet film classic, Earth. I wasn’t able to find a copy of the film to check how the music matched the visuals but even without the film you can hear the narrative progression in this music (Tower/ Colt/ Tractor Go/ Dream Road/ Return And Turn/ Field Line/ Holy Man/ Falling Bells/ Glass Eyes/ Song For A New Life/ Land Sleep/ Song For Oleksandr/ Black Earth. 66:26.), going through phases of sadness, mourning, determination, and hope.

The score is performed by a chamber group (Kopinski, ts, as, ss; Steve Iliffe, p; Janina Kopinska, vla; Stefan Kopinski, b. 9/9-10/02, 9/18/02,Nottingham, England.) with Kopinski’s saxophone first emulating the spirituality of John Coltrane then moving on to the simple folk-based beauty of Albert Ayler. His soulful cries are underpinned by Steve Iliffe’s weighty piano and the viola and bass strengthen the body of the work. It would be interesting to see how this music enhances the film, but even without that it is impressive work.

Review by Jerome Wilson