Zdenek Liska
Zdenek Liska was a legendary Czech composer. His body of work consists mainly of soundtracks. He was born in 1922 and died in 1983. Unfortunately I was not able to find sufficient information on his work and his life in English. Furthermore any releases of his seem extremely hard to be found except for his score for the oscar movie Obchod na korze [The Shop on Main Street] (1965).
Zdenek Liska worked closely with Jan Svankmajer until his death. It was through Svankmajer’s movies that I was acquainted to Liska’s music.
interview excerpt of Jan Svankmajer on his relationship with Zdenek Liska :
…
Jonathan Marlow: I won’t let you off-the-hook from the earlier question quite so easily. I wished to inquire into your working relationship with the legendary Zdenek Liska and his contribution to the sound design and music of your earlier films.
Svankmajer: I made one of my first films [Rakvickarna (Punch & Judy)] together with composer Zdenek Liska, who unfortunately died in 1983. We had an agreement that he would make music for my films that wouldn’t reflect the atmosphere of my films but the rhythm. And he always took me by surprise, discovering rhythms in my films that I didn’t know even myself about. I should probably correct what I said about music and why I’m not actually using music anymore in my films. It is because Zdenek Liska died and, since then, I’m not using music.
…
the rest of the interview can be found here
Obchod na korze [The Shop on Main Street] soundtrack
http://rapidshare.com/files/24484330/zdenek_liska_-_1965_-_obchod_na_korze.zip
and Udoli vcel [Valley of the Bees] soundtrack
http://rapidshare.com/files/24491160/zdenek_liska_-_1967_-_udoli_vcel.zip
rips from vinyl
Cheers, ears: nice post, thx for sharing!
Any chance you can post a Jpeg of the Udoli vcel LP cover?
Another Liska score I’ve found on LP is “Adrift”; I can upload it if you’d like (tho’ it may take a week or two…
Comment by Jim — Sunday, 22 April, 2007 @ 6 :43 pm
You are welcome!
Unfortunately I own Udoli Vcel soundtrack on cd-r, ripped from vinyl, with no cover. After some search over the net I did not manage to find it either, so I cannot help you with your request.
As for “Adrfit” I would be very grateful if you could upload it given the rarity of Liska releases.
Comment by dmtls — Sunday, 22 April, 2007 @ 8 :10 pm
Thanks for this.
I’m the producer of the BFI’s upcoming DVD box JAN SVANKMAJER: THE COMPLETE SHORT FILMS, and in acknowledgement of the fact that Liska soundtracks are so hard to come by I deliberately programmed a special feature whereby you can play just the Liska-scored films in one go (or at least those from PUNCH AND JUDY to LEONARDO’S DIARY on the first disc).
Comment by Michael Brooke — Wednesday, 2 May, 2007 @ 8 :32 pm
You are welcome!
I am really looking forward to get my hands on this new DVD box of Svankmajer’s works. Is there any release date available or not yet?
As for the special feature concerning the Liska scores is rather interesting and quite essential. Liska’s music is indeed very hard to come by, while it plays a significant role in Svankmajer’s films.
Thank you for informing me on this upcoming release.
Comment by dmtls — Wednesday, 2 May, 2007 @ 9 :04 pm
June 25th, Region 2 PAL.
There are three discs, arranged as follows:
1 - Early Shorts 1964-72
(14 films from THE LAST TRICK to LEONARDO’S DIARY, including both versions of THE OSSUARY)
2 - Late Shorts 1979-92
(12 films from THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO to FOOD)
All the above are in digitally restored native PAL transfers, with the only widescreen title (J.S.BACH FANTASY IN G MINOR) enhanced for widescreen TVs. Subtitles are optional, and more extensive than they’ve ever been, translating almost every piece of onscreen text as well as dialogue.
3 - Extras
JOHANES DOKTOR FAUST (195
- bonus short, with Svankmajer’s first screen credit;
NICK CARTER IN PRAGUE (1977) - five minute compilation of Svankmajer-designed special effects shots, from the time when he was banned from directing his own films;
THE CABINET OF JAN SVANKMAJER (1984) - the original 54-minute documentary version of what’s better known as a Quay Brothers short. Includes new introduction by the Quays;
LES CHIMERES DES SVANKMAJER (2001) - 58-minute French documentary about the creative partnership between Jan and Eva Svankmajer across multiple media, including clips from the first four features;
CZECH TV INTERVIEW (2001) - Svankmajer discusses his fine art, with copious examples;
LUNACY TRAILER (2005) - just to ensure the package contains footage from all five features as well as the complete shorts.
There’s also an illustrated booklet, which we’re finalising right now, containing comprehensive notes on all the shorts and some more background material.
Comment by Michael Brooke — Wednesday, 2 May, 2007 @ 9 :17 pm
Jim, where are you? I’m curious about ‘Adrift’.
I even searched Prague recordshops and couldn’t find any records with soundtracks by Liska (apart from Obchod na Korze, which is fantastic). I love the music he made for “the Cremator” and for the Svankmajerfilms, so I guess he made dozens of other great scores.
DMTLS, thanks for uploading udoli vcel and Obcod na Korze,
Hisko
Comment by hisko hulsing — Sunday, 3 June, 2007 @ 12 :13 am
[...] First post on Zdenek Liska [...]
Pingback by Zdenek Liska (post #2) « >dmtls Merzbau — Friday, 15 June, 2007 @ 10 :47 am
any news on uploading Adrift? please let us have a listen, thanks!
Comment by cazabache — Monday, 30 July, 2007 @ 5 :46 am
I’d love to hear the ‘Adrift’ score; any news on that?
I’ve heard that Liska was known to occasionally score for homemade instruments; can anyone substantiate? Also, any information about his instrumentation in general, or his use of delay techniques would be most appreciated.
-t-
Comment by Tim — Friday, 14 March, 2008 @ 1 :54 am
I fell in love with the music from The Cremator.That was my intro to Zdenek.Is that sound track available anywhere at all? The main theme is so beautiful Kristo valleus@yahoo.com
Comment by kristo — Wednesday, 21 May, 2008 @ 4 :51 am