Andrzej Korzyński

Born on March 20, 1940, in Warsaw, Poland, the composer Andrzej Korzynski‘s musical career began in earnest when he graduated from the Academy of Social Music in 1964. A student of Professor Kazimierz Sikorski, he studied composition and conducting. Alongside Matthew Swiecickim and the Witold Borderline, he formed the Radio Studio Rhythm in 1965. His first soundtrack composition was for Andrzej Wajda’s 1968 film Everything for Sale. He would work with Wajda on six more films. Korzynski won the Radio Song of the Year three times — in 1965, 1966, and 1974. Along with composing during this period, he also wrote pop songs for the disco parody act Franek Kimono (under the pseudonym Andrew Spoll) with actor Peter Fronczewskiego.
His creative partnership with Polish filmmaker Andrzej Zulawski is probably the most enduring and creatively fertile chapter in Korzynski’s career. The pair first worked together on Zulawski’s debut feature The Third Part of the Night, and they would work on two more — Devil (1972) and The Important Thing Is to Love (1975) — before they would create what would be their defining and best work, 1981’s Possession. Starring Sam Neil and Isabelle Adjani, the film was banned in the United Kingdom under the notorious Video Nasties list, but earned a dedicated cult following in the decades that followed. Korzynski’s minimal electronic score was highly sought after by collectors for many years until 2012, when the revered Finders Keepers label lovingly reissued it along with The Third Part of the Night. The fruitful partnership of Zulawski and Korzynski would be seen and heard again on the films Shaman (1985), On the Silver Globe (1988), and Fidelity (2000). Throughout the ‘90s and 2000s, the Polish composer continued to work on various TV and film projects. Andrzej Korzynski died on April 18, 2022, at the age of 82. ~ Aneet Nijjar