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Music from Movies: Vodka Lemon

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  • Music from Movies: Vodka Lemon

    Music From the Movies, UK
    March 2 2005

    Vodka Lemon
    Reviewed by: Peter Holm

    Michel Korb's music to the critically acclaimed drama/comedy Vodka
    Lemon, by director Hiner Saleem, gets a proper release by the new
    French label Amélie Aime le Cinéma. This is my first experience with
    the music of Michel Korb. He is a French composer who was born in
    1960 and graduated from the Berklee School of Music in 1984 with a
    diploma in film scoring. The liner notes present a handful of films
    that Korb has composed the music to, all of which are French, and
    spans from 1994 to 2004.

    Vodka Lemon reflects today's life in post-Soviet Armenia and deals
    with issues such as poverty, loss and the hope for a better life. In
    the centre of the film are a widow and widower and their
    relationship. It's so far away from the glamorous films made in
    Hollywood, but it's not without a sense of humour. Korb's score
    expresses the very same in the music and mixes a variety of emotions.

    He has gathered a small group of musicians, using traditional
    instruments such as piano, violin, cello, bass and accordion
    accompanied by the mysterious and strange colours of the duduk and
    cimbalom (here called santhour). These are two of my favourite
    instruments (just listen to the wonders of John Barry's The Ipcress
    File or Jerry Goldsmith's The Last Run). Another instrument is the
    exotic oud (a lute like instrument).

    Korb's score starts with the jaunty `Hamo et Nina', which is a very
    dance-like and rhythmic cue, and indeed a very optimistic one,
    featuring piano and accordion up-front. This is one of the score's
    thematic tapestries along with the following `Le Jour se Lève', which
    is a more reflective piece. The opening solo part for accordion
    reminds me of the bleak soundscape that Carl Davis established in The
    Trial.

    Even though it has its moments of melancholy and loneliness, it's far
    from a depressive score, like for instance Zbigniew Preisner's
    Dekalog, because even in bleakness there's beauty, and Korb has
    really found a perfect balance between passion, bleakness and
    optimism. It's a very intimate score and I think it owes a lot to the
    fact that we get small and delightful solos from the instruments here
    and there, something that reminds me of Georges Delerue's way of
    scoring.

    The length of the cues varies from eighteen seconds to almost four
    minutes, but this doesn't affect the musical flow because it's so
    nicely laced together, even featuring three traditional cues along
    with a concluding song (written by Salvatore Adamo). To mention a few
    highlights: the piano solo in `Dans la Maison', the soaring duduk in
    `La Rose', the flourishing `Envoléé', the gloomy `La Lettre' and the
    cheerful `Improvisation'. Even though this is my first Michel Korb
    score it's easy to hear that he has a distinct voice of his own and I
    wouldn't hesitate for a minute if I found another one of his scores
    on CD, because this guy is definitely worth following.
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