JANI KOVAČIČ: ORFEJ IZ PEKLA (KNJIGA + CD)

Books

Format: Digitalno + fizično

Code: 637319

EAN: 3838898637319

ZKP RTV Slovenia in cooperation with the First Programme of Radio Slovenia - Prvi is publishing an expanded edition of a selection of songs from the concentration camps performed by Aleksander Kulisiewicz: Orpheus from Hell. The book is accompanied by an audio album (in the form of a CD and a digital album) with a recording of a concert by Jani Kovačič in November 2019 in the National Gallery.

The expanded edition features a contribution by Aleksander Kulisiewicz’s son, Krzysztof Kulisiewicz, who shares some of his personal memories and reveals what is happening with the legacy of his father. "Aleksander Kulisiewicz opened doors while he was still in Sachsenhausen and sought a way out of the misery with poems and music. He decided to record all these songs, he decided to take on Rosebery d’Arguto’s mission, he decided to dedicate his whole life after the war to the music and art from the Nazi camps. He collected the largest archive of this kind in Europe—over 100,000 pages, tapes, paintings, poems, songs, stories, documents—his col- lection is absolutely outstanding and is now kept at the USHMM. No one wanted to save it in Poland! TVP continues to show the same arrogance to this day. Poland is not a good country for the music and art of the Nazi camps – I do not know why. On the other hand, my father’s life and work have generated worldwide media coverage and interest . A new documentary film project has recently been launched in the USA by a group of Hollywood producers that will describe the Jewish death song Tsen Brider (Ten Brothers), which was the central point of my father’s mission."  writes Krzysztof.

Jani Kovačič has selected 23 songs by Aleksander Kulisiewicz: 15 songs from the CD Songs from the Depths of Hell (1979), 7 songs from the record Ballads and Broadsides: Songs from Sachsenhau- sen Concentration Camp 1940–1945 (2008), one song from the record Chants de la déportation (Songs of the Deportation, 1975) and one from the book Adresse: Sachsenhausen, Literarische Momentaufnamen aus den KZ (Address: Sachsenhausen, Literary Records of Moments from the Concentration Camp, 1997). Simona Klemenčič and he translated them from Polish and German. „From the records and pre-war recordings, I transcribed the tunes and fitted them with harmonies. Each nation has its own story of pogrom and suffering in the Second World War. This one is from the life of Aleksander Kulisiewicz. Kulisiewicz adapted folk songs and schlager of the that era to the situation, the theme and the text. The prisoners also sang these songs in their own way. Last but not least, Kulisiewicz also dictated and wrote down by his memory. He played the guitar, so I also decided to play it myself. I compared the songs to the original tunes and arranged them according to Kulisiewicz’s performance. The performance is dedicated to the human will to live and to eternal optimism, though it may seem dark at times,“ Kovačič wrote on the occasion of the first edition in 2020, and on the occasion of the current edition he pointed out the following: „Since the publication of the first edition in 2020, the situation has unfortunately deteriorated. The Covid-19 pandemic has played a major role in this, and even more so the associated global panic. Indeed, we have all found ourselves in occupied countries with curfews longer and stricter than during the Second World War and with disproportionately high penalties. The epidemic was compounded by the energy crisis, which brought huge profits to energy companies and plunged many families into poverty. And even that was not enough for them, so they decided to do the most terrible thing: they staged a war. The stupidity of the Europeans was shown in the Ukrainian-Russian war, in all its glory of decay and inability to find their way into the future. The solutions spread by the media are nothing but propaganda and a betrayal of peace. Is human life worth so little? Do we all really need to go to the concentration camp to become aware of this existential threat?“ wonders Kovačič.