Musics

Synopsis

Muzyki (Musics) is a creative documentary about the stimulative process of making music, materialized in an artistic collaboration of the musician Michał Zygmunt and filmmakers Aga Gonczarek & Patryk Kizny. It explores the inspirations, the quest for one’s roots, the artistic meetings and the musical journey into the unknown, which all lead to the creation of a unique music album and a series of exceptional live music performances. It reveals a modern interpretation of Polish roots culture by means of music and imagery.

The main characters are three artists: a contemporary Polish musician, Michał Zygmunt, a Swiss music producer, Roli Mosimann and a Polish folk musician of older generation, Zdzisław Jamborski, who have learnt to to read the score late in his life. Each of these characters tells his own story, shares his fascination for the music and brings his own unique attitude and personal charisma to the recording studio, influencing the work on the album. Each of them has different goals and spreads different message.

Those three different perspectives build up an interesting story about the multidimensional meaning of music and leave the audience with numerous unanswered questions about the old world that passed away and contemporary human condition.

Director’s Statement

Muzyki (Musics) is a film on music. It’s a film on art. The art on art.

From the very first idea that inspired us for the film, we didn’t only want to show the reality happening around but would rather search for stories and meanings hidden behind any situation captured by us.

Our documentary tells a story of music and a story of people. Those, appearing in the front of our cameras and those who left their mark in folk tunes and in old photographs that stood the test of time.

We listened to our main characters and then let the music to narrate the story. Both tales – the one told by people and the one told by the music – accomplish each other and sound harmoniously, as they both touch the same subject – the human condition.

We witnessed multiple transformation processes. The transformation of the main character – Michał Zygmunt – for whom the work on the Muzyki (Musics) album meant finding and understanding his own roots, the history of his own family.

The transformation of folk songs and tunes into very modern compositions – unveiling their natural beauty, authenticity and the wealth of unexplored music themes and inspirations hidden inside.

The transformation of moods and emotions accompanying the production of the album and the music videos – starting in early sprint with many shots made inside with very little light, documenting the work in the recording studio under pressure of time, and finishing in late summer with many colorful shots of open spaces in a bright light, capturing relaxed atmosphere after the album has already been released.

While working on the Muzyki (Musics) album Michał Zygmunt has begun and finished his individual phase of musical exploration that changed his perception of the Polish music and probably of music in general. In fact, the creative process of working on this album has altered the musician in front of our eyes. Capturing his questions and dilemmas and then finding the answers in the music or not finding it at all, influenced even our personal perspective.

One of our goals as filmmakers was to put this specific creative process, that we were able to capture in the recording studio, into a wider perspective of creativity every artist faces. What happens in our hearts and in our minds while we create? What does it mean to us? How does it change us? How do we feel when our creative work is to be brought to light

As mentioned above, the film is narrated by people and by the music. We have listened to three different main characters – three musicians of different background and from completely different music domains – who happened to work together on the album. These three diverse perspectives were especially inspiring for us. Therefore the film, as a multidimensional story, conveys many meanings. Everyone will probably find his own message in our film. What was really important and mattered to us was the possibility to touch the authenticity of the situation and find the hidden and very diverse meaning and emotions.