Jan A.P. Kaczmarek is seen almost the "third" of the Polish film composers after Wojciech Kilar and Zbigniew Preisner, yet he is the one who has worked in Hollywood most often. In truth, his scores have rarely engaged me that much, but Unfaithful changes that. The movie stars Richard Gere and Diane Lane and is directed by Adrian Lyne, so it should come as no surprise that it's about sex. Lyne's last two films, Indecent Proposal and the excellent Lolita, have both benefited from excellent (if diametrically opposed) scores by John Barry and Ennio Morricone respectively, and Unfaithful is music on the same level.

Two devices dominate the score - firstly, virtually every track is backed by a piano performing the hypnotic main theme; and female voices, if heard not that frequently, leave their mark. The influence of Morricone is plain: in "Sudden Turn" the voice is almost orgasmic; in "The Visit", a hum. The piano solos are beautiful, most notably in the gorgeous title track.

One word I used above is "hypnotic", an adjective that perfectly sums up this music. While the album is made up of many short tracks, you hardly notice the breaks - the music swells behind you, captivates you, haunts you. An adjective I try to avoid using is "haunting" because it's the mainstay of just about every review of every soundtrack album, but it's impossible to avoid it here. There's no other word that could better emote the effect Kaczmarek's music holds on you.

If I were to have a complaint, it would be that this is very repetitive. The album's a shade under 45 minutes long anyway, so that's not too much of an issue (there's only so much time for repetition) but if you're of a certain disposition it may detract from your enjoyment. On the other hand, I find Unfaithful to be an excellent album, well worth seeking out. It's another example of the type of score that would never have been released without the AFM's revised reuse fees clause that came into effect last year and it's great that these smaller scores that aren't likely to find much of an audience, but are most worthwhile purchases, can now see the light of day without the need for those dubious "promos" that crop up.

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