Solaris (1972) :: Soundtrack Release

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Good news. Next month, Superior Viaduct is set to release the original soundtrack from Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1972 film, Solaris, marking the first commercial release of composer Eduard Artemiev’s score. From the label: ‘to reinforce the film’s chilling setting, Tarkovsky commissioned composer  Eduard Artemiev to construct an electronic soundscape reflecting planet Solaris’ amorphous and mysterious surface; Artemiev rose to the challenge with a prophetic work that defies the era’s technological limitations while evoking unparalleled emotional responses even today.

Armed with the massive ANS synthesizer (aptly named after Russian occultist Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin, who pioneered thought behind the synesthesiatic effects of music), Artemiev drafted sine waves on glass plates for the machine to interpret. The only prototype of the ANS was destroyed shortly after the Solaris soundtrack was recorded. Luckily this artifact of transcendent composition married with technological innovation endures as a masterpiece of early electronic music.’

2 thoughts on “Solaris (1972) :: Soundtrack Release

  1. Just a note about the ANS synthesizer. There was one still in working condition in the last decade, as Coil used it to make a triple-cd album titled simply “ANS”. I believe it was in a store room in the basement of Moscow University.

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