Eduard Artemiev’s Solaris Score Release
It’s been a long time since Andrei Tarkovsky‘s film Solaris was released on our consciousness to penetrate and fester amongst the worlds as we knew them. The impressive score by Eduard Artemiev*, which is tantamount to the film’s success, has never had such a privilege outside the film itself, despite some re-recordings.
Until now.
On September 17th, Superior Viaduct will be releasing the first official edition of the score on vinyl. Each copy will have one of three handmade front covers (which they specify cannot be requested) and provides over 50 minutes of music previously unavailable in this format.
ARTEMIEV‘s score – centered around variations on Bach’s “Chorale Prelude in F-Minor,” a somber piece for solo organ – sounds majestic alongside dissonant crescendos and formless, ambient tracks. 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. (Superior Viaduct)
It’s impossible to account for the importance of Solaris. A melding of thoughts and considerations that still infiltrate and infuriate many a consumer of even the most inane blockbuster extravaganza, its penetration goes far beyond the confines of film and music. We all know it, though may be unaware of it. The art is there. Amidst the wind. Pulsating our existence with its import and awe.
So far does its influence reach and now there’s a bit more to bring home for yourself.
*There are various spellings of his last name such as Artemyev or Artemev, but this spelling is taken from the Superior Viaduct site and I am choosing that spelling as it is about their release.
ANOBIUM 
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