Tarkovsky’s soulmates

This 5-CD box set of scores to Tarkovsky’s films is unmissable, suggests SIMON DUFF

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“I FEEL that the sounds of this world are so beautiful in themselves that if we could learn to listen to them properly, cinema would have no need of music at all.”

These are the words of visionary Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky in 1986, and the thought sets the scene for this important film score collection.

Russian composer Eduard Artemyev scored three films: Solaris (1970), Mirror (1974) and Stalker (1979), included in this hugely new impressive five-CD box set along with two scores by Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov for Ivan’s Childhood (1962) and Andrei Roublev (1966). Each album is accompanied by an art card featuring the original Soviet/Japanese cinema posters on its release.

Volume One is the haunting soundtrack from Ivan’s Childhood, featuring a romantic yet sorrowful five-note recurring theme capturing the poignancy of innocence lost in war. Ovchinnikov’s sweeping orchestral score combines with simple flutes and bells to conjure up nostalgic emotion along with dream-like flashbacks. Volume Two is Andrei Roublev, an evocative score deeply intertwined with the film’s religious and historical themes, with its profound, choral-heavy resonance that perfectly accompanies the film’s exploration of faith, art, and Russian history. A score that captures the raw, earthy reality of 15th-century Russia while elevating the film’s stunning visual language.

Artemyev’s score for the sci-fi masterpiece Solaris was a ground-breaking work of early electronic music. Tarkovsky envisioned an ambient, mechanical soundscape. Artemyev’s futuristic take on influences from JS Bach’s organ compositions combines with haunting, abstract synthesiser drones and environmental noise. This is an atmospheric, dreamlike score that perfectly mirrors the psychological themes of the film. Artemyev’s soundtrack to Mirror is the natural follow-up to Solaris. A score full of dense, slow-moving, and often disorienting mood pieces with Baroque sensibilities that resonate beyond the film’s dream-like images. A combination of monolithic scale and pastoral melody makes the music intriguing, lush and unique.

The final score is Stalker, the third part of Tarkovsky’s science fiction trilogy. This time the composer is inspired by Indian classical music and employs eerie layers of synth tones, flute, harpsichord, and tar (a traditional Persian string instrument) as well as choirs, to create a central theme. Achingly beautiful, the main theme works around guitar synth riffs, with flutes talking up the central melodic thrust.

The spooky train theme takes on a more intense emotional drama. Train sounds take up the rhythm and slow drone synths help define a journey-like feel, that define the film’s three main characters. Another highlight is a section that works around slow bells blending into a rush of watery-sounding synths, brooding bass-lines and a haunting South American flute theme.

Tarkovsky dared to make a series of astonishing films that laid open the fragility of the human soul. In his two main composers he found soulmates willing to share his vision.

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