Artemiev Nurenberg

Song Cycle Records is pleased to announce the release of Solaris. Sound And Vision – The Film Album, a collector’s edition book, limited to 1000 copies worldwide, that includes the exclusive photo book with unreleased images of the movie set and essays about music and cinema of the duo Artemiev/Tarkovsky, and the soundtrack on CD realised by the great Russian composer Edward Artemiev for the Andrey Tarkovsky’s masterpiece film Solaris (1972).

Edward Artemiev is best known for his electronic music scores to three of Andrei Tarkovsky's most striking films: Solaris (1972), The Mirror (1974), and Stalker (1979). Then it comes as no surprise that the music has been packaged and repackaged in various ways, official (including their first appearance in the mid-'80s on the Soviet record label Melodia) or not. This collection remains the most extensive and best presented. First released by Torso Kino in 1990, it has been reissued on the label of the composer's son in 1999. The particularity of this album resides in its track list. Choosing against logic, it alternates pieces (or "scenes") from Stalker and Solaris - there is only one track from Mirror. Artemiev likes to use one main theme for each film and develop variations around it…

Artemiy Artemiev is a musician from Russia whose albums usually cross boundaries between new age music, electronics, and electro-acoustics. For Space Icon he teamed up with German painter/musician Peter Frohmader to record a CD strongly rooted in space rock territory. The album is made up of layers of keyboards over which Frohmader pins his guitar solos and eery soundscapes, along with an occasional groove. This release represents the most accessible work from both artists. Artemiev's electronics are clearly more beat and song oriented here. On the other end, Frohmader's contribution is a lot less gloomy here than on another collaborative work released at the same time, Fossil Culture with Richard Pinhas (on Cuneiform Records)…

In mid-2002, Artemiy Artemiev simultaneously released a handful of collaborations (four, to be exact). This one, with England's project Karda Estra, is the most unexpected and satisfactory of the lot. Sure, it does not stand as the Russian electronician's most cutting-edge work. Honestly, on listening to it one could not care less. Equilibrium is a brilliant album of spacy pieces with gothic and soft prog rock overtones. Artemiev provides most of the background textures: vaporous synths, slightly disquieting samples and atmospheres, occasional electronic percussion. Karda Estra's main man, Richard Wileman, adds soft guitar lines, usually slow melodies faded in with a volume pedal and soundscape loops - think of Richard Pinhas' softer music…

The two features that make a good film soundtrack composer are a personal style and the flexibility to adapt. Therefore, it seems unfair to compare Edward Artemiev's score for the Hollywood-financed television production The Odyssey and his classic music for Andrei Tarkovsky's science-fiction films of the 1970s. All Artemiev did was adapt to the needs of the production, starting with the setting. The action of Andrei Konchalovski's film (following Homer's The Odyssey) takes place in Greece, so the composer borrowed bouzouki melodies and included a couple of Greek folk-style singing episodes. Each piece has been tailored to suit the action of a specific scene, including orchestral cues, percussive outbursts, and horn section buildups. The London Philarmonic Orchestra go through the motions and in the end one gets the impression that the music stands closer to that of John Williams than Artemiev's more personal works.