Free Download – The Electronic Soundtrack To The 70’s Sci Fi Classic ‘Solaris’

Free Download - The Solaris Soundtrack

If you’re interested in electronic music history, sci fi or just free music, you’ll want to check out this free download of Edward Artemiev‘s soundtrack to the 70’s Russian sci fi classic, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris.

The Solaris soundtrack is unusual in that it was created using the rare ANS synthesizer, which used photo-optic recording to translate sound into images, or to translate drawn images into sound:

In this case the sine waves generated by the ANS are printed onto five glass discs using a process which Murzin (an optical engineer) had to develop himself. Each disc has 144 individual tracks printed onto it, for a total of 720 microtones (discrete pitches), spanning 10 octaves. This yields a resolution of 1/72 octave (16.67 cents). The modulated light from these wheels is then projected onto the back of the synthesizer’s interface. These are arranged in a continuous swath vertically, with low frequencies at the bottom and high frequencies at the top.

The user interface consists of a glass plate covered in non-drying opaque black mastic which constitutes a drawing surface upon which the user makes marks by scratching through the mastic, and therefore allowing light to pass through at that point. In front of the glass plate sits a vertical bank of twenty photocells which send signals to twenty amplifiers and bandpass filters, each with its own gain adjust control. It is akin to a ten-octave equalizer with two knobs per octave. The ANS is fully polyphonic and will generate all 720 pitches simultaneously if required (a vertical scratch would accomplish this).

Downoad the Solaris soundtrack at Rootstrata.

You can find out more about this early synth in this video about the ANS Synthesizer.

Thanks to reader Paul Ulrich for suggesting this post and gizmodo and wikipedia for additional info.

12 thoughts on “Free Download – The Electronic Soundtrack To The 70’s Sci Fi Classic ‘Solaris’

  1. Is this legit or, is it just someone giving away someone else's music?
    I realize it's kind of grey because the soundtrack album is unavailable, but the DVD is, and I expect that the copyright still belongs to the composer (who is alive). Would love to have more of his work available on CD.

    I highly recommend Andrei Tarkovsky’s "Stalker", also with a fantastic integral soundtrack by Edward Artemiev. This was recommended to me by one of the guy's at John Bowen Synth Design's booth last NAMM…

  2. The ANS drives me crazy in a good way, playing with modern image processing led me to trace the lineage — and yearn for an ANS-esque VST. Well, I did find http://photosounder.com/ , but having to process in a separate app and import samples into Live can be a workflow-disruptor.

    Also note that Solaris' remake (the one with George Clooney, what a great smile that man has) also has a gorgeous soundtrack. This one rich with hang drum™ tones and hypnotic ambiences moving in and out. One of my faves to bliss out to. Here, give yourself a couple min.:

    [youtube ICXinfdD0do&feature=fvst http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICXinfdD0do&feature=fvst youtube]

  3. The ANS drives me crazy in a good way, playing with modern image processing led me to trace the lineage — and yearn for an ANS-esque VST. Well, I did find http://photosounder.com/ , but having to process in a separate app and import samples into Live can be a workflow-disruptor.

    Also note that Solaris' remake (the one with George Clooney, what a great smile that man has) also has a gorgeous soundtrack. This one rich with hang drum™ tones and hypnotic ambiences moving in and out. One of my faves to bliss out to. Here, give yourself a couple min.:

    [youtube ICXinfdD0do&feature=fvst http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICXinfdD0do&feature=fvst youtube]

  4. The ANS drives me crazy in a good way, playing with modern image processing led me to trace the lineage — and yearn for an ANS-esque VST. Well, I did find http://photosounder.com/ , but having to process in a separate app and import samples into Live can be a workflow-disruptor.

    Also note that Solaris' remake (the one with George Clooney, what a great smile that man has) also has a gorgeous soundtrack. This one rich with hang drum™ tones and hypnotic ambiences moving in and out. One of my faves to bliss out to. Here, give yourself a couple min.:

    [youtube ICXinfdD0do&feature=fvst http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICXinfdD0do&feature=fvst youtube]

  5. The ANS drives me crazy in a good way, playing with modern image processing led me to trace the lineage — and yearn for an ANS-esque VST. Well, I did find http://photosounder.com/ , but having to process in a separate app and import samples into Live can be a workflow-disruptor.

    Also note that Solaris' remake (the one with George Clooney, what a great smile that man has) also has a gorgeous soundtrack. This one rich with hang drum™ tones and hypnotic ambiences moving in and out. One of my faves to bliss out to. Here, give yourself a couple min.:

    [youtube ICXinfdD0do&feature=fvst http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICXinfdD0do&feature=fvst youtube]

  6. The ANS drives me crazy in a good way, playing with modern image processing led me to trace the lineage — and yearn for an ANS-esque VST. Well, I did find http://photosounder.com/ , but having to process in a separate app and import samples into Live can be a workflow-disruptor.

    Also note that Solaris' remake (the one with George Clooney, what a great smile that man has) also has a gorgeous soundtrack. This one rich with hang drum™ tones and hypnotic ambiences moving in and out. One of my faves to bliss out to. Here, give yourself a couple min.:

    [youtube ICXinfdD0do&feature=fvst http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICXinfdD0do&feature=fvst youtube]

  7. The ANS drives me crazy in a good way, playing with modern image processing led me to trace the lineage — and yearn for an ANS-esque VST. Well, I did find http://photosounder.com/ , but having to process in a separate app and import samples into Live can be a workflow-disruptor.

    Also note that Solaris' remake (the one with George Clooney, what a great smile that man has) also has a gorgeous soundtrack. This one rich with hang drum™ tones and hypnotic ambiences moving in and out. One of my faves to bliss out to. Here, give yourself a couple min.:

    [youtube ICXinfdD0do&feature=fvst http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICXinfdD0do&feature=fvst youtube]

  8. Torley – thanks for sharing that. I haven't seen the Clooney remake, but that soundtrack does sound fantastic. May have to give the update a look.

  9. Brilliant!!! I’m a big fan of Edward Artemiev, having discovered his on http://orpheusrecords.blogspot.com . I was actually trying to download this Solaris soundtrack from that site but unfortunately the linked download site there involves signing up to a bunch of dodgy offers (= x1000 worse than asking for an honest-to-goodness payment! 🙁 )… The site itself is – of course – well worth a visit: a fabulous cabinet of electronic curiosities…

  10. Oh my goodness! It is like you read my mind! You seem to know so much about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you could do with some pictures to drive the content home a bit, but other than that, this is informative blog. A outstanding read. Ill definitely return again.

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