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On the 7th November 2011 took place a premiere of “Solaris”, an album by Ben Frost and Daníel Bjarnason. “Solaris” was recorded at Alvernia Studios.

The album was inspired by Stanisław Lem’s work and its film adaptation by a Russian director, Andrei Tarkovsky. Disappointed with the original soundtrack, Ben Frost, a musician and composer of Australian origin living in Iceland, decided to write it anew. He was joined by his regular co-worker, Daniel Bjarnason, a conductor. The recording with Sinfonietta Cracovia orchestra was produced on commission from Unsound Festival in Alvernia Studios’ music scoring studio.

About the project:

<<The power of Andrei Tarkovsky’s “Solaris” is not in its futuristic sets, or in the hypnotic shots of the alien planet’s weird, fluid surface, but it’s in the way he juxtaposes his alien, futuristic elements against the intimately familiar. This is a future not just of flashing lights and video screens, but of wood and wool and leather, of dogs and horses, books and photographs. In Frost & Bjarnason’s SÓLARIS we do find the futuristic, gaseous atmospheres and pulses one might expect from a sci-fi soundtrack. (…) “Sólaris” is a journey into an internal world, into the self, a flux of wonder, horror, sorrow and tenderness, and a ravishing sensory experience.>>

More: bedroomcommunity

“Sólaris” is a concept by Mat Schulz, commissioned and produced by Mat Schulz and Gosia Plysa for Unsound Festival/Fundacja Tone, Krakow, Poland. Assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body. Made possible with the support of “I, CULTURE” – The International Cultural Programe of the Polish EU Presidency, Co-Ordinated by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Poland – and S.T.E.F, Iceland.

Written by Ben Frost & Daníel Bjarnason

Arranged and Conducted by Daníel Bjarnason

Performed by Ben Frost & Daníel Bjarnason with Sinfonietta Cracovia

Produced By Valgeir Sigurðsson & Ben Frost

Recorded by Daniel Rejmer & Valgeir Sigurðsson at Alvernia Studios

Assisted by Piotr Witkowski & Krzysztof Bielewicz

Alvernia Studios Managed by Łukasz Poniński

Videos from the recording studio: film 1  film 2  film 3