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Esteemed UK electronic musician Kevin Richard Martin, known for his work with The Bug and King Midas Sound, unveils a profoundly impactful rescore of Andrei Tarkovsky's seminal 1972 film "Solaris" on Phantom Limb.

In May 2020, the Vooruit arts centre in Gent, Belgium extended an invitation to Kevin Martin to compose a new score for a film of his choice. Having long been inspired by the pioneering Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, Martin shares that Tarkovsky's 1972 masterpiece "Solaris" was the "natural choice." The film stands as an unassailable giant, not only in the realms of science fiction and Soviet cinema but also in the annals of cinematic history. Its original score, crafted by Eduard Artemyev, a regular collaborator of Tarkovsky and an early Soviet electronic musician, is a magnificent work of haunting majesty—a key element contributing to the brilliance of the film. Martin acknowledges the challenge he faced, stepping into such significant footprints: "it was with a certain amount of trepidation I stepped into such large footprints," he writes.

The outcome, titled "Return to Solaris," is breath-taking. The film, intense and psychologically devastating, weaves themes of love, horror, sorrow, nostalgia, memory, and dystopia. Martin's score expertly mirrors this expansive breadth of psychic weight, from existential dread to heart-breaking poignancy, carrying immense emotional gravity. Captivated by the "narrative struggle between organic, pastoral memories of a lost past, and the harsh, dystopian realities of a futuristic hell," Martin employs atonal noise, simmering waves of distorted synthesis, undulating drones, and otherworldly, astronomic sound design to a crushing effect. Subtly submerged recurring motifs, reflections of individual characters, rise and fall amidst the fog, occasionally illuminating the doom like motes of starlight before settling back into the density of space.

Tarkovsky's "Solaris" won the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival and was screened continuously for an incredible fifteen years in the Soviet Union. It holds a prominent place in "greatest movies of all time" lists published by Empire and the BBC, among others. Steven Soderburgh directed a Hollywood remake in 2002, starring George Clooney, with a score by Cliff Martinez.