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Eduard Artemyev, 1937-2022
Composer Eduard Artemyev died in Moscow on December 29, 2022, at the age of 85, following hospitalization with COVID-19.
One of the great pioneers of electronic film music, Artemyev wrote music for more than 150 feature films, documentaries and animated productions during a career spanning six decades. Internationally he is best remembered for his collaborations with Andrei Tarkovsky, especially Solaris, Mirror and Stalker.
Eduard Nikolayevich Artemyev was born in Novosibirsk on November 30, 1937, and studied composition at the Moscow Conservatory under Yuri Shaporin, graduating in 1960. Soon afterward he met engineer Yevgeny Murzin, inventor of the remarkable ANS photoelectronic synthesizer. Artemyev became one of the instrument’s earliest champions, at a time when electronic composition remained almost entirely outside the Soviet musical mainstream.
His defining association began when Tarkovsky engaged him for Solaris (1972). Artemyev combined Bach’s chorale prelude Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ with electronic textures generated on the ANS, creating music that blurred the boundary between conventional score, sound design and the mysterious noises of the planet itself. The result was less a traditional science-fiction score than an otherworldly sonic environment, and it established Artemyev internationally as one of cinema’s most adventurous electronic composers. Read more…
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2016, Part 3
Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton
The third installment in my annual series of articles looking at the best “under the radar” scores from around the world concentrates on music from films from Eastern Europe. Here you will find two scores from Russia – one by a complete newcomer, one by an esteemed veteran – plus one score from Romania (via France and Israel), and three scores from Poland, all of which were written by one of that country’s film music rising stars.
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