Music for Solaris
March 2011
On 6 April 2011, at Alice Tully Hall in New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Ben Frost’s ambitious new project premieres in the opening concert of the Unsound Festival New York.
Titled We don’t need other worlds. We need Mirrors - Music for ‘Solaris’, the work, largely inspired by Andrei Tarkovksy’s 1972 film Solaris, celebrates the 50th anniversary of the original novel of the same name by Krakow writer Stanislaw Lem. Music for ‘Solaris’ was written by Ben Frost and Daníel Bjarnason, in collaboration with Sinfonietta Cracovia (Poland), for 29 string players, two percussionists, prepared piano, guitars and electronics.
The performance, commissioned by the Unsound Festival and performed with support from the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, is enhanced by the film manipulations of Frost’s mentor, Brian Eno, and Nick Robertson. Their contribution draws on moments from the original Tarkovsky film to create a visual parallel to the music composition process.
This project has also been strongly supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body. An album of Music for ‘Solaris’ will be released this year on the Bedroom Community label.
About the Unsound Festival New York
In 2010, Krakow's Unsound Festival crossed the Atlantic for the first time, working with New York organizations, promoters and venues to create the first Unsound Festival New York, showing the many faces of creative music, from modern club sounds to post-classical and experimental.
Playtv's “In Search of the Unsound” is a documentary about the Unsound Festival. The third episode includes a concert followed by an interview with Ben Frost.
Ticket Information
Individual tickets for all events are sold by the venues and organizations presenting the shows. For further information, please visit Unsound online.