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campaign image Eye on Sound: Tales of the Future (image from Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, GB 2013))
campaign imageimage from Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, GB 2013)

Films, talks & events

Tales of the Future

31 August — 1 November 2019

still from Escape from New York (John Carpenter, US 1981)
still from Escape from New York (John Carpenter, US 1981)

Eye asked contemporary musicians and composers to use that legacy as inspiration.

What would remain of Blade Runner if you take away Vangelis’ synthesizers? Or try to imagine Tarkovsky’s SF classic Solaris without the electronic score. With Tales of the Future, Eye focuses on the impact of the synthesizer on film music and sound design.
still from Scarface (Brian De Palma, US 1983)
still from Scarface (Brian De Palma, US 1983)
still from Drive (Nicholas Windig Refn, US 2011)
still from Drive (Nicholas Windig Refn, US 2011)

Tales of the Future makes resoundingly clear how the synthesizer developed into an essential instrument for film music. Palmbomen II, who is strongly influenced by 1980s synthesizer music, performs to two episodes of the legendary TV series Miami Vice (1984-1989). Electro artist Torus performs his score for Andrei Tarkovsky’s classic Stalker (1979). Use Knife, alias Stef Heeren and Kwinten Mordijck, accompany La coquille et le clergyman in a collaboration with ADE.

still from Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, SU 1979)
still from Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, SU 1979)
still from Forbidden Planet (Fred M Wilcox, US 1956)
still from Forbidden Planet (Fred M Wilcox, US 1956)

Electronic sounds were at first mainly used for popular SF films in the 1950s (Forbidden Planet). That the synthesizer was also able to make a major contribution to the atmosphere and meaning of classic masterpieces became obvious with the scores for Tarkovsky’s Solaris and Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. And there is of course also a reason why Vangelis’ score for Blade Runner still continues to inspire electro musicians.

The programme includes Forbidden Planet (1956), the first film with a fully electronic film score, Miami Vice (1984) with a performance by Palmbomen II, Escape from New York (1981) and cult favourite De lift (1983), with a synthesizer score by Dick Maas himself. Thijs Havens and Martin de Ruiter play a new synthesizer-heavy score for the silent film classic Zemlya (1930).

Electro artist Torus performs live his score for Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker (1979). The Belgian duo Use Knife gives a live electro twist to the hallucinating silent film classic La coquille et le clergyman (1927). Also on: Under the Skin (2013), Drive (2011), Scarface (1983) and The Social Network (2010).

still from Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, GB 2013)
still from Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, GB 2013)

Programmabrochure

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poster Eye on Sound: Tales of the Future

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