Approaching the Irreal: Realistic Sound Design in Andrei Tarkovsky’s Films

This chapter focuses on Tarkovsky’s sound design that underwent several transformations throughout his career. Whereas in his early features the director used to employ a regular music track composed by Viacheslav Ovchinnikov, in his later films made in in the 1970s he worked together with composer Eduard Artemiev who created original and highly experimental soundtracks. As the chapter demonstrates, Tarkovsky primarily strived for the realistic sound aesthetic, requesting a variety of noises and natural sounds, in conjunction with electronic arrangement. At the same time his sonic realism progressively tends towards irrealism in his later films when selected natural sounds manifest their otherworldly dimension. His preference for natural sounds sounding unnaturally is especially evident in his last film The Sacrifice (1986), when Tarkovsky decided to work with the sound mixer only, Owe Svensson, without a composer.