Science-Fiction Movies of My Dreams

Science fiction creates myriad atmospheres that, though beyond our imagination, become almost palpable. Remember the storms on the planet LV-426 in Alien; the burning of a scientific base in the middle of the Arctic night at the end of The Thing; the nightmarish machine city in The Matrix; the gigantic Japanese effigies for giant advertisements in Blade Runner? A convoluted scenario supported by a profusion of special effects is not the alpha and omega of the genre. What is needed above all is the atmosphere of an alien world that imposes itself upon you and makes you dizzy. To achieve this, music remains essential. 

For what would Blade Runner be without the contribution of Vangelis' analog synthesizers? 2001: A Space Odyssey without Ligeti? Or the disturbing Under The Skin without the dissonant music of Mica Levi? Let's also think about the alien language in Arrival, or the music used as a means of communication in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Everything is possible, even making Brazilian music the anthem of a dictatorial future (Brazil).

It is also curious that musical art is not a recognized expression in the field of science fiction, as much as literature, cinema, or graphic arts. A successful composition opens on strange worlds, leads the imagination towards an elsewhere. The philosopher Gilles Deleuze spoke of a "soundscape" wrapped in music. Its cinematic power has nothing to envy in other art forms, quite the contrary. 

How many of Autechre's tracks are soundtracks for dream films? Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe creates complex textures that seem to obey an alien logic. Monolake penetrates the heart of crystalline matter when Richie Hawtin draws the contours of dark matter. Listen to Carl Stone set to music the majestic song of mermaids in a lake of metal, experience the cosmic depression of cosmonauts lost light years from home in 1991, and make your own cerebral movie!