Space Station Earth at Aviva Studios

Composer Ilan Eshkeri brings Space Station Earth to Aviva Studios this June. This concert experience pairs live orchestral performance with breath-taking footage captured far, far above the planet’s surface. 

Best known for his wide-ranging work across film, television, theatre and even games, Eshkeri is now focusing on the vastness of space and the fragile beauty of our home from a rarely seen perspective. The concert is centred around the live performance of his album Space Station Earth, to be played on synthesisers, accompanied by a live orchestra and choir. Structured as a continuation of musical journey, the score moves between quiet, almost completely silent passages and moments of huge sonic scale, mirroring the shifting perspectives of life in orbit. 

While the music fills the space, your eyes are drawn to the projected film written and directed by Eshkeri himself. Shown across three large screens, the film displays footage captured by astronauts aboard the International Space Station as well as imagery taken at facilities operated by the European Space Agency. The visuals shift between sweeping views of Earth’s curvature to glimpses of our world’s surface, almost like one camera selectively zooming in, capturing the intimate parts of the planet we know from the universe we don’t. 

A powerful dialogue between sound and image, this work was inspired by the phenomenon deemed the Overview Effect. A psychological shift astronauts describe when seeing Earth from space for the first time. Space Station Earth attempts to translate that perspective for audiences on the ground, posing as a reminder of our planet’s beauty and the undeniably fragile systems that sustain all life. We are just a The Blue Marble after all.