You can now buy the piano music song used in the trailer for Solaris – get FRAGILE only at Fragile (Theme from the Trailer to "Solaris") Yes, things have changed since I first penned this post!
-text above added on 11-28-2005

If you’ve found this site looking for the music heard in the Solaris trailer, take heart! You are not the only one obsessed with this music!

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UPDATE: Read Part Four for the final word on this mystery. I’ve solved it and the case is closed!!!

Also read:
Part One
Part Three
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So be sure to read the discussions on it here and here.

To make it easy on you, I am compiling all the information I’ve found so far.

First, let’s be clear about what we want here.

The Internet Only trailer for Solaris has some incidental music in it, but it is probably not one for what you are looking. The Theatrical Trailer has different music, but still, it is not that memorable. (Anyone else notice the Internet Trailer is more Sci-Fi and the Theatrical is more romantic?)

What MOST readers coming here via Google, are looking for is the haunting “piano music” found in the commercials that were running on television.

If not, then I can’t help you with the “other” music in the trailers & commercials, but do look at Soundtrack.net for clues. Maybe it was “Lush – light from a dead star.”

Also, I know nothing at all about the Soundtrack (other than that the haunting “piano music” in the trailers isn’t on it).

Heck, even all the trailers aren’t on the DVD.

So just to be clear, these posts are only for the Piano music in the trailer and TV spots. OK? OK, then read on….

Those spots are no longer running however. In their place are new “testimonial” commercials, which often run before or just after a movie opens and you see all the positive quotes about how good the movie is. This is never a good sign. The :60 commercial was availabe at GeorgeClooney but has been de-linked. I got it anyway and if you are crafty you can find it – that is all I am going to say about that.

The music sounds like Moby’s “In my heart” and “God Moving Over the Face of the Waters” but I believe it is neither. Unless it is a bootleg unlreleased remix (could be).

There have been suggestions that the music might be “Scent Of Death” by Will Richter or “Light from a Dead Star” by Lush or “The Journey” by X-Ray Dog. While it may be similar, and these may have been used in the trailer, they are not the one for which you are looking.

Another theory is that it was composed by Robert Etoll. He did compose music for the trailer and TV spots, but he states that he didn’t do the piano piece. From one post:

I just got an email back from Robert Etoll. He states that he scored two different trailers for Solaris, but the piano one he did not compose. He said it was licensed from some European composer.

I also doubt that it is music from the soundtrack since they are sledom finished in time for use in promoting movies.

So, what does all this tell us? Not much.

Sadly though, I think we have our answer. It is most likely an original piece of music composed solely for use in commercials. As reported in this post:

The Solaris music, it’s more of a “sound design drone” as we call it, was created by one of our writers and is available for licensing through RipTide Music.

But according to this press release, RipTide only did the “teaser” trailer music. Which seems to fit more with the quote above.

Oh well. Maybe we can hope for a bootleg from some source.

Since this intel was culled from message boards, please consider that when drawing your own conclusions. K?

Further Reading:
Yes, sometimes music you hear in a trailer has been made just for that trailer. And sometimes, you hear music you think you know, but isn’t quite they way you remember it. Turns out they also re-score music just for trailers. Here is an artilce on how and why this was done for “LOTR: The Two Towers.”