There have been several incarnations of this soundtrack, so many in fact that I’m not sure which one this is despite any claims on Youtube. It’s all pretty much the same though. It’s great as a standalone soundscape, but it is obviously a soundtrack to a film. The film itself, I believe Tarkovsky’s best, is a must see. It seemed tedious to me the first time I watched it but there was something else going on internally and it disturbed me in some odd way. I’ve since watched it a dozen times or more and it never fails to shake me. It’s a perfect film.

As a sidenote, while the soundtrack is brilliant, Tarkovsky’s use of sound is always startling. The famous pull-quote from Stalker is, “It is so quiet out here. It is the quietest place in the world.” That carries a certain irony as it seems to me the sounds in the film, raindrops, running water, insect and bird sounds, nature itself, are pushed up in the mix. They’re always there and they’re not quiet. The dialogue is spoken over the sounds. It’s all omnipresent. It’s never taken for granted. It’s like an extra character in the movie that is always talking. Always. Never stopping. It’s as important as anything else in the script.