When Pink Floyd's Echoes meets 2001: A Space Odyssey.
by Paul J. Pelkonen
The members of Pink Floyd (l.-r. Roger Waters, Nick Mason,
David Gilmour, Rick Wright) meet their new friend HAL 9000.
Image of HAL 9000 © 1969 Turner Pictures. Image of Pink Floyd © 1971 EMI Records.
Photoshop by the author.
Classical music aficionados and science fiction geeks alike know that Stanley Kubrick's seminal film 2001: A Space Odyssey features a whole slew of great music, from the opening use of Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra to Johann Strauss' Blue Danube. Later scenes feature Atmospheres by iconoclastic Hungarian composer Gyorgi Ligeti.
Movie geeks know that if you watch The Wizard of Oz with the sound off while listening to Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, weird things are supposed to happen. But what is the result when you combine the grand final act of 2001 with Pink Floyd?
Specifically, the following clip puts David Bowman's psychedelic journey into the next world alongside the band's 24-minute workout Echoes, the last track on the band's early opus Meddle.
Enjoy.
Visual content © 1969 Turner Movies. Audio content © 1971 EMI/Capitol.
