Ilan Eshkeri: Space Station Earth Returns With a New Perspective

Ilan Eshkeri talks about his upcoming tour - reviving Space Station Earth

With Artemis II set to return humans to the Moon, Space Station Earth is back on stage, bringing that same shift in perspective into a live setting. Combining real space footage with a powerful orchestral score, the show moves between scale and intimacy, from the intensity of launch to the stillness of orbit. Lauren caught up with BAFTA Nominated Composer and Masterclass in live orchestra, Ilan Eshkari about reviving the show, how it’s evolved, and what makes it work in front of a live audience.

Finally bringing Space Station Earth back to audiences, what’s changed in the last three years, and what made now the right time to revive it?

I’m bringing it back as Artemis II is about to launch to the Moon. The mission brings us back to that huge shift in perspective. Seeing Earth from another celestial body transformed humanity 60 years ago, and my concert gives the audience access to that perspective.

Seeing Earth from space is generally spoken about in technical terms, but Space Station Earth engages with the emotional experience. The music allows the meaning of that perspective to be felt rather than explained.

It’s such an incredible concept, blending real space footage with a live orchestra. When you’re building the show, does the music lead the visuals, or do you compose around what we’re seeing?

The music came first. It shapes the emotional narrative and opens a path for the audience to engage with the images.

I started on synthesisers and then added strings, brass and choir. The music is built from repeating material that evolves through harmonic layering and rhythmic variation, allowing an emotional trajectory to develop.

In ‘Day’, the electric piano figure is the starting point. It’s joined by acoustic guitar and voice, grounding it in something intimate and human. Gradually, synths expand, building scale and intensity before being overtaken by sustained strings, rising brass and drums, pulling everything toward Earth. The sound reaches a peak, then falls into silence, with the planet suspended across the screens. What remains is the quiet electric piano, now carrying the weight of everything that came before.

The music opens the emotional path. The images meet it there.

The first time around, the show was at the Royal Albert Hall. What made you want to take it on tour and bring it to new audiences?

Bringing it into a live setting makes it immediate. The audience experiences a sense of scale that can feel overwhelming, contrasted with moments that are very quiet and intimate. Seeing through the eyes of an astronaut - something very few humans have experienced - is made emotionally accessible to a large audience, so it no longer feels distant from everyday life.

It takes a lot of energy from me and the other musicians on stage to bring it to life. Each performance shifts in response to the space and the audience. The music is re-formed through that shared experience.

One moment I love is playing the flying V guitar with Chad Hobson on the keytar during ‘Moon’ - it’s very personal. Or the huge build in ‘Launch’, and the release as you enter space. I wanted to capture the noise and shaking, followed by sudden calm and quiet. The moment is huge and awe-inspiring.

There’s a strong sense of narrative running through the piece. Can you talk about how the idea first came together and the story you wanted to tell?

It began with a conversation with Tim Peake about what it feels like to see Earth from orbit - not the data, but the emotional experience.

Astronauts often describe it scientifically, and struggle to express what it feels like. This work engages with that, translating something almost impossible to describe into music.

There are multiple narratives unfolding at once. The work moves from day to night, from Earth to space, from past to future, and between natural and machine worlds. It moves from the surface of the planet into city lights, and out again to distant galaxies, where scale begins to blur.

The structure emerges through repetition and layering, with meaning gradually coming into focus. This is reflected in the music through the use of electronic instruments alongside organic ones.

You’ve worked across everything from Layer Cake to The Sims 4. How do you choose the projects that feel right for you?

My work is focused on emotional narratives through evolving musical forms. I’m interested in meaning emerging rather than being imposed.

It usually begins with a shift in how I see my surroundings - a conversation, a piece of art, a book, or something I notice in nature. Maybe because I studied literature alongside music, the ideas often come from outside music.

With The Sims 4, I was interested in the idea that there is no fixed emotional narrative, so the music needs to evolve as the user evolves the world. On Layer Cake, Daniel Craig’s performance shaped the score - controlled on the surface, but with chaos inside and around him.

The choice of instruments comes from a childhood of learning violin, and later teaching myself electric guitar and working with synths. That combination led to a language where electronic and acoustic instruments sit side by side.

There are influences in that - electronic music that explores systems, scale and space, from Kraftwerk through to Vangelis and Daft Punk.

This show is all about perspective. Did creating it change the way you personally see Earth or your place in it?

The project was shaped by direct experiences - meeting astronauts, working with NASA and ESA scientists, seeing a rocket launch, and experiencing zero gravity. The more I learned, the more my perspective shifted.

I’m drawn to what astronauts describe when they look back at Earth. You see weather systems moving across the surface, land and oceans without borders, and the atmosphere as a thin, fragile line around the planet. They speak about a realisation that, on Earth - as on board the International Space Station - survival depends on how we live together within that system.

In the work, audiences travel to space in their minds and look back at Earth. The scale, the immersion, and the shared moment create a profound experience.

If someone walks out of Space Station Earth and carries one feeling or thought with them, what would you hope it is?

People don’t leave with the same thought. The experience stays open.

What’s shared is that shift in perspective - what astronauts describe as the Overview Effect - seeing Earth as a whole rather than in parts.

What stays with you is that moment of seeing the planet differently. Whatever meaning you take from it, you carry that with you.

Space Station Earth tickets are available now for the following dates

MAY 

28th - Glasgow, Royal Concert Hall 

31st - London, Royal Festival Hall 

JUNE 

5th - Birmingham, Town Hall 

6th - Manchester, AVIVA Studios