Metropolis—a legendary film, and the touchstone of expressionist cinema and dystopian imagination—is not only one of Fritz Lang’s masterpieces but surely one of the most analysed works in the history of the silver screen.

For the restored version of the film, Argentine composer Martin Matalon wrote a new soundtrack in 1995, initially written for sixteen instrumentalists and electronic sounds, and performed here for the first time in its orchestral version. Following the film’s rhythmic structure, and thanks to spatialisation effects made possible by the electronics, Matalon’s score becomes the musical double of Fritz Lang’s visual poem. Echoes of jazz and non-European music and acoustic and refracted sounds blend together, allowing situations and characters to be seen in a new light, prompting new assumptions, and contributing to the rich history of the interpretation of Metropolis.