Ilan Eshkeri Talks ‘Space Station Earth’ 2026 UK Tour

Nov 8, 2025 | Interviews

Words by Glenn Sargeant

Feature Image Photo Credit: Tom Oxley

Ilan Eshkeri’s ‘Space Station Earth’ is a genre-defying audio-visual experience which offers the opportunity to see the world through the eyes of an astronaut. The show will embark on a 2026 UK Tour and Ilan Eshkeri very kindly spoke to us:

You will be taking your audio-visual show ‘Space Station Earth’ on tour in the UK in 2026. How and when did you first have the idea for the show?

A few months before Tim Peake was going to Launch to the International Space Station I was contacted by him becuase he was a fan of my work. He asked me if I would write some music for his mission video, which I of course agreed to do. I went to visit Tim at NASA in Houston and he gave me the tour that you can only get from an Astronaut. Speaking to him and other astronauts I realised that they all share this incredible experience of seeing our planet from space. Being off the planet and seeing home is a profound life changing experience and is called the Overview Effect, but because they are pilots, engineers and doctors, and not artists they find it hard to express. I decided to try and describe the experience through music and perform it supported by images filmed by the astronauts aboard the space station, capturing their shared emotional journeys and giving the audience the opportunity see through the eyes of an astronaut.

In addition, the show is a collaboration with the European Space Agency. How did that collaboration arise?

When the European Space Agency heard about the project, loving the sound of it they invited me to work with all of their astronauts and offered me opportunities to film rocket launches at their space ports and I even got to do a zero gravity flight on the plane they train the astronauts on which was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I also got to film a huge Ariane rocket launch at night in French Guiana, it was so bright it looked like the sun was rising, you could barely look at it! I also got to film a rocket launch in northern Sweden, where we got to film the Aurora, even though we had to wait all night till 4am in freezing temperatures of -24c it was one of the most awe inspiring spectacles of my life and inspired the track Aurora.

You further explored the idea with an accompanying album which is available now. How did you want to approach the making of the album?

The album came before the show, the album is the emotional journey of the astronauts and the show is the immersive performance of that album which super charges the whole experience into something that is unlike any other space experience out there.

What two things do you hope to have achieved once you have left the stage?

I hope I leave audiences with a profound experience that emulates in some way what the astronaut experience when they travel to the International Space Station. When I speak to people who have seen the show I feel like in my own small way I’m doing my bit to help the planet. The only other thing that makes me feel like that are the works I’ve done with David Attenborough over the years. I hope I get to do another one with him one day soon.

Who are some of your musical influences? Do you have any recommendations?

For space station earth I was influenced by my synthesizer heroes like Kraftwerk and Vangelis and Daft Punk as well as 70s and 80s space TV shows like Star Trek, Blakes Seven, Dr Who, Thunderbirds and Space 1999. Something about the new electronic music technology captured the future so perfectly and it has always been a huge inspiration for me. Space Station Earth is the album I wanted to make as a 10 year old.

What makes Ilan Eshkeri happy and what makes you unhappy?

I’m a single dad and watching my daughter grow up makes me happier than anything else. The state of the world makes me unhappy, I hope in my own way with Space Station Earth I can help people see our planet in a new way and inspire them to make more effort to look after it. With the show we ask people to ‘Join the crew’ don’t be a passenger on Space station earth be a crew member, because like the astronauts aboard the ISS, whilst we are all travelling through space on this planet we need to look after it and each other if we are going to survive the journey.

Feature Image Photo Credit: Tom Oxley

The ‘Space Station Earth’ tour dates are below. Tickets go on general sale now from
https://comm.tix.to/spacestationearth

MAY 2026
28th – Glasgow, Royal Concert Hall
31st – London, Royal Festival Hall

JUNE 2026
5th – Birmingham, Town Hall
6th – Manchester, AVIVA Studios